Semi-OT - Amana Refrig defrost circuit What usually dies?

i have the same fridge. it was the thermostat on mine.

First thing is to check the door seal. A 20 dollar bill should be a decent pull to remove from the closed door. If it comes out easy, send the bad 20 dollar bill to me. :)

John

On Mon, 21 May 2007 18:31:25 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

I'm neither of the above (but I play one on the Internet) and the usual problem causing icing is a blocked drain line from the freezer section. It gets dusty at the bottom near the pan and develops mold which grows the tube closed. I've also seen drain tubes come off so the water remains in the freezer section and raises the hummerditty. Everything gets frosty.

G'luck, Bruce, and let us know what you end up with.

This is different from mine, but I had a really weird problem. My foam insulation got saturated with ice, so it stopped insulating. I took the foam out and put it in a trash bag and hooked it to a vacuum pump. It took a whole week to dry out the insulation. I weighed it every day, and kept going until the weight no longer changed. These things usually have a control thermostat and a safety thermostat in series with the heating element. You have to ohm out each part to find the bad one. When cold, both thermostats should be closed circuits. The heating element also should show a low resistance, maybe around

Jon

There's the thermostat that turns off the heater after it literally heats to glow (in the freezer). It looks like a turn signal interrupter: a tin can about 1" dia, 1" deep. In my fridge the ice/melt cycles bulged the top plastic cover plate, which sheared off the terminals. Since this happened on the Christmas eve, with food for the entire clan in the freezer, I stayed up till 5 am and fixed the thermostat. It hasn't failed again, yet; I potted it in silicon caulk.

It's draining, last time I had a nice lake on the kitchen floor. But you are right, that could cause it too. Still leaning toward the defrost thermostat, though.

(Yes, I read everyone else so far, too.)

I have an Oh-Dark-Thirty service call tomorrow, and then I'll deal with this. Till then we've got everything critical stuffed in the "Back" refrigerator, an older Amana top-freezer.

Woodland Hills 0500 to Palmdale at 0600 is opposite normal traffic flow, so I luck out that way. If it was a bit later I could wave at all the people crawling down the hill going the other way...

-->--

According to Bruce L. Bergman :

Try checking whether the timer cam is not properly rotating. I've had that fail in another 'fridge from some years ago.

Enjoy, DoN.

On Tue, 22 May 2007 05:23:36 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

Ah, the subtle clue!

Reading about the glowing heater scared the crap out of me. How'd that kind of thing pass UL scrutiny?

It's good to have a spare when something like this happens.

I used to do that kind of thing annually on the way to COMDEX. I left Vista at 4am via I-15, motored by Riverside at around 5:30, and saw all the miles and miles of parking-lot traffic backed up (at that early hour!) on their way to HelL.A. on I-10. I'd wave while going past that 2mph bunch from my 70mph vehicle on my clear freeway.

Wrong-way drives have their distinct advantages, don't they? Traffic truly sucks. And to think that so _many_ folks bought "cheaper" homes in Temecula and then were willing to spend at least 4-6 hours a day driving to their jobs in HelL.A. or Sandy Eggo. Unbelievable!

- Metaphors Be With You -