Thanks for your reply.

buffalobill wrote:
this old fridge is costing you a bundle to operate. plug it into a
"kill a watt" and you will get an idea of its usage.
i wonder if the gasket heater is trying to demoisturize the door
constantly because it's control is bad. some have an "economy" switch
inside to select it to be off.

So you are saying that there is such a thing as a gasket heater and that
the heat I feel is not from the defrost heater?

i wonder if a good 24 hours of defrosting with a 20" window fan blowing
on it will help.

I took the panel off the back wall and looked at the evaporator. It was
not iced over. I expected to find the defrost heater in there, but I
didn't really know what to look for. I saw two wires going into the
freezer floor. I found the defrost timer underneath and saw that its
shaft is turning.

i wonder if the coils on the floor or back are encased in dirt and need
cleaning.

The condensor coils on the back are clean. They get warm but not hot.
There is another coil under the drip pan that isn't as clean. Can I
suppose that the one under the drip pan is also a condensor coil that
also happens to boil off the melted frost?

see link for
here's where i look for the best answers for appliances, i love the
samurai genius for these questions, almost all are already answered at:

http://fixitnow.com/

Thanks, I will look at that.