RD22FN-3A (5N60A) Magic Chef Refrigerator - Instructions

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!

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

First I removed all the screws from the back cover.
2nd removed fan nut and fan blade
3rd removed fan bracket
4th I traced wire to the condenser and disconnected wires from wire nuts.
Installed existing fan brackets to new motor kit
then reconnected wire nuts to new motor cord
Reinstalled fan nut and blade,
reinstalled cover, plugged it in and BAM .WORKS PERF!

figured out the condenser fan was kaput. Tried WD, worked for several days then gave out completely. Took off back of fridge and trained small fan on compressor while I ordered new condenser fan. The swap was easy, undid the housing bolts, stripped off the connector, reconnected and voila! works perfect.

I got the product very quickly. (thank you) Looked at online instructions that were quite vague. Pulled plug.Removed the holder for the fan motor slid it out to see what I had. Removed the mounting screws (3) and slid the motor an fan blade out. I made a cut between the wires and marked the "top" wire to motor to be sure to spin in right direction. Removing fan blade hold down clamp was NOT explained at all but I noted that the shaft on the motor was threaded, so I used pliars and held the shaft white un-screwing clamp. I cleaned the fan blades with degreaser and scraped edges of opening on holder opening. Make sure to use ALL the NEW parts included with this kit when re-installing. They send them for a reason. When slpicing and connecting wires it is a 50/50 shot if you don't mark before cutting. You can connect and try plugging fridge back for moment and make sure it is blowing OUT. Put everything back together and after turning DOWN the thermostats twice, fridge is back to usual. Ice maker is cranking out ice and outside case is cool to the touch.

Note: This can be a DIRTY job especially with 4 dogs in house. Fir and grease don't mix well

remove all tray,remove back panel,cut out out old heater adn replace with new heatger,refitted back panel and alll tray.

I removed 7 screws hold the heavy cardboard cover on the rear of the fridge. The dificult part was taking the screws that hold the 3 fan motor braces on the fan out. After that it was a matter of making the wire conections and putting it back in. I did not have enough room to laydown to do the work, If i had it would have been a lot easier to see the screws that had to be removed. All in all an easy job, and the part was a perfect fit.

it went good

I tilted the unit back enough to scew the new legs into the threaded holes.

Unplug fridge, unpluged fan motor from plug socket, removed bracket screws, removed fan retainer clip from shaft. removed screws holding fan to bracket

removed old and instaslled new. biggest problem was getting to one of the screws.

It was easy after it was apparent that the run capacitor was plugged into the compressor. This was determined from a parts diagram of the actual model refrigerator. The part was the same but the location on the video was wrong. A large screwdriver was used to unplug the capacitor from the compressor. The temperature range of the refrigerator is still too wide but it's colder.

I replaced the run capacitor wich is located near the compressor, i first turned power off to fridge than remuved capacitor checked for continuity and the capacitor was the problem thanks

Turned refrigerator and freezer controls to off, removed icemaker bin, unplugged icemaker plug and removed two screws holding icemaker in place and removed icemaker. removed screws holding auger motor and freezer compartment light plate, unplugged and set aside. Remover screws holding freezer coil cover in place and removed cover. Allowed coils to defrost completely and then removed screws that hold the two defrost heater coil mounting plates in place, unplugged the two wires that connect the defrost heater coils to the connector block that is located above the freezer coil. Remove the entire defrost heater by working the connecting wires out from along side the freezer coil. Remove the clips that hold the old defrost heater elements to the mounting plates. Install new heating elements into the two mounting plates with the clips. Reinstall the two mounting plates to brackets on freezer coil and reinstall connecting wiring up to connector block and reconnect them. Reinstall freezer coil cover, icemaker auger motor and freezer compartment light plate, and icemaker and bin to complete job. Due to the confined space in the freezer compartment, reinstalling the freezer coil cover and light plate was difficult as I could only use one arm at a time resulting in many dropped screws.

I removed all covers then removed screws from element and disconnected wires and removed it.
when installing the new heater I payed close attention to the routing of thw wires to insure that the terminals were connected properly. I then replaced all covers and turned the frig on and in a couple of hour it was working great again