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Defrost heater coil replacement
During our trip south this winter, our refrigerator stopped cooling. The freezer side would still work. Turns out that this is a typical sign of the defrost heater element burning out and the evaperator coils icing up. So we just manually defrosted and the refrigerator would work fine again for a while.
Back home I ordered a new defrost heater and defrost thermostat and started taking apart the freezer side of our JennAir. Of course, the evaperator coils are hidden way back there in the freezer compartment and the defrost heater is woven into the evap coils and unless you are an orangutan with arms longer than your legs, you can only get one hand in there at a time.
Much to my surprise I managed to extract the offending piece
We should be back in business. We’ll see if the next defrost cycle happens as it should.
The designers of the defrost heater probably never imagined that their 200lb refrigerator would hurl down an interstate in Southern California at 65mph while the defrost heater kicks on. That jolting and vibration on those legenday roads cannot be good for the red hot filament. So, how common are these defrost heater failures in our buses? How could one postpone the defrost cycle while moving?
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3 Replies
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If we were able to pull all the posts relating to refrigerator issues I think we would find that there are no parts or pieces of a refrigerator used on our coaches that have not failed.
Just my own experience has evaporator coil failure, evaporator coil fan failure, 3 condenser fan failures (spread over 2 refrigerators), but no control, relay or compressor failures so far. I think part of the problem is vibrations, on some it has been inverter power creating the failure, and I also think build quality has been replaced with an effort for manufacturers to cut costs.
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Good job… I replaced the defrost heater, thermostat and defrost timer on every Amana I had and sometimes twice on the defrost timer, they don’t last long.
Won’t be doing that again, since my new Fridge is in my last bus.
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Until you get that quad slide one in a couple of years to keep Nancy happy…..
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