The Freezer Saga continues

The Freezer Saga continues:

A year or two ago the Freezer Door Ice Dispenser was having problems which finally lead to the auger breaking.  I decided since we were putting water bottles in the top of the freezer they were causing the melting so we started putting them lower in the freezer.  This helped for a while, but not for long. The ice was melting and refreezing in big chunks that the auger just couldn’t handle.  I replaced the auger and was now making ice!  Lower in the compartment it is 18* F.  Frozen, but it is not as cold as it should be.

  Also, the dispenser door started clogging up with the cubes not falling free which caused more problems and ever few weeks we had to dump the ice bin, and free it of globs of cubes.  Finally discovered that I had missed something when replacing the auger and so I took it apart and   reassembled it properly this time.  This helped a lot, but it was still having problems. 

After more trouble, we decided that we should lower the freezer compartment temperature and that this would help keep things colder and prevent the thawing and refreezing.   And that worked for about two weeks!  

Then the door water dispenser stopped working!  Read up on it, isn’t the internet wonderful, and decided that the lower temperature setting had allowed the coiled water tube in the refrigerator to freeze up.  Hair drier and a few minutes later water is running!  

Two days later we noticed a major temperature difference between the top and bottom of the freezer.  Freezer Gel Packs in the top were still just gel, not frozen, and a water bottle in the top of the door was almost warm, and the ice maker was not freezing.

Back to the net.  Hints were to look for frosted evaporator coils.  This morning I noticed a major frost buildup on the inside back panel of the freezer.  Everything I read indicates an intermittent Defrost Limiting Thermostat and I have located one locally and will install it this afternoon.   Here’s hoping!

Went to the local repair shop, located in the home of the owners, and got the thermostat.  While describing the symptoms  to the very knowledgeable  lady of the house who has been in the business for many years, she suggested that the problem was most likely the  defrost heater as there was a known problem for my model  and a new two element heater had replaced the single element in mine.  The thermostat was under $10, the heater was $40 something.  She said if the thermostat fixed the problem to just bring the heater back for a refund.  
 

After emptying the  freezer and removing the back panel I found the coils completely covered with ice.  Out comes the hair dryer again and some time later all the ice was gone.  With all the time and effort to get this far, I decided to just replace both parts so I would not have to redo the job.  It would take weeks to determine if in fact the thermostat solved the problem and in less than a month I was heading out on a six month hike of the Appalachian Trail.

*** Note  May 09, 2013: Ended my hike early and am home.  The freezer and ice maker are still working fine with no problems.  Glad I replaced the heater unit as I believe that was in fact the problem.