Bimetal Defrost Thermostat

Step 1. watch the video
Step 2. Unplug the unit
Step 3 remove bottom panel of freezer 2 screws, then remove ice maker 3 screws set it aside and take off back panel which has 2 screws. Remove bi-metal thermostat top right corner cut the two wires and replace with the new one. Splice wires back with same color wire use wire nut for each wire and tape up with electrical tape. Clip back on to copper tubing. Put panels back on. plug it in and you're done.

It would last a few days, week or a little more. When it happened for the 3rd time, I did some research. The info. re: a bad thermostat in the freezer seemed to fit the problem. We emptied the freezer section, took off the back panel inside the freezer. My husband then cut the 2 wires of the old thermostat. Snapped the new one onto the coils, then used wire nuts to connect the new thermostat to the wires inside the back. It's been 3 days and seems to be working great. No more ice/water in the frig, everything is cold or frozen.

First I identified the problem by finding lots of frost on the back freezer panel which indicated the coils were cold but not defrosting or allowing the air flow needed to cool below properly. Vacuumed the underneath coils after 10 years and that helped some but didn't fix the problem. I defrosted the coils with a hair dryer after taking the back of the freezer off. Everything cooled down so I knew it was the defrost cycle and that gave me back a working freezer and refrigerator while I was ordering parts..Suggested possible parts were timer, heater, and bimetal thermostat. People talked about the timer sometimes stopping the refrigerator and freezer from working at all ( not my problem) and then identifying that problem by manually rotating the timer by the screw end and having the unit start back up. Several people also said that the mounts tended to break when taking out the timer for testing or replacing the timer. MY UNIQUE TIP FOR TIMER TESTING -- I marked the timer screw and where the mark was on the cover and after a few hours I could see the screw had moved. No timer problem. My bimetal thermostat was visually broken as the top had popped up. Not many people seem to need the heater so I just ordered the bimetal thermostat. When the part came I again defrosted the coils after taking out the ice maker , shelf, fan cover ( which pulls off ) and back panel. The thermostat is easy to replace as it just pulls off ( it is attached with a half open friction piece and just pulls off the tube it is on). I had some wire nuts so after cutting the 2 old wires close to the part and stripping them back I was ready to match the wires and connect them. I didn't have any grease to put into the wire nuts for moisture protection so I used neosporin antiseptic cream which is mostly petroleum jelly which should work. I filled the wire nuts with it ,inserted the wires , twisted the wire nuts to make them tight and wrapped some electrical tape around the nuts and back over the wires and pushed the new part back on the tube where the old one was. I should mention that the first time where I moved the unit to vacuumed coils underneath and marked the timer there was too much melted water to fit in the tray so have some towels handy. Since I had the unit unplugged so long it took 4 or 5 hours to cool down enough to make ice. When I only replaced the thermostat after getting the part, I had all my ducks in a row and putting the frozen food in the sink, removing the ice maker, shelf and back panel, defrosting and the 5 mins to actually replace the part , emptying the water tray and putting everything back in was about 30 mins total. I was also making ice again in about an hour.

Unplugged fridge-removed frozen food-removed nuts holding back liner and removed liner-cut wires from old t-stat. Pulled old t-stat off copper line. Put new stat on copper line, connected wires with wire nuts, replaced liner.

I performed troubleshooting on the Defrost Thermostat and Temp Sensors, but they seemed to be working ok. Since both the fridge and freezer were at room temperature, I figured it had something to do with the condenser (condenser didn't seem to be running, but I wasn't 100% sure). The condenser fan was running fine, and the coils were free from dust and other debris. The condenser is actually comprised of two main components. The condenser itself is the large black tank, and the inverter board is an electronic board that is mounted to the condenser. The condenser (tank) has three pins. To test the condenser (tank), measure the resistance between the pins. Each resistance should be the same and equal to about 7 ohm. The inverter board has two input connectors. One is power (120VAC) and one is control (4-6VDC). The inverter also has one output that goes to the condenser (230V with variable frequency). As the control voltage varies between 4 and 6 VDC, the output to the condenser varies in frequency (53 to 153Hz). This varying frequency controls the condenser. The inverter board had good inputs (the 120VAC and 4-6VDC), and the condenser had good coils (6.8 ohm). Therefore, I concluded that the inverter board was bad (I was able to confirm this with an oscilloscope, but most people don't have access to one (it was just 120VAC @ 60Hz)). I ordered a new inverter board, hooked it up, and it worked great. There is a single screw to remove the inverter board from the condenser. I also had to remove the red and blue water valve to get the board out. After a little maneuvering, I was able to get the board out, and the new one in. Good luck!!

I located the thermostat and i changed the part and it worked

although video of repair were not exact, they were close enough. did as video and instructions that came with repair item said. working fine now. Thanks