Posted on 08/04/2022 2:48:41 PM PDT by George from New England
When you have the time to tinker, you don’t spend $$$
Be careful…
As a shot in the dark, see if there are any videos on YouTube that address this in some way. Whenever I’ve been stumped on an appliance repair, that’s where I’ve headed. Works pretty much every time.
Again, BE CAREFUL!
The defrost heater and Timer are the mostly likely components to check. Some of the timers now are electronic. I am not sure how continually powering on and off would affect those and the way they keep time.
Try starting with the model and model number and google it..........
Use one of these.
My wife broke one of our produce bins on our refrigerator and a replacement was $100! For a plastic drawer! I super-glued it.
NORGE
Look for forums
We replaced our 25 year old side by side with a 5 door party fridge. It lasted 3 years and the compressor blew. Over a thousand to replace the compressor and a 6 month wait.
The side by side was still in the garage. Hubs brought it back in the house and I ordered some replacement bins that the kids had broken over the years and some extra freezer shelves that it had space for, but weren’t included when we first bought it.
Spent about $200 bucks and I suspect we’ll die before it does.
So in my cleverness I plan to have a separate module to power the defrost and automate that when the fridge is at the cold end of its cycle to once a day defrost. I have a method to my madness.
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I don’t know where the timer is on your frig., but the old ones had an electric clock-like motor integral to a mechanical switch that turned the heater on and off periodically. The one unit I worked on years ago had the timer behind the lower snap-out lfront panel. The one I worked on had no electronic ‘boards,” everything was plain jane. The capacitor is wired into the compressor. It can be discharged by shorting the contacts with an insulated handle screwdriver. You should also wear insulating gloves when working on the unit. Your problem does not sound like it is in the compressor circuit. Try to find the defroster timer and see if you have 120 V at the timer lead in and when the timer switch closes that you have 120 V going to the defroster heater. It could also be the heater unit that failed. That’s what happened in my case. The heater was in the freezer compartment next to the freezer plumbing. The fan in the freezer compartment distributes the cooling through lovered ducting to the refrigerator compartment.
Kenmores are actually made by the big appliance makers like Whirlpool or GE...look for a manufacturer plate somewhere.
I find that even when I don’t have tinker time I still am better off fixing. The first time I consider the expense (time/money) to be tuition so I am better prepared next time. Also, I find ‘new’ is often more poorly made than the thing I am fixing.
Have you tried googling for a manual that you can download?
This is it 100% THANKS.
I have a 21 yr old Kenmore downstairs that’s running just fine. That’s the new fridge.
Upstairs is the old one. A 37 yr old Monkey Wards fridge, also running fine.
Some things were built to last!
Bkmk manuals
This is my go-to site for anything appliance.
Hmm..., have you checked to see who manufactured your specific model?
You may be able to find the schematic there.
See Whirlpool, LG and Frigidaire. Each have manufactured Kenmore refrigerators and other Kenmore products.
Manualslib.com
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