I would ohm out the defrost thermostat while its still frosty and the heater as well for continuity on both parts. If both those parts check good, then its the defrost board.

Jake

__________________
Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

If you need more repair advice help on your appliance, click Here

Look-Up & Order Parts

Shop Home Appliances

Thanks for the quick reply, Jake.

I've seen you suggest this several times in this thread, but I don't recall anyone mentioning the procedure.

I assume the thermostat you're referring to is sitting on the evaporator somewhere? ...the thermocouple? Where are the ends of the heating element so I can "ohm" them out, and how many ohms should they read? You say just check for continuity, so it should be close to zero?

There's really a lot of ice on the evaporator, so it's difficult to see where things are.

Jake, thanks for some great info.

I have an MSD2756DE. My question is whether ice buildup on the floor of my freezer is an indicator that I will soon have to replace the ADC as you mention in this post? My fridge & freezer are working fine, but I get little puddles under the front of the doors every couple of days, and a buildup of ice on the bottom of the freezer side.

Someone mentioned clearing out an ice plugged drain hole, but I don't know where that is. I can just go ahead and replace the ADC now rather than wait for the problem to get worse.

...not Jake, but I've been in the back of my freezer several times in the past few days. In my freezer, I took out the bottom three baskets and removed two screws about the middle of the freezer, on the back wall. Once these two screws are out, you can remove the bottom panel by sliding it up slightly and pulling it out. It's a tight fit to get out the door. You shouldn't need to remove the other panel to get at the drain. The drain is right in the bottom back of the freezer, under the coils. I think there are several posts in this thread with nice photos.

Your problem sounds like the drainage from the properly-functioning defrost cycle is not going out the drain, and puddling in the bottom of your freezer. If you clean out the drain, your problem should be over.

The ADC is in the refrigerator section, top right at the back corner. It's a totally different thing to get at. ...up to you whether to replace it now or wait for it to go out as mine did.

Hi folks, I found this place and it looks great!

I’ve got a Maytag MSD2756AEB (1999) and going through the freeze up problems with the evaporator coils. Just had the Maytag repair guy out under the extended warrantee from Circuit City. Good thing about the warrantee because I’ve had someone out every year for something. The price of the warrantee has been less than the parts and service call so I’m ahead on this one.

First let me throw out a few comments;

Quote:

Stopped making Ice the other day, pulled the unit out and the back side plus the floor were covered in water. Pulled the ice maker and found the water tube that fills it was frozen solid. Hmmm..

Been there, had that. The repair guy replaced the water tube with one that had vents cut into the top side. Apparently that aids the defrosting of the tube. No more problems.

Quote:

First thing when it was brand new, the door shelves fell on the floor. ...called Maytag's hotline, and they sent me a repair kit which consisted of pieces of plastic to make the shelves wider. Well, they did that, and the shelves haven't fallen on the floor since, but the spacers pushed the frame they hang on out, and it bangs agains the side of the fridge when you open and shut the door. 6 years of thunk-chunk when you open and shut the door. ...have to push the door to get it to shut.

Been there too, one of the first problems along with a support stud the holds the shelf that supports a crisper drawer breaking off. The fix was a new door liner that had web supports built into it to prevent the sides from spreading and no more problems. The broken stud was repaired with a replacement stud screwed in that didn’t require replacing the entire liner.

Quote:

My fridge & freezer are working fine, but I get little puddles under the front of the doors every couple of days, and a buildup of ice on the bottom of the freezer side.

That one was last year. Blame the puddles on the dog and clear the drain like Michedo said. Check for the puddy ball falling off. While you’re at it, pull the panel off the bottom back side and check the drain tube. Mine had a low spot that acted like a P-trap so it didn’t drain right. A little adjustment in the routing was in order.

I’ve also enjoyed problems with the water filter freezing solid and the icemaker going belly up. I don’t understand the concept of a lonely Maytag repairman.

