Frigidaire Refrigerator

[Rogue]

True. I was opening the freezer door a lot. As well as the fresh food door a crack to see the temp.

I looked at the compressor last week and vacuumed out the condenser coils as well. The fan was working.

A few minutes ago I tried a forced defrost again using the freezer up once and fresh food button down 5 times method. Didn't work. Tried it again. Didn't work. Went to the test mode and tried it from there. The D is now flashing again instead of solid.

About replacing the thermostat, the service manual says that the part comes with solderless connectors and heatshrink material. How do I use that heat shrink without a heat gun? Does a hair dryer work on that?

Also, do you recommend any place in particular to order it from?

[BrntToast]

the heat shrink in the kit is junk, its oversized for the wires and doesn't seal, just throw it away, you have alot of unsealed connections in there, your crimp connectors will make no difference

as for ordering, i have read the part place this site suggests has very quick delivery if you do not have a local appliance part distributor

i'd have to leave this question up to my fellow american techs, i'm in canada so all my parts are delivered by dog sled straight to my igloo

[Rogue]

Let me ask as well, what exactly does that flashing D mean? I know it means (according to the service manual) that no current flowed is sensed, but can you tell me anything further than that? Something to do with the thermostat or other electronics within the fridge?

[BrntToast]

all it means is the board sences that even though the fridge is trying to defrost no current is going through the circuit

this can be caused by a bad heater(which is not your case cause you said yours glowed and a heater works or doesn't, never do they go intermittent)
bad thermostat which i guess might go intermittent(cant think of one i have ever seen that was)
or bad board(just because the board says "lets defrost" and closes a relay to power the defrost circuit, it can only tell if the circuit draws current, the board cant tell if the relay actually closed(relays can burn contacts and become intermittent))
lastly... a broken wire or bad connection anywhere between the board and the defrost components inside the freezer(this i have seen a handfull of times too)  and short of drilling holes and running new wires it is not repairable

[Rogue]

all it means is the board sences that even though the fridge is trying to defrost no current is going through the circuit

this can be caused by a bad heater(which is not your case cause you said yours glowed and a heater works or doesn't, never do they go intermittent)
bad thermostat which i guess might go intermittent(cant think of one i have ever seen that was)
or bad board(just because the board says "lets defrost" and closes a relay to power the defrost circuit, it can only tell if the circuit draws current, the board cant tell if the relay actually closed(relays can burn contacts and become intermittent))
lastly... a broken wire or bad connection anywhere between the board and the defrost components inside the freezer(this i have seen a handfull of times too)  and short of drilling holes and running new wires it is not repairable

  ...Thanks for scaring me with that last one about the broken wire and what not..lol. I was wondering if something like that was happening here since after moving the wires around that big plug and around the thermostat that it defrosted on its own.

So once I get that thermostat put in, and if it still doesn't work, are there any other places to look at after that or do we go straight to replacing the control board? 

[BrntToast]

change the therm and there will be a couple more tests

for power to the plug on the back wall and power from the board(this test will tell if it is the relay on the board or a broken wire)

if you have trouble after the therm change post me your complete model and serial number, you have me curious as to why friggy changed boards that affect the UI, with the serial number i can call the engineers to see if maybe they will tell me the exact reason for the change

but i wouldn't hold your breath on that answer, we are not responsible for injury or death to users of the forum 

[Rogue]

Good.

I will be ordering the thermostat tomorrow.

Thanks again for your help. 

[Rogue]

AppliancePartsPros has it for $12.05+$6.95 shipping.

The Lowe's parts vendor has it for $14.87+ $7.99 shipping. But I do get a substantial discount since I am an employee [I have previously ordered a glass cooktop replacement for our stove that was $178 and $148 after my discount]. So I'll be able to see which one is cheaper when I call them tomorrow. But I have a feeling AppliancePartsPros might still be cheaper.

It would be better if I knew what kind of places locally would keep this part in stock, but I wouldn't know where to begin to find that out.

BTW, I think this thread might win the title for most posts mainly between 2 people in this forum's history.

[Rogue]

The part is ordered. It should arrive in 2 days.

[Rogue]

Part arrived. But I now realize I have no idea how to use a crimp-on connector. I have one of these things: http://www.crazypc.com/images/accessories/toolkit/wirestripper.jpg

I guess I just squeeze the connector using the top part of those pliers?

Sorry for such a basic question.   

[BrntToast]

yup, just squeeze em on the connector, then give a lil tug on the wire to make sure its secure, if the wire does pull out it was not on tight enough

but.... if it does pull out, you wont get the wire in a second time and you have to go out and buy another connector

[Rogue]

Ok then. If I mess it up I can pick them up tomorrow. Should I leave all the wire intact on both the fridge side and thermostat side, or should it be shortened any?
I figure it would be okay to leave it all but I thought I would ask.

[Rogue]

Okay, the thermostat is on.  It didn't really take long at all. The crimps held nice and tight. You were exactly right about those shrink tubes that were included. I used a hair dryer and they shrunk immediately but stopped shrinking right before they were supposed to. They slipped right off the crimps (You can see the differnece in size between the crimp and shrink in one of the pictures). So I just wrapped up the edges in electrical tape. I felt better knowing they were sealed. Anyway, I guess I'll see tomorrow if it worked if there is a lot of ice on it or not. Here are some pics. I'm actually proud of it. lol

Here are some pics I took:

[Rogue]

Update:

I took a peek through the vents at the bottom, but I can't tell if it is a light frost or ice, but I don't want to start taking off the panel and looking now and making it worse.

In test mode, I am happy to report that it shows that it has been defrosting (whether it actually HAS or not has yet to be determined). It shows in the last 72 hours (or since Friday night when I had it unplugged changing out the therm) that it has defrosted twice. First time showed that the duration was 8 minutes, the latest time was 9 minutes. Also, the D no longer flashes.

[Rogue]

argh, I hate having no edit button. In addition to my last post, I wanted to know what a normal evaporator that defrosts on its own is supposed to look like? How thick of a frost is supposed to be on it? Anyone have a picture?