[sroney]

Over the past two weeks I noticed that the refrigerator on my side-by-side is not staying cold. The freezer side is cold, and the fan inside the freezer is working.

I took the back off of the freezer, and the top coil was frozen solid. The bottom two coils had minimal frost.

I advanced the defrost timer by hand, and the heaters glowed red. (There are heaters for the bottom coils only). I then thawed the coil, and plugged the refrigerator back in. The unit powered up, and the coils began to get cold.

After a few minutes, I advanced the timer by hand to the defrost cycle again. The compressor and fan in the freezer stopped. This time however, the heater coils did not glow. So my first assumption is that the heaters are fine, and the heater thermostat is working fine (since the heaters came on when the freezer was cold, but not when the freezer was warm.

So my second assumption is: My problem is the defrost timer.

So, are my assumptions correct, and if so should I replace the timer only, or is there any reason I should replace anything else?

Thanks!

Steve