Do-It-Yourself Story

Having worked in appliance sales many years ago, I was somewhat acquainted with the basic workings of the frost free refrigerator / freezers of ancient times. So I suspected that perhaps one or more of the mechanisms that control the defrost cycle was out of whack in some way. After thinking about the problem I immediately suspected that perhaps the Defrost Timer may have malfunctioned. This, because If I allowed the unit to sit idle for several days and then turned it back on, it then worked fine for a month or more. The freezer would go from ambient room temperature to 10 degrees below zero in just 15 minutes after being allowed to sit.Having this information led me to believe that the compressor and thermostat were likely in good working order. What causes the intermittent loss of cooling ability is that the chilling unit in the back of the freezer section which provides the cold air for both halves of a side by side becomes a block of ice. This makes it so that the air which is circulated by a small condenser fan, can no longer effectively circulate air throughout the cases air duct system. So as any good Geek in my elder persons age bracket would, I googled servicing Defrost timer for Amana side by side. I was directed to the very fine appliance diagnostic and repair videos provided by Appliance Parts Pros to be found on Youtube. After testing with a Multimeter I found that the issue was with the defrost thermostat switch. A small almost innocuous part attached to the cooling coil by a small clip, and giving it's signal to run the defrost heating coit by way of a pair of wires. I went on the very well designed web page for Appliance Parts Pros, found and ordered the part. It took about two hours total to save well over a thousand dollars. APP provides an invaluable service to anyone with only basic rudimentary mechanical abilities. Thanks Folks!