Maytag Plus refrigerator successfully repaired

Just in case anyone else has had this problem, we have a Maytag Plus refrigerator (10 years old by now) that was not cooling, due to ice buildup. After several defrosts with a hairdryer, I looked at what other people had done online.

We replaced the heater element and the adaptive defrost module. Bought the parts online for ~$125. However, it would still ice up at the back of the evaporator elements in the freezer.

The real trick to finally getting this to work was to clip the thermostat for the heater to the back of the elements in the freezer (it was previously closer to the front). Has worked perfectly now for over two months now.

Posting this in case someone else runs into the same issue.

Mike

 

cool.... I replaced a defrost heater once ... I never knew there were heating coils in a freezer but I guess it makes sense =) How did you know yours wasn't just the actual coil/heater?

 

There is a heater under the thing with all the fins. The thing with the fins is under a panel inside the freezer compartment. There is a fan on top that pulls air over this for cooling.

The heater element had deformed over time, and was not making good contact with the fins. It measured OK electrically.

There is a possibility that the incorrect location of the thermostat on the coils was causing most of the problem, but the heater element wasn't helping and it was pretty inexpensive.

I'm not sure the adaptive defrost was bad either (a circuit board). However, it is only a matter of time 'til moisture gets into the plastic IC's and causes failure/degradation. In the satellite business, the IC's we use are hermetically sealed. Actually I just kinda "shotgunned" the two things since the trial and error (and manual defrost) would be more time consuming.

The interesting thing to me (never having worked on a fridge before and too stubborn to plunk down ~$1K) is there is nothing cooling the fridge compartment, except for the cold air blown in from the freezer (on our model at least).

There is a second small mechanical thermostatic controlling a spring loaded door that regulates the amount of cold air getting into the fridge section. The lever associated with the fridge setting controls this second mechanical thermostat.

Mike