GENUINE Appliance Parts
Welcome to Your Refrigerator Parts Resource
- How to Find Genuine Refrigerator Parts
- Different Types of Refrigerators
- How Refrigerators Work
- Automatic defrost
- Cooling
- Temperature Control
- Lighting
- Ice maker
- Ice and water dispenser
- Door seals and hinges
- Installing your Refrigerator
- Keeping your Refrigerator Well Maintained
- General Cleaning of your Refrigerator
Where to Find Refrigerator Parts?
If your refrigerator is not working well, needs maintenance or if it is broken, our partners at RepairClinic.com can help.
They can help you in finding the right part for your particular brand, type and model of refrigerator.
RepairClinic.com can assist you at every stop of the way - in properly troubleshooting your refrigerator for electrical, plumbing, or hardware problems.
Resources include expert troubleshooting and repair guidance and information, part pictures, and detailed appliance illustrations.
On the RepairClinic website you will find useful videos - part replacement videos, part testing videos and maintenance videos.
These videos provide detailed, step-by-step instructions that will expertly guide you in getting your refrigerator to work like a brand new appliance.
Defrost Heater Part Testing Video
Different Types of Refrigerators
Refrigerators come in four major types.
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| Bottom mount with freezer on bottom | Top mount with freezer on top |
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| French door with freezer on bottom | Side by side |
How Refrigerators Work
Refrigerators are usually the largest and most commonly used appliances in a home. Your refrigerator is always on and is thus also the biggest consumer of energy in your house.
Taking care and maintaining your refrigerator unit for better energy efficiency is very important and will save a lot of money to any homeowner in the long run.
Detailed Appliance Diagram of a Side By Side Refrigerator
Automatic defrost
Most refrigerators are self-defrosting appliances. When frost accumulates inside the refrigerator, it melts automatically.
There are 3 different elements to this self-defrosting system:
- Defrost Timer works like a clock by progressively moving ahead continually twenty four hours a day. Every 6 to 8 hours the timer halts the cooling system and starts the refrigerator defrost heater working.
- Defrost Heater is located beneath the cooling coils, which are sheltered behind a covering in the freezer compartment. When the heater turns on, the ice or frost build-up dissolves.
- Defrost Thermostat helps to end the defrosting process once the length of time designated by the timer expires.
Refrigerator Defrost Thermostat Replacement Video
Cooling
All residential refrigerators have these components:
- Compressor is the engine of the cooling system. It comes on whenever the thermostat alerts it that there is demand for cooler air.
- Condenser is located on the exterior of the refrigerator, next to the cooling fan. It brings room temperature over the fins, then dispels the heat from the tubes or fins.
- Metering Device or Capillary Tube is a small copper tube fastened from one end of the condenser to the foreground of the evaporator. This tube directs the pressure and flow of refrigerant as it enters the evaporator.
- Evaporator is usually located on the inside of the freezer unit. When refrigerant flows from the small capillary tube, it is infused into the larger tubes. This accounts for drop in pressure. While the refrigerant expands back into a gaseous state, this transformation allows it to incorporate the heat.
Temperature Control
All refrigerators have a thermostat whose function it is to sustain the correct temperature. When the refrigerator reaches the set temperature, the thermostat interferes with the electricity flow to the compressor. When this happens, the refrigerator stops cooling for the time being.
Lighting
Refrigerators have a button fixed to the inside door that is pushed once the door closes and causes the light to be turned off. Once the door opens again, the button turns the light back on.
Ice maker
The ice maker is situated
in the freezer and is usually independent of the other components of
the refrigerator.
Ice Maker Assembly
Ice and water dispenser
A number of different components support the delivery of ice and water through the refrigerator door.
- Before ice can be delivered trough the refrigerator door, the icemaker drops the ice it produces into a capacious bin. To re supply the ice, one must press a bar that instigates a switch to turn on a motor that revolves the auger. The ice is then thrust out of the bin, through a chute, and to the user.
- The water dispenser performs in a way similar to the ice dispenser. To retract water from the refrigerator door, a user needs to push on a bar on the front of the refrigerator. This pressure activates a switch which turns on an electric water valve that allows water to flow through and into a tube. The water settles into a container so that it can be chilled.
Door seals and hinges
All refrigerator and freezer doors need to have a tight seal.
The seal is a rubber-like gasket fastened to the refrigerator door that keeps the cool air inside the refrigerator and the warm air out of the unit.
The entire length of the gasket is overlay ed with a
magnet to create a tight seal and secure the door.
The hinges allow the door to pivot open and closed as it needs to and must be adjusted
correctly, for the door to work properly.
Refrigerator Door Gasket
Installing your Refrigerator
Correct placement and installation of your refrigerator is essential and easily manageable.
- Your unit should be located far enough from the wall for proper air flow.
- Your unit should not be chafing or pressing any electrical cords or water lines.
- Your unit should be level and smoothly balanced. In some cases, the refrigerator needs to be slanted back a bit so that the doors will close of their own power.
Keeping your Refrigerator Well Maintained
For self-defrosting refrigerators and freezers there is no requirement for manual defrosting. Every 6 - 8 hours your refrigerator unit inevitably heats up its cooling coils and melts any collected frost.
The water that results from the thawing ice will drain into a shallow pan at the bottom of the unit. Although the water will eventually evaporate on its own, you may want to clean the pan every once in a while to keep away stale odors.
Note: Appearance of mold in the drain pan might be considered a health hazard.. If this happens in your house, clean the refrigerator pan more frequently.
General Cleaning of your Refrigerator
- On the bottom of your refrigerator or freezer are located sets of coils and a cooling fan. Both the coils and the fan need to be cleaned at least once a year.
- The coils look like a grate or a wide radiator. To clean them of dust and debris caught form the air, make sure that your unplug your appliance first. An excellent tool to use in cleaning the coils is the Refrigerator Condenser Brush which has a long handle and can reach far.
Long Handled Bristle Brush
After you remove larger pieces of dust with the brush, use your vacuum cleaner to pick up lint, pet hair, and other dirt that remained behind. - Keep the inside of your refrigerator and freezer clean and you will use less electricity as well as extend the life of your appliance.
- To keep the smell in your refrigerator or freezer fresh, use baking soda or, for tougher odors, try Fridge Aid deodorizer.
Fridge Aid refrigerator deodorizer
