36348042896 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

Removed cover exposing defrost heater. Defrosted the cooling system. Removed screws holding defroster, replaced old with new, by way of two quick connect eletrical clips. replaced cover. Pretty easy once I figured our that it was the defroster and not the timer.

I have just followed the instructions on the youtube video: It is really easy. I did. Thank you

Determined that the defrost heater was bad (didn't test the thermostat or sensor) and attempted to replace it first.

Got the part in one day (super fast shipping).

1) Removed back panel on the inside of the freezer compartment using a nut driver.
2) Removed the ground wire clip from the metal panel
3) Used a screw driver to remove the two philips head screws that hold the heater assembly in place.
4) carefully pulled off the wires attached to the assembly.
5) attached the wires to the new heater
6)attached the new heater and screwed the new heater in place
7) attached the inside panel
8) fridge is now working great.

It just unpluged and the new one plugged in. Simple. The part was reasonable and arrived very quickly. It sure is nice to have a light in the frig again.

put block of wood under the door, removed old hinge and installed the new one. about 15 minutes

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

I took the glass plate off the top of the drawer, then removed the draw. I then removed the two screws holding the slide rail. I put the new slide rail in place, put the screws back in it, slide the drawer back in place and replaced the glass top. nothing to it.

The refrigerator was no longer cooling and it was suggested by my father that it could be our defrost timer as he has owned many Hotpoint refrigerators in his lifetime and he said the defrost timer was always the problem he had with them when they were not cooling properly. I removed the cover and unplugged the defrost timer, ordered a new timer through this website and installed it by plugging it where the old timer was, replaced the cover and plugged the refrigerator back in. The refrigerator is now cooling again and just in time for Christmas.

installed 3 of 4 shipped parts. ended up with 2 upper right hand slide rails, even though ones package said upper left.

I called the repair tech who obviously did not want to come out, thank god. He told me to remove the back panel of the freezer and also check fan on back side. Told him there was alot of ice on freezer condenser and he advised that defrost heater was probably shot, and referred me to partselect.com. I unplugged the frig/freezerer, and removed the heater and saw it was blackened and cooked. I used a hairdryer to thaw the condenser, and the new part arrived the next day. I reattached the 2 plugs, 2 screws, and put the back panel of the freezer back on. I plugged the appliance back in, checked it 6 hours later and the frig is cold again. It was a VERY easy repair and took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. I was quoted between $40-$78 for the part at 3 different places in the phone book, which would have also required a 45 minute drive. I got it here for $38 including shipping and it arrived in 24 hours !
With the "blow-up view" appliance feature on this web-site, and simply being guided to the correct part by entering the model number, it was a very easy ordering process and repair.

I watched the video online, followed the instructions and within minutes had the part installed. The frig light was working once again! I will say the original switch was very snug and I had to do some very minor scraping of the plastic to get the new part to slide in.

Removed guard at bottomof frig. Located timer & performed tests. Manually rotated timer motor until defrost cycle start. Watched timer for several hours. Timer did not come out of defrost.. Rotated timer more until compressor started. Cooled fine several days then started to get warm again. Manually defrosted and started compressor again. Ordered part. Followed wiring diagram on timer for push on lugs. Frig now back to normal operation.

I knew that the compressor was cooling because the freezer was half-working. The back wall was frozen-up and found that the iced-up coils where blocking the air circulation. So even if the fan was running, there was no air circulation. Hence the deforst cycle was not working.

By the time this failure (failed defroster heating element) is evident (top of freezer starts thawing), the entire freezer coil is encased in a block of ice & frost is visble on the back freezer panel.
Empty the freezer & unplug (or turn circuit breaker off) then remove all racks and the light bulb then remove the two lower drawer guides using a phillips srewdriver (2 scrwes each). Use a 1/4" nutdriver to remove the two panel screws on either side of the light bulb socket and pull the panel out, unclip the green grounging wire and set panel aside. this exposes the freezer evaporator coil which is probably encased in ice. If so, use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt the ice away. This takes a half hour of heat application and a bowl or other catchpan should be placed under the coil to remove some of the resulting melting runoff so the evap. pan under the fridg/freezer unit won't be overwhelmed with the excess water.
Replacing the defrost heater & bracket assembly itself is just a matter of removing two phillips screws on either side of the bracket assembly, pulling the bracket free and then uncliping the two electrical terminals. Clip in the new unit to the eletrical terminals & replace the screws, reinstall the rear panel (don't forget to reconnect the ground wire), install the drawer backets, light bulb, shelves and drawer & reapply power. Replacing the bracket itself w/o the defrost proceedure takes about 15 minutes.

Note: If this symptom occurs and is diagnosed (the heater tube will be black and electrically read as "open" using an ohmmeter) and you cannot get the heater assembly & bracket assembly immediately, you can use the heat gun (hairdryer) manual defrost proceedure noted above to get the the unit running while you await the parts arrival. I used the manual defrost procedure and there was just some moderate frost on the coils after five days when I was able to install the replacement part.

Removed cover in freezer over evaporator,unbolted element ,plugged ,and replaced, very simple. Should be first thing checked when theres a problem.