36348042896 Kenmore Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

This is such an easy fix!
1-Unplugging the fridge and emptyi it. Remove all shelves.
2-remove the 2 screws at the top of the back panel with a 1/4 inch nutdriver. You'll have to tilt ithis panel forward and sideways to get it out.
3- DO NOT CHIP AT THR ICE COVERING THE COOLING COILS? Replace one shelf and rest a hair dryer on low heat on the shelf.. Plug the drain hole at the bottom with a rag so all the melted ice water doesn't flood the floor under the fridge. Soak up the water with a rag and bucket- this should take 20-30 minutes.
4-Remove the red and blue power cables from the element. Only 2 philips head screws hold the defrosting element in place. Once it's out you can tell it's burned out because it looks black like a burned out lightbulb.
4-Plug in the red and blue power cables to the new unit. You will need to reroute the blue power cable because the new unit has both power connections on the same end.
5-Replace the cover panel by sliding it in at an angle and replace the 1/4 inch screws.
6-Replace the shelves and plug in the fridge.
That's it!

The most difficult part of the repair was the melting of the ice and preparation. I did change a single element heater for a dual element heater, which required a little manual flexing of the sub-frame, but it assembled with little issue. I was lucky, I did not have to splice the extended harness connection. Rerouting my existing gave sufficent length.
Not sure if the single elements were changed for dual, but it did have the same PN as the unit I replaced.

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches and disconnected the two wires..

Parts select sugested checking the freezer side on the side by side if there was frost on the back panel. I took the back panel off on the freezer side inside the freezer. I found that the freezer coils were full of ice.Had to use a hair dryer to melt all the ice. The heater element was bad on the bottom of the freezer. I ordered a new defrost element an installed in 40 minutes and is running fine.You can still use the refrigerator until the new part comes in if you melt off the coils.It will last about 2 weeks.

After reading posts on this website, I determined I needed to replace the defrost heater. Removed heater to take a closer look and after testing with a voltmeter determined it needed replacing. Ordered part online and could not believe how quickly it arrived. Blue wire that travels down the left side of the freezer coils had some damage on the end of the plastic connector so was pleased to find that I was able to splice the extension wire provided in the defrost heater kit onto the blue wire and dispose of the damaged end. It's been about 10 days and I do believe my problem has been solved!

First I placed a 2x4 under the frig door to keep it in place while I removed the hinge on the bottom of the door. I removed two screws holding the hinge and one screw holding the washer in place. I also loosened a screw adjacent to the washer so that I could more easily remove and replace the washer. The parts went in easily. The repair took much less time than I anticipated.

Unplugged the refrigerator then used the cordless drill to remove the 6 screws on the access panel on the back of the fridge to be able to get to the fan. Was able to pull the fan off by hand and push the new fan on by hand. Plugged the refrigerator by in and watched the fan run for a few minutes then replaced the access panel. Really quick and easy repair.

Well, first I googled the problem and the model and found my way pretty quick to you guys. I sent a note to Tom P., who confirmed that I was looking at the right things. Then I offloaded everything from the freezer and fridge to the RV fridge and chest freezer, unplugged it and used my hair dryer to melt the ice on back plate so I could remove it.

I removed the two small screws at the top of the back, below the icemaker and light bulb, and slid the back cover up and out. Since my coils were pretty heavily iced, it took about half an hour to melt enough that I could get the defrost heater out and check it for continuity, which it failed.

The replacement design is slightly different (2 heater coils vs 1 and connectors on one end), but functionally the same. When putting the new one in, you need to re-run the blue wire down the same side as the pink wire because the connectors are on one end. Mine was long enough to work, but they include a splice kit in case yours isn't.

It took me longer to get the cover back on than to replace the heater assembly! Everything is back to normal, had ice cubes within a couple of hours...
Thanks for your help!

I had this problem before and I knew it was related to the heater located in the freezer section. With the help of the drawings in the parts selct webpage I was able to identify the part I needed within 5 minutes. I ordered the part abd in 3 days I had it delivered.
I followed the instructions that came with the part step by step and I got my refrigerator up mand running in about 45 minutes.

Considering that I am a woman who knows nothing about repairing or let alone anything about refridgerator parts etc.... It was very easy.

First I went on line to see if I could even figure out what may be the problem with my refridgerator. After hearing similar stories on this site I thought I would try to order a new heating element since it wasn't that expensive and hopefully save me lots in $$$ have a repair man come out.
I removed the shelves in the freezer portion and then removed the back panel. I had to wait for the freezer to defrost, then I removed the burned out heating element which is about 10 inches long and replaced it with a new one.
It was so simple and probably would have taken less time if I had the freezer already defrosted.
Now the refrigerator is working like new and I fixed it all by myself without the help of my husband!!!!

Followed the video describing the repain and the written directions. The Video is excellent and made the job easy to follow

Separately (from a different site) purchased new compressor fan and motor. I purchased the grommets here because the other site listed the grommets as temporarily out of stock. I did watch one of the videos on PartSelect about the grommet replacement. Repair was pretty simple, biggest challenge was getting to the screw on the far side of the motor. Removed the two screws holding the fan motor into place. Removed motor and blade. Reinstalled with new fan blade, new grommet and new motor.

This fridge had this same problem 4 other times, each time about 1 yr apart. Being as I considered myself ''mechanically challenged'' my wife always contacted her favorite appliance repair man. However, he was unavailable, so wife was gearing up to go ahead, bite the bullet, and buy a new fridge. We really didn't want another bill to worry with so she suggested I try the repair myself. She'd watched the repairman do it the last couple of times and ensured me it would be ''a piece of cake'' plus save us some bucks and put off an added expense at least a little longer. Ordering the part from this site was simple. The fridge did have the old 1 bulb element and the new one was the 2 bulb element so I was afraid I'd have to do some splicing, but lucked out and the wire was easily redirected and reached without any stress or problems to plug into the new part. She watched the install video and was able to talk me through it without any problems. We saved at least $125 install bill, plus put off making a big item purchase a while longer. I hope the new 2 element defroster does a better job and we might just get 10 more years out of 'old faithful'!

This is a repair INSIDE the freezer. Turned off unit.. Unplugged. Removed shelving on freezer side. Removed freezer draw rails (4 screws total.) Removed 2 screws that hold rear panel in place at rear of freezer side (this is inside the freezer). Carefully removed metal panel by pulling from the left (side that does not have shelving clips. As noted on this website and other users, the freezer coils were incased in ice. Thawed with a hair dryer (put towels in bottom of freezer-ice was pretty heavy in mine). When thawed, remove heater element by removing 2 screws that hold it to the aluminum bracket. Then remove wires on each end. Simply install the new emelment by attaching wires back on heater and screw new unit in place. (My original heating element was a single element-you could very easily see where the heating coil inside the glass tube had shorted out. My replacement heater was a 2 element unit. This did not pose any problem at all-installs in the same manner-good directions are provided.). Replace all parts in reverse order. It's that simple. Saved probably $150. This site is wonderful! Fast shipping and the users install tips/notes are fantastic!! Will shop here again if I have to (have a Maytag washer that isn't draining and going into spin-bet the fix is on here somewhere!