KBRS22KGBL1 KitchenAid Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Freezer, removed the 3 screws hold up the dial to select the temperature. Once this is lowered you see the Cold Control Thermostat. New one was a bit different, but still fit. I carefully bent the sensor wire to come around to the front of the so it would fit. Slide the plastic tube over the sensor wire. I guessed on the Red and Yellow wires. I don't know if it matters if this is AC. I think I had the Red closest to the front. 2 prongs for the ground, but just need the small one. Put is all back together and it is working great.

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.

I simply removed the old switch by gently pulling down on the old switch with a screwdriver. When it was about half way out I just gently pulled down on the old switch and it popped out... I removed the two connectors attached to the old switch by pulling on the connectors with a pliers...I tried using my fingers but wasn't able to pull the connectors off so I used pliers. It worked perfectly.. When pulling off the old connectors, make sure you attach the new switch to the same tabs on the new switch... It was very easy to do and took under 5 mins.....The light switch works perfect....P.S. You should unplug the frig while making the connection just in case....Safety first....!!!

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.

I think spent more time removing the frozen food and cleaning the bottom of the freezer compartment than actually changing the fan.

it came in one well constructed assembly, fan motor and bracket - an exact match for the existing part. I did not have an ice maker to remove so the steps were pretty simple.

1) Remove ice cube tray holder
2) Remove about 8 screws that hold the condenser cover plate
3) Remove two screws that hold the bracket (fan is attached to bracket)
4) Pull bracket away and remove two green ground wire tabs
5) Remove power connector
6) Clip wire ties from bracket that hold power cable
7) Remove old part
8) Reverse procedure

The old part had some built in wire tie holders that held the power cable away from the fan. I had no problem using a normal wire tie to tie it out of the way. You can probably just fed it around without a wire tie and achieve the same results.

All in all a real easy job. I'd say the job was easier than replacing a door knob, but harder than putting on new wiper blades.

Should be no problem for someone with average handy man skills.

removed cover in back of freezer and observed that defrost cycle seemed to happen too often. In comparing the existing part # with the factory part, I determined that possibly the wrong part was installed previously. (it had a 6 hr cooling cycle with a 45 min defrost...spec said I should be 8 hr cool & 20 min defrost) I did research on applianceguru.com... well worth the 5 bucks! I ordered a timer & thermostat & purchased a special refrigerator brush to clean the coils on the bottom. Cleaned the coils, replaced the parts in about 15 minutes and WA-LA! the freezer started getting really cold, but the fridge wouldn't get below 55. but it FELT cold! I swapped thermometers with the freezer & found out the thermometer was faulty!!! I now have the cool control backed down to 5/7 & freezer to 6/7. temps are freeze 0 and cool 40. works better than since we bought home 5 yrs ago! research & troubleshooting took a bit of time, but by the time I ordered parts I felt very comfortable I had the right parts. All said, cost me about 40 bucks instead of probably $200 from tech... schematics from partselect.com were very helpful as well!!

Removed timer kit (this was the second time for this part)/ replaced - this is a fairly simple job and take 5 minutes. The defrost thermostat take about 10 minutes to get to and take out the old one, replacement is a 2 minute job, unplug and replace, the longest part of this job is getting the back of the freezer off and then replaced, but it is fairly simple to do. Total time to diagnose about 15 minutes, replacement parts arrived in 2 business days, replacement time 15 - 18 minutes total. Recommend getting the thermostat and timer together. The first time this happened, only order the timer but I think the problem was the thermostat all along and the time seemed to be operating but when it came on every eight hours it tripped the circuit breaker Not sure which was really the problem, but all working fine now.

inserted a knife between the switch and the plastic interior in order to pop the switch out.
then took off the 2 wires on the old switch put them on the new switch and reinserted the switch into the plastic interior.