GB22DKXGN00 Whirlpool Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

remove parts that were not need installed water valve , ice maker unit and hooked up water supply tested and it works fine. got the parts really quick Thank You

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.

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.

I first removed the icemaker pump and filler tube fron the back of the refrigerator by using an adjustable wrench and pliers. (very simple connection) I went ahead and replaced both items at that time.

Next I opened the bottom freezer and removed the top wire tray and ice container. I removed the bottom nut from the ice maker, pulled the electrical plug lose from the freezer connection. I then just lifted the ice maker upward and off the two screws on the side wall and out it came!

I had a little trouble with the filler tube as it came into the freezer. I had to go back and forth to the back of the refrigerator and freezer a couple of times adjusting the tube, so it woiuld clear the inside freezer wall.

This was a very minor problem. I feel like if I had followed the instructions and made sure the tube came through before attaching the icemaker it would have worked like a charm!

What I really liked, was everything was in the box for the job.

I took a chance and ordered a switch that is next to the top of the door. looked for how to remove it easily done in ten minutes works fine last long time.

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....!!!

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.

Most difficult part was finding where they hid the defrost timer. (it is in the left front under the fridge behind the kick panel.) just unscrew the two fastener screws from the front, tilt fridge up on one side, slide timer bracket back and remove. Unplug and remove timer from metal bracket. Replace timer and remount bracket.