KBRS22KGBL13 KitchenAid Refrigerator - Instructions

Pretty simple really after reading online some other owners' experiences. This is a bottom freezer unit. Remove the ice maker, the tray slides, and the back cover of the freezer box. In my case I had to thaw it out with a hair dryer as the cover was frozen in place. I checked the old 'stat and found it was bad; I temporarily wired the leads together until the new 'stat arrived. It does allow the refrigerator to warm up during a defrost cycle but it beats de-icing it twice.The defrost 'stat is clipped over the refrigerant line in the upper right corner of the box. Resistance was 65k ohms and wouldn't close on low temp (tested by clipping it to an exposed refrigerant line in another upright freezer) but there was no obvious damage. The one lead on the replacement 'stat has the wrong connector so you have to cut off the original lead from the old unit and splice it on the wrong lead on the new one. I used an epoxy sealed heat shrink type butt splice. Reassemble and let it run. One word of warning: be careful tightening any screws as they will strip easily

Unplugged the refridgerator and cleared out the freezer section. Removed the panel at the back of the freezer(six 1/4 in screws )with a nutdriver and two screws on the evap.fan cover.

Moved the panel to one side and removed the wiring off the evap.fan assembly.

Then removed and installed the new assembly, re-attached the wiring and replaced the back panel and fan cover.
The assemble was identical to the one being replaced.

Total time about 25 minutes.

Easy but time consuming. I followed the excellent video instructions on this site and read through all the user comments before starting. I am a handy 65 year old woman who did this alone. I put the gasket in the dryer for 15 minutes then laid it flat for 24 hours before starting. I used a kitchen spatula to release the failed gasket and the plastic panel from the freezer door. The old freezer gasket allowed moisture into the insulation behind the plastic panel on the inside of the freezer door. The insulation inside was frozen solid and took several hours to defrost before I could continue, so prepare for down time by unloading your freezer. I used spray foam insulation after removing the old insulation and cleaning the plastic panel. The foam expands 2x so don't overfill the crevices or you will have to carve it out later like I did. It's really messy so wear gloves and protect surfaces. Putting it back together is easy. I used a heat gun to smooth out the kinks in the gasket and used the spatula to slide the gasket in place. I learned the hard way that there are 4 oval shaped openings on the plastic panel (one on each side) that should be screwed in first to align the panel correctly before screwing in the rest of the screws. My 25+ old fridge is running like new again! It's quieter and the blower isn't running as often. Very happy.

Loosen bolts, remove gasket. Replace gaskets then tighten bolts.
The gaskets new were very out of shape when they were delivered this made it very difficult to put them back on. Even after warming them up with the hair dryer.

First of all I want to thank Michael from Carlisle,PA and this site for publishing Michael's info on the wiring specifics on the new 3 connector Start Relay ( WP2262185 ). The original relay only has 2 connectors The 2 orange wires which are combined to one female connector need to be clipped and separated each to its own connector. Refer to Michael's blog as to which wire goes to which connector on the Start Relay. I replaced the Run Capacitor, Start Relay and Overload just to be safe. The Start Relay was the actual culprit.Thank you for an excellent website!

Repair went well,took about five to ten minutes to disconnect the power from the fridge removed the defective switch installed the new one ,reconnected the power,,,and Let there be light and there was light!

The repair went very well. Once the sockethead cap screws were taken out of the seal and the ripped seal was removed, the door panel separated from the door itself allowing me to see that ice had already been forming within the insulation. I was fortunate to have decided to replace the seal when I did or further damage would have occurred. After thoroughly cleaning the refrigerator and freezer I replaced the seal using a hair dryer as suggested to tighten the seal into place. Everything is working as it should once again.

First time refridgerator repair, I was lucky this was not that bad of a job.

Removed food from freezer, took off ice maker by removing three screws, removed back panel by removing six screws. Once the back panel was removed, the fan assembly could be viewed while powered up. It was not spinning and air was not moving above or below the fan. I removed the electrical connections by hand (with the 'fridge powered down) and removed the fan assembly by removing the two screws adhering it to the back of the freezer section. I replaced the fan assembly and had some difficulty because the new unit shipped by partselect had the electrical connections on the opposite side than the original assembly. The wires were barely long enough so I was able to make the connections and subsequently attached everythng in the same manner it was removed and the fridge works great.

