[stangcbr]

Hi, my freezer and fridge were both way too high in temp, 25 and 65 for the freezer and fridge, respectively. My evaporator was completely frozen solid yesterday. I defrosted with a hair dryer and checked the evaporator fan, cleaned the condensor coils completely, and resealed the cover over the evaporator better than it was before. It is working good now, but in my readings, my evaporator shouldn't have frozen especially when I saw how hot that defrost coil got yesterday evening when my fridge got running again. My fridges specs are

Model: 596.51672100, mfg no: P51672000W0, S/N: 1014441AN

I beleive I have it narrowed down to the following parts

12566102 BOARD -ADAPTIVE DEFROST (I think this is the culprit)
R0131454 THERMOSTAT KIT
12049801 Heater for Evaporator

Is there anything else that is could be or is this correct. I saw the heater work, but of course that means everything was working too. Can an evaporator freeze if everything is working? I am keeping close watch on my evaporator for frost. Please let me know if anyone has had problems with any of these. Thanks!!!!

James

[denman]

Your coils should not freeze up
From the sound of it the defrost thermostat and the heater are OK
Therefore the adaptive defrost timer is the faulty part as long as your door switches are working
This control monitors the openings of the doors and then decides how often a defrost should occur. Designed to save energy but seems to be nothing but trouble.
An enteprising person could make a fortune designing an old style timer/defrost unit that would fit where they put these boards

[stangcbr]

Thanks for your help denman. I found the wiring schematic earlier today and began testing voltages at different places on the adaptive defrost board. I found out that the defrost terminator was stuck open making the board think that the evaporator section was too hot and when it wasn't. A DEF OUT pin on the board sends power to the heater through a defrost teminator (temperature controlled switch). If it is open, power doesn't get to the heater. The board then has a DEF TERM pin that recieves power back letting the board know if the terminator is open or closed based on if power makes the complete circuit from DEF OUT through the terminator and to the DEF TERM. I crossed those two pins on the board with a wire. I then clicked the freezer light switch 5 times within 6 seconds and it starts the defrost cycle. This info was on the schematic sheet. By clicking the freezer switch 5 times, you can find out a lot. The schematic sheet on my kenmore was behind the very bottom front cover to the condenser coil. It was in a plastic bag stuck under the fridge. It was very helpful. I am ordering a terminator now for 25 bucks and it should be fixed. I just heard my fridge switch off the defrost cycle and now it is back on the cooling cycle. Perfect!!

[stangcbr]

By the way, the defrost terminator that I talked about was called the thermostat kit on the parts list of the fridge and had the part number R0131454. It is the same as I had listed in my question. I don't know why they have the schematic calling it one thing and the parts list calling it another thing. Just thought I would try to help as much as possible.

[jim1872003]

Yup, adaptive defrost is most likely the problem.

[stangcbr]

It was actually the terminator as shown in the attached pics. One pic is of the terminator, which yhou can see is bulging out. The other pic is of the frozen evaporator (in the freezer compartment) with the terminator attached to it at its top left corner. I simply pulled that off the evaporator and cut the wires. I soldered (or you can crimp them with the crimp caps provided with the terminator) back together and the fridge works perfectly. It only took about 15 minutes to complete. The hardest part is getting to the terminator by removing all teh panels. It has been 5 months now and no more problems. Just want everybody to know my lessons learned. Good luck!

James

[jchaplain]

I just had the same problem. I did the same thing as you in removing the terminator and just connecting the wires and it solved the problem of the fan not working.
Does anyone know if there is any downside to not replacing the terminator?

[woodchuck]

It prevents overheating of the freezer during the defrost cycle. prevents all your frozen food from thawing when the freezer defrosts every 8 hours.