OK, the defrost problem. First time it happened the temperatures on both sides went up and after defrosting the temperatures returned to normal. For awhile. After the next occurrence and a defrost the freezer went nuts. The mercury in the thermometer disappeared into the bulb so it must be 30 below. The control is set at one (1). The refrigerator side is running warm. I pointed this out to the Maytag repair guy and he thought it would straighten out after he fixed the defrost problem. He replaced the defrost control board and the heater/thermostat assembly. The freezer is still running too cold and refrigerator side is still too warm. I’d call it in but it took a week to get repair out this time.

After reading this thread a couple of times I think that I need to check the door from the freezer side into the refrigerator side. Given the extreme cold in the freezer and the fact that I’m running a swamp cooler so the humidity is running about 70% in the house I’m wondering if maybe the door is simply froze and not opening properly. My current thought is to just shut the thing down this weekend, empty it out and do a prolonged defrost. (Good time to hand the wife a bucket and sponge for a long overdue cleaning ) Maybe pop the cover off and eyeball the door. Anyway, that’s the current plan and I’ll darn sure take any suggestions of things to look for while I watch my food spoil.

About that door liner... I called Maytag a year or two ago to enlighten them about their faulty design and see if they'd do anything. The customer service rep simply said my warranty was up and too bad for me.

Did I mention I HATE THIS PILE OF REFRIGERATOR?

Consumer Reports lists Maytag refrigerators at the absolute bottom of the reliability scale for all refrigerators they survey for. The lonely Maytag repairman is like the local Dodge/Toyota dealer here advertising themselves as, "The Last of the Little Guys". They use low-key advertising, yet pull every dirty car selling trick in the book. Good advertising; bad business.

As for my stupid pile of Maytag, I checked for continuity across all three wires in the plug that houses the heater element and thermostat. While the evaporator was iced up, there was continuity between any of the three wires. Now that I've had the fridge unplugged, and the massive iceberg has mostly melted, continuity between the two end wires has vanished. I suppose that means the thermostat is working, and that the heater element is still intact. I ordered the defrost control module and got the kit to (hopefully) fix the stupid sticking valve on the "fountain" in the door.

Did I mention I hate this fridge?

I haven’t seen this anywhere in the thread so I’ll throw it in.

All of the symptoms of a frozen evaporator coil, warm on the refrigerator side, air flow coming in at the top increases when the freezer door is opened, etc. But the coil was not frozen up.

OK, cold air from the evaporator compartment flows into the refrigerator side at the top. The return air passage into the bottom of the evaporator compartment is located behind the middle crisper drawer and is a small box protruding into the refrigerator with a flapper valve. This box had incased itself in ice and cut off the air circulation through the refrigerator.

I assume this happened when the defrost system failed and the evaporator coil froze up. Repairing the defrost and thawing the coil failed to thaw the flapper door on the refrigerator side.

Thanks so much to everyone about these entries. I have a gutted fridge laying all around my kitchen and the last time a I called the local Jennair repair dude, he left my washer gutted in the basement and never returned. So I definately need some help.

I definately believe my Jennair, JCB2389GRS, has the same defrost problem from this thread. I have a couple of questions about still tracking down exactly which item in the system is the problem.

First, do I need to put it all back together and restart it to be testing the system when it is cold.

Second, I cannot find that sticken defrost timer. My schematics say that a blue wire from the temperature control goes to the defrost timer. However that blue wire leaves the temperature control and disappears down a hole in the back of the freezer department. The back of the fridge doesn't look like it is meant to come off and I can't find that blue wire anywhere.

Third, I have seen where it explains to test the heater assembly, but it mentions two wires. I have three, the white, black and white/black. Which two do I test?

If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it... if I continue to eat take out food forever, I am going to have new problems with my system that a repairman won't be able to help!

Yes, after you change the adaptive control board, its always good to check that return air flapper inside the refrig. section behind the crisper's to make sure that flapper moves freely open and closed.

Jake

__________________
Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

If you need more repair advice help on your appliance, click Here

Look-Up & Order Parts

Shop Home Appliances

Yes, it would be better to put it all back together and start again.
This Repair Manual would be a good investment to properly repair it yourself:

__________________
Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

If you need more repair advice help on your appliance, click Here

Look-Up & Order Parts

Shop Home Appliances