[JamminJohnnyG]

Hello, First off I was blowing my GFI that my frig was plugged into every night. I disconnected ice maker cause it was working as usual. I assumed I needed a new ice maker. then I searched the internet and found your sight and called and explained that inside the back of my freezer (on the bottom of frig) the back wall was frosting up. the gentleman told me to remove the back panel (4 screws) and found about 2 inches of ice. he told me the bad part was there so we had to hang up cause it took me almost 2 hours to melt the ice. When ice was all melted I called back and unfortunately could not talk to the same guy. Anyway the next guy told me I needed a defrost timer which is located in the frig part, not the freezer. with that said I went to a local appliance repair store and was going to purchase the defrost timer part but the owner told me it was the defrost thermostat and not the timer and said he had one that would work with my frig. It is an Electolux part number 5303918202. I bought it and installed it about an hour ago. I'd hate the wrong part to blow out my entire frig for a $30 part. Personally do you think I'll be ok with the part i installed or should i buy the original replacement part number AP4009073 and put that one in? I don't know what kind of damage this part can cause to the frig and it would be really disappointing over a $30 part. Please give me a professional opinion on my situation. Thank you in advance for your time and insight/guidence.
John

[richappy]

You should not plug your fridg into a ground fault outlet, too may areas that have contamination that cause leakage current.

[JamminJohnnyG]

Hello Rich,
Thank you for your reply. My main question wasn't about the GFI, it was about replacing the original part Part Number: AP4009073 with the Electrolux Part Number: 5303918202. Both parts are practically indentical looking except the original part has an orange and brown wires coming out of it and the Electrolux has a dark blue and light blue wires coming out of it. With that said, can that part (Defrost thermostat) cause my entire frig to blow out?
Thank you again for replying to my post.
have a great day,
John

[richappy]

The two thermostats differ in trip open temperature of only 2 degrees, either one will work fine considering the tolerance on these is rather large.
Main concern should be reliability, the GE thermostats generally last around 10 years which is pretty good. I know as I service them at a major university.