You always have to do your own research. Either to ensure that it is being fixed properly or to avoid getting ripped off. Or a combination of both.
In my fridge, A few years ago, I thought the defroster was toast in my 48" KitchenAid built-in. So I began the diagnosis steps, and started looking for parts. But then, after manually defrosting for the Nth time, I manually (literally with my hands) checked and tightened all the connections, and one of them was where the ends of the defroster element connect to the wires. Well, that fixed the problem, and the fridge worked fine for the next 3 years, actually closer 4 years, because that fix was pre-COVID. Now I have a similar issue, it’s possible the defroster element is really toast, but I again tried to tighten up all the connections on Monday evening.
I also cleaned the metal contacts of one of the snap connectors somewhat with alcohol on a swab. That snap connector is worn out and the snap part doesn’t snap closed anymore. It appears that the metal is making contact, but I worry that the old connector (circa 2002, likely build in late 2001) may also have issues on the wire side of the pins. This especially so due to the temperature changes at that spot (it’s just above* the cooling fins and the defroster element, so it gets very cold followed by moderately warm every so often) I may just rebuild the whole assembly from bare wires someday soon. I already put one new wire nut on two of the wires because the old wire nut used in manufacture was junk and worn out already. Anyway, it is very odd that they used a wire nut for that location in the first place. It simply connects one red wire to another red wire. There is no apparent need for two wires instead of one at that spot. Maybe they wanted to share a wiring harness with other models and it worked out that way?
One thing I discovered over the last 21 years with this model. The $10-12,000 models and the $400 models share the exact same concept and even the same parts in most cases. I purchased our garage fridge for under $400, a cheap Roper model, to use while the kitchen was being remodeled. Ironically, the garage fridge, the under $400 Roper, has never needed any maintenance at all, despite its harsher location (a very hot and humid garage).
* I think this is a bad design practice. Those wires and harness assembly shouldn’t be placed in the “worst” spot, in the freezer just above the cooling fins and defroster) where moisture and temperature varies the most. Instead it should be on the fridge side with the necessary wires (2 to the defroster, and 2 to the thermocouple, etc) going across into the freezer with no additional connectors. I suppose that is slightly more difficult to assemble, but much more reliable. And if anything, design it with a single connector slightly higher on the wall between the fridge and freezer sections (not directly above the cooling fins/defroster) for all the wires. Bad design in my opinion.
