On 11 Apr 2006 02:45:09 -0700, "buffalobill"
wrote:

see answer at:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/question144.htm

Well this was right on. Thanks.

No, I wasn't trolling. I never noticed even 6 hours worth of frost,
although maybe that is less than I would guess, and not noticeable.

And I grew up with a self-defrosting freezer that wasn't called
frost-free. It only heated every 24 hours, and didn't have the fan
that blew the cold air out when the door was open. I figured I had
that fan and didn't need a heater. (Although I figured it was some
industry secret where the air came from that replaced the air that the
fan blew out.)

My mother was a smart woman, but she didn't understand the timer on
our 1953 refrigerator. She would set the clock for what time she
wanted it to defrost, but it was supposed to be set for the "current
time". So I have to do the arithmetic on paper, but I think it would
defrost at whatever time she did the setting of the clock. She would
set it for three in the morning, and the fridge would think whatever
time she did this was 3 in the morning. For a decade she thought it
was broken. Even though it had no frost, it never defrosted at the
right time. I was 15 or more before I read the instructions under
some panel at the bottom of the fridge.

I guess making it do this every 6 hours eliminated the need to set a
clock. It was probably women like my mother who forced this change.

for your parts, look up your model by number he
http://www.repairclinic.com/0003.asp