Hi, it’s Steve from PartSelect. So you’re thinking about replacing the heater and thermostat
assembly on your refrigerator. It’s not too bad of a job, the only tools required
are a quarter inch nut driver and a pair of needle nose pliers.
The first step in the repair will be to remove all of our shelving in the freezer unit to
gain access to the defrost heater and thermostat. There are also some screws that hold the evaporator
cover in place, and the evaporator fan cover. We will need to remove those to get god clear
access to the defrost heater.
Now that we’ve removed the screws from the evaporator fan cover and the evaporator cover
we tilt the evaporator fan cover forward to get access to the evaporator cover, lift up
on it, disengaging the tabs on the bottom, turn it sideways and we can pull it out. Chances
are your freezer is going to be covered in ice. You’ll need to let that melt. Once
it’s completely melted we can continue the repair.
Now that the ice and frost has melted off of the evaporator we can see where our heater
is located, across the bottom and up through the side. There’s a clip that holds it in
place here. We’ll need to remove that and we’ll need to disconnect this harness. Now
these edges are very sharp so take caution when working near them. I suggest using needle
nose pliers. Grip that clip and pull it forward to release it. We’ll disconnect the harness.
Press these two tabs and pull the harness apart. In behind you will notice the defrost
termination thermostat. Unclip that from the tubing.
Next we need to move this little foam padding out of the way to get our harness through.
We’re going to pull this little tube out of here that’s holding the heater in place.
Then we can remove the heater.
To reinstall the heater keep the harness off to the right here. Slide it up to the middle
of the evaporator, roughly in place. Take our piece of aluminum tubing, reinsert that.
It will keep the heater from dropping out of place until we install our clip. We’re
going to engage the back side of that around the back piece of tubing. Now you may be able
to see this through from the front or you may have to go by feel. Take our needle nose
pliers, grip on the clip and that’s firmly in place. Just check that and make sure it
is locked in, the heater is centered. Pull our wire harness up past the foam material.
Be careful not to cut yourself. We’ll reinstall the terminiation thermostat on the piece of
copper tubing and reconnect the harness. Tuck the harness out of the way and we’re ready to put the
evaporator cover on.
Ok, we got our defrost heater and thermostat assembly in place. Good luck with your repair.
