CTL1511GEW Magic Chef Refrigerator - Instructions

I had a problem with the refrigerator cooling down. I looked in the freezer and the freezer wasn't doing much better as frost had ended up covering all of the vents for the cold air to circulate through the entire system. I had an appliance repair man come out to fix the fridge as it had the same problem about a year and a half ago. I checked the part that he had fixed and figured it was the adaptive defrost controller. I ordered the part and found the controller in the upper back right hand corner of the fridge under the temp control/lights.

First step was to slide out the temp control outer housing by finding the two holes in the back and pulling out evenly. There were about 5 screws that needed to be removed to access the adaptive defrost control under the inner housing. I detached the old control unit and put in a new one. The unit works perfectly now with no problems.

This was very quick and easy and I saved a ton of money doing it myself instead of calling a repair man.

Bought it used. Worked fine for 32 days, past the warranty, then started getting too warm. Called a tech who didn't find anything. Checked here and saw 3 parts that might be at fault: refrig. temp control, freezer temp control, defrost timer. The time was most expensive so I started with refrig. temp control. Didn't help. Bought freezer temp control. Didn't help. Discovered that condenser fan motor was sticking. Replaced it but didn't solve problem. Finally bought defrost timer. That fixed it. Works fine now. Replacing parts was easy, requiring only simple tools.

Removed a few screws and plugged in the new module and refrigerator started defrosting the coils again. It's working great now.

Followed online dianostic routine to find problem, eliminated possibilities until only problem was discovered, which was the defrost timer. Hardest part was all the dianostics and locating the defrost timer. The timer is somtimes located at the bottom of the frig. or in my model in the refrigerator compartment. Once I fould and removed the screws replacing the actual timer was simple and only took about 10 mins.

like everyone else, I had trouble getting the left uper plastic fastener to release and ended up breaking it. very poor design. once the screws and bolts are off the whole top slides off and just replace the chip by unclipping the electrical connection and replacing with a new chip. Second time I've had to do this in 8 years. This is obviously a problem that Maytag should really recall and take care of for us consumers. I know when we purchased, we paid a little more for the Maytag name: never again.

I called the repair folks when I first had the issue. I had frost build-up and the repairman said it would $400-500 to fix. He said I needed a new 'computer chip'. I left him leave and paid the $45 for the diagnosis.
I turnedoff the fridge and freezer by moving the levers to off. I removed the top plastice housing with the nut screw and screwdriver in the refrigerator (side by side unit). - 6-7 total screws. I took off the flashing to expose the wires and Defrost element. It looked different since it was not in a white casing like the picture. I unhooked the prongs from the old adapter and plugged in the new adapter. Put the housing back in place and put thescrews back in. Not too difficult. Hardest part was getting the one screw back in on the left side near the lightbulb.

Opened the refrigerator door and slid the control to the off position. Removed food from the freezer area and took back panel off to expose the evaporator. Took a hair dryer and thawed ice until completely clean. Removed top panel from refrigerator and took a nut driver and removed the control assembly and lowered it enough to remove the defrost assembly. replced it with the new defrost assy. and then reassembled everything and turned the controls back to normal setting.

First, thanks to James from Livermore, CA whose 10/31/07 posting made my job easier. Some parts of my write-up resembles his. I must give him credit for that.

1. Remove the white plastic cover. This was the hardest part. Push up on the two tabs, one each side in the extreme back on the bottom of the cover. Spray silicon spray or WD-40 to the tabs facilitated it. Pull the cover while releasing the tab (locks) by pushing UP. The right side was easier. But the left side took some pressure on the tab with a flat screwdriver and I broke it. Tilt the right side of the cover up for moving it out.
2. Remove the hex head screw at the middle back of the Back wall above the top shelf.
3. Remove the 2 small hex head screws that screw the temperature control strip to the top roof of the fridge.
4. Unscrew the two light bulbs for easier access to the screws behind them..
5. Take out the 2 Phillips screws behind the light sockets. The left one needs a long skinny driver.
6. On the far back right is the ADP board sitting in a well. It took some effort to get the board out. It is shaped identical to the replacement one.
7. Carefully and with some effort, pry the connector off of the board. Re-plug the connector to the new one. (Re-plugging was easier by taking the board out of the casing. Press on the middle tab and pull casing cover apart. Do this on a table so the board won’t fall and risk damage.)
8. Replace everything back. Plug in the refrigerator. Nothing happened. Did not feel cold air coming out of the vent on the back of my palm.
9. Left it plugged for about an hour. It started running. It got frosted up again.
10. Unplug to defrost. Now I thought I replaced the wrong part. After defrosting, I plugged it again. Now the refrigerator is running as usual. It’s been 10 days. Both freezer and refrigerator are maintaining the desired temperatures.

I just popped out the old switch with a flat head screwdriver. Removed the connections and then installed new switch by reversing steps. Popped in back in and the light went on.

put end cap on retainer bar, then align with mounting hole and snap into place. approx. time to install, about 90 seconds

I pressed the end caps onto the retaining bar. Lined up the tabs and pressed the retaining bar back in place. The first side went in very easy. The second side was a little harder due to the tension of the bar and getting the plastic tabs lined up correctly and snapping them in place. Less than 15 minutes and the shelf retaining bar was fixed.

ohms-tested the overload relay and PTC component BUT failed to test the compressor. Turns out that it was the compressor was bad and a do-it-ourselfer won't be able to change out this component. Must be licensed to install freon back into the lines once they are separated. Also specialized soldering equip. and freon equipment is needed to perform this task. And if you add too much or the wrong kind of product or don't accurately install the bullet-piercing valve you can risk damaging the unit. So, ALWAYS Oms-test the compressor while testing the capacitor and overload and relay kit!!

First I unplugged the refrigerator.
Then removed the outer plastic cover inside the refrigerator compartment...it just snaps in & out.
Used a nutdriver to remove screws from the inner cover & let that just hang down.
Located the Adaptive Defrost Timer & unplugged the wiring harness.
Removed the old Adaptive Defrost Timer & replaced it with the new one.
Reassembled everything in reverse order as stated above.
Then I plugged the refrigerator back in & set the control setting to the coldest settings.
The freezer side was cooling down much quicker than the refrigerator compartment, but after a couple of hours, everything was working very well.
Note: The freezer compartment needs to be totally defrosted
sometime before or after this repair is made, which can take a whole day or better!

I followed the excellent video instructions to replace the defrost timer. It went faster and easier than I would have expected. In just less than a half-hour the job was done. I saved a ton of money doing it myself.

Called a repair man and he explained that someone had failed to properly close the freezer door, which caused the coil to freeze up...Charged me 75.00 for a service call, thawed out the coil and left... The next 2 times this occurred, I thawed out the coil and then determined that there must be something else. Did a web search and determined that it must be the defrost timer. Ordered the part, watched the excellent installation video and cured the problem.... The whole deal was terrific... Thanks.