Refrigerator Defrost Thermostat Location?

[Roger M]

First off, apologies if I am in the wrong forum.

I am looking for some assistance here in finding the defrost thermostat on my GE bottom freezer refrigerator. I bought it about three years ago, and lately the freezer has not been cooling well. I removed the panel covering the evaporator, and found it covered in heavy frost.

Anyhow, I bought a replacement defrost thermostat. I cannot find it anywhere on or near the evaporator coil. I've attached a couple of photos. There's a white sensor clipped to one of the tubes, but believe that is the refrigerator temperature sensor(according to GEs parts diagram.

Any help is greatly appreciated and welcome.

 

[Roger M]

Additional photo

 

[pima67]

Try Appliance Parts Pro web site. It has diagrams and videos for many brands

 

[BillK]

There's a white sensor clipped to one of the tubes, but believe that is the refrigerator temperature sensor(according to GEs parts diagram

I would not think that the refrigerator temperature sensor would be in the freezer ? What does the new part look like ?

 

[bonneyman]

Not an expert on refrigerators (though I did do some at Sears for about a year), but that white plastic piece clamped to the big line near the top should be the defrost t-stat.
When the defrost strip comes on the ice starts to melt, and that tube (being the suction line) would be the last place to thaw out. Meaning if it's free of frost then it's assumed the rest of the coil is. And it will open turning off the defrost strip.

 

[MAD]

In my past experience, it has been either the defrost timer or the defrost heater that caused an iced up condition like that. It has been a while so I'm not familiar with what may be in the latest modern electronic fridges.

 

[fitter30]

Look behind front kickplate there usually off to one side. Have a place to turn the dial to kick into defrost to check the heater.

 

[Milton Shaw]

All is sensor driven this day, the sensor did all have the same value and were interchangeable so you could move them. The system is no longer controlled end of defrost cycle by the defrost click type thermostat. If it's not defrosting then the sensor on the coil or the board is bad. The defrost sensor if it opens then the system is not working as designed. The new electrical control system counts how many times the door is opened, how long it was open and how long the last defrost cycle was before it calculates how often to defrost system, could be up to 5 days between defrost cycles. Instead of every 12 hours or so of run time under a timer controlled system. This results in the system using less electricity than a 70 watt bulb compared to the older systems that the refrigerator was the number two or three electric user in a house, behind HVAC and water heater. The click thermostat is only there as a safety backup.