Amana Fridge Freezer Defrost Timer location?

Gregsor

Hi guys

It's a big old American unit it is an Amana SBDT520s W,an oldie but she goes good well most of the time
I have stripped of all the panels today gradually and still cannot find the timer.
The fridge is staying on and not shutting down,fridge has no chill and freezer is cold only at the bottom,the grills freeze solid and i defrosted them myself with some water today but they are quickly getting back to frozen status again.
The fan that blows the cold air up into the fridge does not come on(is this linked to the defrost timer too?)
I had this very similar problem @ 8mths ago and got a techy out and he replaced the defrost timer and it all worked sweet since,shame to think it could be gone again but i don't want to foot similar $$$ as last time and would like to replace it myself,just can't find it!
Any thoughts or anyone experienced with this sort of fridge?
Thanks

The Red Ace

if you log on to www.manuals.club you can download a workshop manual for that model, have you checked the defrost heating element could also be the culprit, also check the blower fan as this needs to run to blow the chill of the freezing coils otherwise they will clog up

Gregsor

Hi mate thanks for the reply i actually found it soon after posting,came across a parts website that gave blown out images of the parts and their locations and numbers,a little chute down under the front door and on top the drip tray,2 nuts lets it drop down.
I wasn't even close!

So got to appliance spares and they didn't have the exact same but had 1 that had the same number sequence on the plug but no indication of the time cycle and they made me doubt it when i was asked did the defrost element come on after advancing the time and i was definite no but wasn't too stressed when i heard that the timer switches on that part too so was still assuming that it was shot but couldn't part $100 on a maybe so left it.

Got in touch with the tech who replaced it last and he asked $70 and is willing to take it back and fix the fridge if no joy and work out the difference.

Anyway the one i got off him was a different number sequence too and a slightly shorter run cycle?well it made no difference.

Calling him in to do it tomorrow,the cold air fan has not come on since the start of the temp rise 2 days ago and neither has the element.

The fuseboard tripped the eve of the hassle too but came back on no probs.

Shame,was worth a try,could upgrade but too fond of it,will see what the tech discovers tomorrow,i may get its last rites yet

Gregsor

Update,it was the defrost element that had gone,an original to replace was $150 but he modified a Samsung one that cost $50.

Cooling fan was down because of it too,as soon as the element was in and running the fan came back on,one powers the other,happy days.

Still i couldn't have done the element modifying so i would have gone the expensive direct replacement,happy not to be too out of pocket and to have the fridge 100% again.

Gregsor

Well low and behold i am back at square 1 again,tbh i never really left it!
So i reckon the tech haven fitting a Samsung part on my fridge is causing the problem,probably off the wattage.
I do recall the old heater evaporator/defrost element glowing red hot on defrost,this one doesn't,it is hot but not near it's predecessor,it will hiss a little when water touches it on defrost but it does nothing else,no frost clearing.

I did let the tech know at the end of the week upon it been fitted and he has mentioned he suspects it's the defrost thermo on the pipe thats shot.

I was near to buying a new element from the US to get back to oem spec but the thermo has me thinking now.

I had a look just there and there are 2 thermos are clipped on the top of the bars of the system.

I would change the defrost element no probs as its just a click in 2 plugs but the thermostats look to be fixed in and could possibly need rewiring?

At the moment i am manually defrosting it every 4 days or so by flushing it with hot water.

Also wondering would the thermos control the heat of the defrost element?I'm assuming it just has 1 power output when on and thus the one installed is inferior in power.

So many questions,sorry but when you like your appliance and don't like been taken for a ride but then again he may be right but either way there's an hours callout for me to find out that way.

Hoping there is some knowledgeable folks on here

Pic of the stats after tonights manual defrosting :rolleyes:



Just had a look at the Thermostat on the parts website and there is only originally 1 and that is the brown and orange wired one,the blue wired doesn't seem to be fully wired up,they both have different numbers on them too.

The Red Ace

I would suspect you made a bad choice in not fitting the oem element, if the replacement heater element is a lower wattage it will take longer to defrost and the timer will have moved on before defrosting is fully complete

Gregsor

Yeah i agree,i wasn't informed when the guy was installing of any differences between them,maybe i should have and not just been happy on the lesser price.
I have sourced an oem one and hope to get it in there next week,been looking at the stats replacing on youtube and its fairly straight forward so might do that after too for the sake of it,they can be had for less than E10.