Whirlpool WP4387503 Defrost Bimetal OEM Part

By reading stories of other customers who had bought this part, the first thing I looked for when troubleshooting my near-18 year old Frigidaire was for the top to be erupted or raised up on the bimetal defrost. It was truly a case of “look for the simple explanation first.” Once I determined that the bimetal defrost appeared to be the culprit, I ordered the part from Appliance Parts Pros. The back panel (evaporator cover) on my freezer was totally encrusted with ice. So I'm waiting for this to thaw, so I could remove the panel without tearing anything up was the most difficult part of the repair. (If you have this same problem, be patient and don't be tempted to chip at the ice. Let it thaw naturally, then check the drip pan at the bottom of your unit once it thaws. Ours overflowed due to the ice melting, and there was also water on the floor of the fridge.) Once I had the part in hand, the repair couldn't have been easier. As per the demonstration in the video, I snipped the old part out, spliced in the new one, twisted wire nuts over the splices, secured the splices with electrical tape, then put everything back together. The entire process from opening the bag to pushing the unit back into place couldn't have taken more than around 25 minutes. I panicked at first, thinking I had wasted my money because the unit began to run continuously again for several hours, which was one of the original symptoms. Turns out it was just stabilizing and getting things down to the correct temp and, much to my delight, the unit began cycling normally later that afternoon. The next day, my wife disassembled all the drawers and shelves and gave everything a thorough cleaning. I replaced a bulb that was out inside the fridge, put a regular room thermometer in the fridge and checked it once per hour to make sure it was cooling properly. My fridge now looks and runs like brand new and I couldn't be happier.

Money is tight and the last time I called a repairman he charged me $162.00 to replace a switch on the door. I knew I could have done that myself so this time I found my model # and looked it up online. I followed the directions I found online and manually defrosted my freezer. The website said that it could be 2 or 3 different things, but the most likely problem was the Defrost thermostat (Bimetal). I wasn't very confident or sure of myself so I went to Brown's Appliance and talked to a wonderfully helpful salesman there. He confirmed for me that it was indeed the clip-on thermostat (Bimetal) because it was popped up (instead of flush) (that was my most likely culprit anyway). It took about 10 minutes to take the freezer back apart once I received the part from AppliancePartsPros.com (arrived within a few days - shipped out the very next day) and my problem is fixed! It cost $24.99 w/ shipping as instead of $150.00 or more. Yay!!

I went to You tube and plugged in the problem and found it was the defrost bimetal. I pulled the rear panel and sure enough the piece was coming a apart. So I ordered a new one . The replacing took about 20 minutes and now it runs fine.

Replaced: condenser fan motor, defrost timer, defrost thermostat (bi-metal), and added a heat probe. Fan motor obviously shot... hard to turn by hand. Defrosted for 48 hours, cleaned & bleached drain tube. Never tried to test the old timer or bi-metal but it now runs perfectly and tightly maintains 39/0 degrees with dry fridge. When reassembled and powered up, compressor did nothing... I advanced the timer knob until condenser started. Hung the heat probe securely on defrost element and cut it short so it was positioned just above the drain (paranoid & over-kill). Could probably do the job (after defrosting) in less than an hour. Pleased (yet again) with result and appliance parts pros. Great resource for the handy homeowner. Thanks!!

Replaced bimetal defrost part