My two hour fridge fix turned into a full day mess

Went to swap a simple defrost timer on a Whirlpool last Tuesday. The old timer was stuck with a seized screw, took me 45 minutes just to get it out. Then the new part had a different wiring harness layout so I had to trace each wire back to the control board. Ended up taking over 6 hours for what should have been a quick call. Anybody else run into aftermarket parts that don't match up?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota_rivera25d ago

Man oh man I feel your pain on this one. Same thing happened to me with a defrost timer on a GE fridge last winter. The aftermarket part looked identical in the picture but the wire colors were swapped around and one connector was just slightly off. I ended up having to pull up the wiring diagram on my phone and label every single wire with masking tape. Best advice I can give is take a bunch of photos before you pull anything apart especially the wire routing and connector positions. Also keep the old part nearby so you can compare pin by pin even if it takes longer. Those aftermarket companies cut corners on the exact fit and it drives me nuts every time.

tarab5424d ago

Ugh @dakota_rivera, that exact thing happened to me with a defrost timer on a Whirlpool too, the screw was so rusted I had to drill it out. Ended up using zip ties to hold the new harness in place because the clip didn't match.