Refrigerator door was removed and placed on a set of "horses". Fastners were loosened about 3/4 thread length. Old gasket removed. New one installed. It was necessary to use a "hair dryer" to take out shipping kninks.
Used a piece of 1 1/2 inch sheet styrofoam to seal the door
opening during the process so as not requiring emptying the
unit.

The freezer door was a bit more difficult. This one was done in place. The Styrofoam sheet was cut down and fit in this opening as mentioned above. Inner door panel was removed to reveal heavy ice build up inside door. This was allow to melt and removed along with the fiberglass insulation. New fiberglass insulation was installed and the door reassembled.

In general everything went quite smoothly. Fit on both gaskets was really good.

first thing i thought was the condenser was plugged so pulled out and cleaned with shop vacum backwards so it became a blower not a vacum cleaned it good and put together. wife noticed cracking noise inside freezer. took all freezer food and shelfs out. took 1/4 inch hex nut screws out and found complete condenser solid ice. did some research on internet and found parts select stories. i buy passed thermostate and hooked heating coils direct which then thawed condenser. checked timer by turning of and it worked fine until i got part and installed.

Referencing the info/schematics you have on your website, I unscrewed/unattached top-front panel (carefully), from behind the panel you have to detach the wires (2) from the switch, pushed "in" the switch to remove, put in new switch and attach wires to test BEFORE remounting panel. Tada!! Thank you PartSelect! You saved me at least $80...would have been at least $100 to have a repair person come to the house!

The refrig seemed warm so I checked the temp of some liquid with a thermometer. Readings were above 60 degrees and I knew food would spoil soon. I vacuumed the dog fur off the cooling coils underneath the machine to see if that would help. Nope. I realized cold air from the freezer was not reaching the refrig. The fan was working but no cold air was coming out. I figured a blockage either in the air duct from the refrig or in the return duct to the freezer. I didn’t see any blockage in the refrig section. I took everything out of the freezer and removed the back wall. The cooling coils were completely frozen solid with frost. Being a frost free machine, I knew there were heaters that were controlled by a timer that melted this frost away periodically and that this cycle was no longer working. I found a schematic on the web, maybe your site, and educated myself on the heater circuit. The circuit consisted of a timer, thermostat near the coils, and a cal rod heater all wired in series. The timer was easy to get to and being a mechanical device I figured it must be the culprit. I ordered one online. I checked its operation and it worked fine. Realizing time was short, I hot wired the cal rod around the thermostat and rotated the timer to its heat position. The frost melted quickly and I put the freezer back together and ordered a thermostat. I canceled the timer order. When it arrived, I installed the new thermostat and it has worked fine for the past month. A little colder than usual as I don’t yet have the settings back to where they were. I have checked the operation of the old thermostat. It’s supposed to close at 30 degrees and open at 45. I have done a continuity check on it by putting it in the freezer, letting it cool down, take it out, let it warm up and it seems to work fine. So I have doubts if I really solved the problem. Wire connections were tight and not corroded. Maybe the timer was hung up on debris that I freed by cycling it. I don’t think this is the end of the story.

I was told to order the run capacitor and the technician thought it would repair the refrigerator; but it did not. The appliance technician had to take the run capacitor off and install what he called a "hard start" and the refrigerator is operating right now.

After unplugging the appliance I needed to thaw a large ice buildup off the evaporator cover panel before I could even remove the panel. The freezer being on the lower part of the appliance has the evaporator mounted vertically and it was 100% encapsulated in rock hard ice. It took over an hour to thaw the ice and collect all the water with a shop vacuum, since the condensate pan began to overflow.
One thawed, I checked all wiring for good connection, checked heater, defrost thermostat, timer unit with multimeter. The defrost thermostat checked out fine after putting it into another freezer for a 15 minute cooldown, but I noticed a crack in the seal and suspected internal moisture and decided to replace that part. A simple plug in of two leads to the new part after clipping it to the evaporator, replacement of the panel, and the appliance was up and running problem free.
A workbench disection of the old part confirmed my assessment, it had internal rust and water and had failed causing the defrost cycle failure.

At first I thought the fan motor was vibrating the back panel of the freezer. Nope! It was the evaporator motor itself, with worn out bearings creating an off balance fan. Most of the time was spent on removing and replacing the frozen food before getting at the back panel to expose the fan. It was good to find and toss out a few treasures we had forgotten about down there. It's good to have someone with long arms for this job, as the fan is on the back of the freezer, and you are sitting on the floor to begin with. Thanks PartSelect.