3XARG496WP00 Whirlpool Refrigerator - Instructions

DISCONNECT POWER. Removed all shelves/baskets.Popped upper panel off (just clips in) Removed 6 screws in lower back panel ( 3 each side) slid panel in place but down. You can then easily see the defrost thermostat/defrost termination switch. Cut the wire connectors (pink n brown wire) stripped back wire, attached new defrost thermostat. Thermostat clips on. New thermostat ohm's at 5.5, old one was "open". Slid cover back up meeting the upper cover grooves. Screwed lower panel in. Put shelves etc back in. Plugged in. Turns on, put a bottle of water in freezer. Checked a while later, frozen. has been frozen for a week.
-James

I have a side by side so in order to access the bi-metal switch I first had to empty out the freezer. The switch is clipped on to the top of the evaporator coil. I had to remove 8 screws to remove the back panel of the freezer compartment. The bi-metal switch was right there in plain view. There are two colored wires that come out of the switch. I tried pulling them out of the socket they were plugged into but gave up for fear of breaking something. I ended up cutting the wires and splicing them together. I used the plastic twist caps. I made sure when I closed everything back up that the open end of the caps were pointing down so no water can accumulate in them. It has been 3 days now and so far so good

This product comes in a bottle with a brush like Liquid Paper. It goes on incredibly easy. A second coat might be needed. I wanted to prevent rust from setting in so I covered the scratches and dings. The paint is a little brighter since my washer is 10 years old but it still looks great.

I loosen the screws with a nut driver just enough to pull old gasket away from door. This way the door panel and gasket retainer stay in place. I placed gasket from top and worked my way down one side. It took a little more time to slip gasket under retainer evenly, tighten each screw to keep gasket from pulling out while working around door.
30 minuets tops,never had to turn off refrigerator.

First of all, here's a warning to all -- I took the glass shelf / pan cover out to clean it -- with a sponge wet with COLD water and the shelf literally exploded on me. This is the second such incident. Both times I have been lucky and no one was hurt.

The shelf was easily identifiable by part number based on model number. Easy to locate the model number on plate above top shelf inside refrigerator (right hand side in my case).

Only had to carefully set glass shelf in frame -- no issues. I was able to use a screwdriver to remove the shelf support stud and basically pop the replacement back in with no issue.

Thank you Parts Select for your simplified system to order replacement parts, and the speed with which it was received.

due to over filling and closing the drawers with the door and kicking, the plastic runners broke. Also, over filling the drawers did not help.
AS for the repair, the only difficulty was getting the right drawer in the right spot. Since I replaced both the veggie and meat drawer at the same time, I got them confused. On drawer is longer than the other. other than that, no problem.

Remove the knobs and faceplate to get at the screws behind it. Removing the sensor is a bit involved but everything else is fairly straight forward. See other postings for description / order of operation. Replacement took less than 30 minutes.
Works great now!

Removed food itmes on broken shelf. Removed old glass shelf cover. Removed broken shelf bracket. Installed new shelf bracket. Intalled new glass shelf cover. Replaced food items back on shelf

a simple replacement

I had read here from someone that fixed there shelf support stub and it was very loose, so I was trying to advoid that problem. It took me less then 5 minutes and my only tool was a pair of pliers. A short turn clock wise from the 9 on a clock to the 12 ( which is the top left corner ). then pull the broke shelf stub straight out. Put the new shelf support in the same way you took the old one out and turn counter clock wise 1/4 or from 12 back to 9 and you should have a tight fit. I hope this helped.

Turn off the fridge and unplug the power. Inside the refrigerator unit, remove two plastic panels extending from the front to the rear cooling vent by unscrewing two screws. Gently unhook the thermostat tube from the rear vent.

On the control panel, gently pry off the two control knobs and the front control panel. Remove four screws to drop down the control assembly. Unplug the left electrical connector and unscrew the lever control arm being careful not to bend it. Disconnect the right side electrical connector and you can now remove the control unit to a table to easily work on it.

Undo two screws to remove the thermostat bracket. Undo two more screws to remove the thermostat assembly. Install the new thermostat and reverse the process just described. It takes about 15 minutes if you know what to do ahead of time. You will have to reuse the plastic tube that covers the thermostat sensing tube.

Brackets rotated outward and lifted to disengage from door. Front metal strip removed from broken bracket. New bracket placed on shelf strip ends and replaced into door mount plastic. Hardest part was caused by manufacturer changing number of part and supplying it as a "kit" with both left and right bracket, as opposed to previously marking each end LS of RS and changing the configuration so that LS became RS. Joelle, in Customer Service was wonderful in figuring out the number change and sending me the correct part after I realized the originally ordered part was for the wrong side.

First, I read your instructions on line about how to replace a refrigerator gasket and freezer gasket. We replaced both. The information was extremely helpful since we had never done this before. We then loosed a few screws at a time starting with the outside door corner and worked our way around, replacing the seal as we took off the old seal. Leaving the old seal on as we worked our way around gave us the clearance we needed to insert the new gasket behind the metal plate which holds the gasket to the door. Your easy to use web site made ordering easy and delivery was unbelievably fast. Thanks.

The fridge side would freeze everything regardless of setting. First, unplug the unit. Remove control knobs and pry off the face plate which is snapped on. Remove the four nuts holding the control box to the top of the fridge. Note there is a mettle rod and the thermostat sensor lead inside a clear plastic tube leading from the control box to the back left corner of the fridge. Remove their cover (one screw). Under this cover in the back is the vent assembly screw. Remove it. On the freezer side, you also have to remove the light cover (snap on) and the vent cover behind it (one screw). This allows access to remove the vent on the fridge side. Squeeze the tabs on the vent(freezer side) that lock the vent in place and push it through to the fridge side. Now disconnect all wire connectors between the control box and the fridge. They have locking tabs that have to be pried out to release. Remove the two screws holding the thermostat to the control box, and one at a time transfer the wires from the old stat to the new one and mount the new one in place. Snap the old thermostat sensor lead out of the vent assembly, straighten it out and pull the plastic tube off. Put a lubricant on the new stat lead to ease in inserting it into the tube. Do not kink the lead. Re assemble in reverse order, plug up the fridge.

Put new drawer in fridge.