RC224PDK Magic Chef Refrigerator - Instructions

****Make are you order Capacitor & Starter relay too (we ordered separtely so had to pay shipping twice)**** Super easy just open access panel on back near compressor and remove retention clip with fingers, remove & replace both capacitor & starter, put clip and access panel back on, plug in and allow 8 hours to cool! Works like new again! Hope it goes another 10 years

Loosen the screws on the sidewall (don't take them all the way out and drop them on the floor as I did) and remove the screw from the bottom bracket. Change out the electrical wires and the wire level sensor that does not come with the new unit. Put the new one in place and give it some time to cool down and make ice ( don't be impatient like I was and think the new unit was bad or that you replaced the wrong part)

use kitchen knife to pry out. replaced switch assemble and pressed back into place. Could not have done this with out help from previous customers. Thanks

I took out 1 screw , unplugged the icemaker and lifted it out and installed the new one and had ice in no time at all. can't get much easier.

replacement was relative easy. The problem came with wire connector that had to be cut, stripped and crimped. The crimping was the dificult part. the connector was a problem to crimp.

Just kept working on it.

Old ice maker leaking water and produced ice cubes with black inclusions. First, I removed old ice maker per video instructions. Transferred electrical cable, cover, and bail to new ice maker. First installation failed because I failed to make sure water tube correctly enter back of ice maker. No ice. Initially thought electrical cable wasn't firmly in place. Then I noticed frozen water dripping down back of freezer. A clue! Removed ice maker and reinstalled making sure water tube went through the hole in back of ice maker. Now the new ice maker works beautifully!

I pulled the drive ring off of the icemaker and replaced it with the new part. Saved a $150 service call plus cost of part. It cost me a little over $11.00 and a repairman probably would have charged $30.

Found a tip online that said to check the resistance of the defrost coil, when I had none I knew the coils had burned out. Before pulling the old coil out I tied on some long pieces of string as was suggested, that made things go very quick! The hardest part was reaching to the back of the narrow freezer space, but fortunately I have long arms. So far all is working well, and I have a great deal of satisfaction knowing I did the repair myself!

replaced the water valve - just precautionary with unit age.
Problem was ice tray coating was breaking down causing ice to stick during harvest cycle - refill would cause water to overflow to bin.

Removed bottom screw, loosen 2 top screws, lift ice maker up and lay over to expose wiring harness, unplugged, then reversed installation
Make sure fill tube in back of ice machine is positioned in fill trough

Recommend that on any installation use a commercial grade water filter system and change filters annually, this is the first repair because of that- unit is 18 years old

commercial refrigeration guy

had to saw off the shaft to get the yoke off and tap the holes for the 8/32 screws. all holes should have been tapped by the factory. Other than these problems, everything else went pretty good.

I did not do the repair yet, there is no schematic on how to route the hose; also no description of how to do the routing/connections.

evaporator coils were frozen solid and air wasn't flowing across them

read all directions first, then consider which steps you'd like to take

in any case...
- check for blockages in the upper and lower air vents that allow air from freezer side to cool the fridge-side
- inspect that the fan in the freezer side is actually turning and not blocked


- if no blockages and air is flowing between the sides...

- unplug the unit
- remove all goods from freezer and fridge
- remove freezer side racks
- remove rear panel on freezer side using philips screwdriver (note that the ice-cube tray motor housing must be freed by removing its screws. it can be pull out a bit to get to a single screw holding the top of the rear panel in place)
- allow the evaporator coils to evaporate all ice off, checking the drain pan under the fridge frequently - accelerate the process using a hair dryer or paint stripper (heat gun)
- disconnect the white wires from the connection block located about 2/3 of the way up the rear wall and check resistance using an ohmeter (see specs on back of fridge on circuit diagram)
- if you get a very high resistance reading, the heater element is likely broken. if so...
-- remove the 2 metal shields located horizontally across the evaporator coils (behind them are the two series-connected defrost heater elements)
-- visually inspect the elements - if they are discolored green or black, remove and inspect more closely (most likely they are blown, just like a light-bulb filament that shows black on the glass)
-- if you see nothing, remove them anyway (since high reading) and check connectors
-- replace them (likely only $30 to $75, depending on type)

- if coils seem ok, or if not suspect, check the defrost thermostat WHILE IT IS STILL IN A WORKING/COLD FREEZER.
- get the defrost thermostat into a coil chamber (other freezer or bucket of ice?) and check resistance using an ohmeter. It must be WELL-BELOW 40F to test it. When it is truly immersed in cold (as it would be in a working freezer), test the resistance. it should be 0-ohms when <<40F and some much higher resistance (>200KOhms) when > 40F.
- if not, replace it

-lastly, if neither the defrost heater elements are bad nor the defrost thermostat is bad, open up the defrost timer
-- the defrost timer is located in the fridge side, likely with the fridge thermostat knobs/controller
-- it is a 5-pin part that cannot be repaired. If all else is checked, most likely the defrost element is never coming on because the timer is not turning it on

removed screws, pulled element out, and put new element in

When that one came and I went to install it, I found that my fridge was so old (almost 30 years) that the wire harness on the old icemaker could not be transferred to the new one. The old one was hand wired into the guts of the machine with wire nuts and other connectors. The new unit needs a plug in harness to match a plug connection on the ice maker. Also, the bent wire arm that senses ice bin levels was different, old unit hooked in with clips and such, new one pops into a socket in the new ice maker.

I called PartSelect back again, and the clerk spent a lot of time in the books (no parts in the online listings) and found new style connector and wire arm. Another 25 dollars and problem is solved.

Once those parts came, the actual installation was a breeze. Remove three screws, unplug the ice maker from the back wall of the fridge, plug new wire harness into new ice maker and the back wall of the frige, install new ice maker with the same three screws, pop the new style bent wire arm into place and pop the plastic cover from the old ice maker onto the front of the new one. Done! Took me ten minutes (plus two weeks of chasing parts, but only half an hour of actual time in those two weeks).

I let it make a couple of loads of ice that I disposed of (to capture any dust and crud that might have been on or in the new ice maker) and then turned it loose. We had a nice full bin of ice in the morning.