How to Troubleshoot & Replace Samsung AP4136948 / DA32-10109W Refrigerator Temperature Sensor

Replaced open (blown) Thermo Fuse Assy located in the evaporator located inside the freezer section, inside the panel. This prevented the heater element from getting power during the automatic defrost cycles and therefore not melting the ice build-up on the evaporator. 

Replaced high temp fuse and temp sensors 

Cleaning the drain line which was clogged. Also replaced the Temperature Sensor and Thermal Fuse. Now working fine, no more water leaking 

Upon accessing condenser severe frost noticed, auto defrost system became suspect. 3 components to auto defrost system: Thermal fuse(should have continuity but no resistance, replace if not continuance is wired in series with heating element) Heating element(should be 45-150ohms between harness terminals(found to be 48 on mine checked good)" And last is the thermistor, unlike most these thermistors go from around 5.8k ohm at room temp up to 15kish ohm when cold. Mine was found to raise to about 9k ohms then drop all at once to 1k. Replaced this termisotor, auto defrost now working, fridge now cold, problem fixed. 6$ part. 

Replaced 2 temperature sensors and thermal fuse assembly. Was easy to do because of the instructional videos. 

For my version of the refrigerator, there is one screw that needs to be removed. I used a long screwdriver on each side to pry open the two lower tabs. There are two slits in the molded plastic so you do not ruin the housing. On mine, there are four tabs. The bottom two were pretty easy to release but the upper two were harder. Once the bottom two were released I slid in a flat putty knife between the panel and the door to release the upper two tabs. Then I unhooked the two wires leading to the old digital interface and removed the three screws on the back of the panel. Then I transferred over the black sticky icon label making sure that it’s got the filter and ice icons on the lower left and right. Then I reversed the process. 

Remove fridge lower pane. De-iced pane with fan, and evaporator with hair dryer. Measured evaporator sensor with ohmmeter. Was open, high impedance. Ordered replacement part, along with the upper fridge main sensor, in case needed later. Called customer service to clarify sensor PN. Shawnia was very helpful. She sent schematics with troubleshooting info. Very useful. Re-assembled the fridge with bad part; waited for the new parts to arrived; de-iced again replaced sensor, after confirming it had the correct impedance. Re-installed panes. 

Our refrigerator stopped cooling properly and kept popping an E22 code which would reset but then the problem persisted. We called a repair shop and they advised we unplug it for a few minutes and plug it back in to see if it would help. It seemed to right it for 24 hours then the error code popped up again. When I called them back they told me it sounded like the sensor or the compressor overloading and wanted "about $700 to fix it. We'd be better off buying a new refrigerator." For that kind of money, I started looking for parts online and found AppliancePartsPros.com and ordered the parts recommended for our model. What did I have to lose? Either I could fix it or I couldn't. So we watched the videos, the model shown wasn't exactly like ours but being oblivious and having NO experience working on appliances I figured I could do it anyway. We popped off all the parts we needed too, plugged in the new sensor in the inside and started on the compressor overload protector and ran into a snag. Our model had a part not shown and we couldn't figure out how to get it off to get to the sensor. We called AppliancePartsPros and they called us right back. Within minutes APP's wonderful tech Lowinda (Wendee D.) had our specs pulled up and she was able to give us the information to finish the job quickly. Our refrigerator works beautifully again! And we saved over $675 doing it ourselves with Appliance Pro's and Wendee's help! 

Took the freezer apart 4 times until we got the fuse replaced. First thought it was the evaporator fan but that was working fine. A week later ice build up and fridge would warm again Finally, got a multimeter and tested each suspect for proper continuity and resistance according specs found on the web. Now defrost is working again. Hardest part was the diagnosis then wading into the unknown -as in how does this evaporator come out. Videos will get you there. Now I’m super glad I saved beaucoup bucks! 

I wasn't sure if it was the temperature sensor or just the fan had died, so I replaced both. The repair was as easy as removing the back panel, unplugging the plugs and removing the fan from the housing. Getting the plastic fan blades off of the old fan motor required a pair of needle-nose pliers. It was fairly easy to take off the old fan motor and put on the new one. Once I plugged everything back into the freezer and closed up the panel, it was obvious that the old fan motor had died. With the freezer door closed I could hear the fan kick on and after an hour or so the top of the freezer was nice and cold. Now my ice doesn't slowly melt as well.