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The "Jazz" control board is what Whirlpool (makers of Amana and Maytag appliances) calls the Adaptive Defrost Control (ADC) board used in some models of french door and bottom-mount Maytag and Amana refrigerators. You can identify the Jazz control board by the two, single-digit digital displays for the freezer and fresh food temperature adjustment that are located at the top of the fresh food compartment.

These Jazz boards fail pretty frequently. The two most common failure modes on these boards are

1) Failure to initiate defrost and

2) Failure to stop the compressor during defrost.

In both cases, the evaporator frosts up so much that air can't flow through it anymore. When I get the call, the typical complaint is that the freezer temperatures are fine but the fresh food compartment (the beer compartment) is not cold enough.

Troubleshooting these Jazz boards is pretty straightforward. Put the unit into forced defrost mode and see if the defrost heating element in the freezer heats up. You can tell this in a number of ways:

- feel the heating element (carefully!) if you can reach it
- listen for sizzling as the frost melts off the evaporator and hits the hot element
- measure current or wattage change (should increase)-- a Kill-A-Watt meter makes this quick and easy to do.

The compressor should shut off during defrost. If you still hear it running, then you don't need to do any further troubleshooting because you know the Jazz board is bad and you can go ahead and replace it.

If the defrost heater does not get hot in forced defrost mode, then you need to disassemble the freezer and check continuity of the defrost limiter and defrost heater. But, I gotta tell ya, in these units I replace far more Jazz boards than I do defrost limiters. And I don't think I've ever had to replace a defrost heater in one of these models.

So, how do you put the Jazz control board into forced defrost mode? I thought you'd never ask! The tech sheet behind the toe grill has instructions like this:





But lots of people have trouble following the instructions on the tech sheet so it may help if you watch me do it:



As far as replacing the Jazz board, there are a couple techniques out there. First thing is to remove the light cover (the clear plastic part over the lights behind the control panel). It just slides back and off. That's the easy part.

One way to get at the Jazz board is to remove the entire control housing, like ahso:



The other method, and my preferred method, is to just unclip the Jazz board housing, letting it swing down, but leaving the rest of the control housing intact, like ahso:







The replacement Jazz board comes with an instruction sheet. Read this carefully because you have to program the Jazz board according to the program code on the model number sticker inside the beer compartment.

You can buy the replacement Jazz board here with a one-year, no-hassle return policy: http://www.repaircli...2784415/1541423



Acknowledgments:

Special thanks to Brother Strathy for the beautious and informative diagram markups.

Here's a hearty and very satisfying casserole that in its original form is vegetarian, but is easy to convert to meaty if you like - just see the note at the end. This would be a great centerpiece for a Cinco de Mayo celebration, and much easier than an assembly-style meal like tacos or burritos (although those are fun if you have the time!)

Go from this...


to this...


It's so easy!
Ingredients:

• 2 jars salsa (use a good quality salsa, and choose the spiciness according to your taste. I use one mild and one medium, but I'm a little wimpy. Samurai would prefer it to be muy caliente!)
• 2 cans refried beans (I like Amy's brand, either traditional or black bean, usually found in the organic section of grocery stores)
• 1 package corn tortillas (look for organic, non-GMO. Healthiest brand is Food For Life's Sprouted Corn Tortillas, in the freezer section of many natural food stores or the organic section of some grocery stores.)
• 1 8-oz. package shredded cheese, jack or cheddar
• ½ bunch cilantro, chopped, optional
• sour cream, avocado, scallions, tomatoes, shredded lettuce... as many toppings as you like!

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

In a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, spread about 1/2 a jar of salsa on the bottom.

Put a third of the corn tortillas on top of the salsa, breaking them up as necessary to fit in a single layer and cover the bottom as much as possible. A little overlapping is fine. Most packages come with either 10 or 12 tortillas, so you'll use 3 or 4 for each layer.

Spread one can of the refried beans over the tortillas, then the other 1/2 jar of salsa, then about 1/3 of the shredded cheese.  (These steps are pictured below - not that this is complicated, but pics are always fun!)

Repeat the layers of tortillas, beans, salsa, and cheese one more time.

Finish with a final layer of tortillas and the remaining salsa (smear around to cover the edges of the tortillas) and top with the cheese.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 40 minutes, until all bubbly. Remove the foil, add the cilantro, if using, and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the cheese on top is like you want it.

Serve with sour cream or greek-style yogurt, and other optional veggie toppings.

NOTE:

You can make this a meaty concoction by simply adding or substituting seasoned, cooked meat to/for the refried beans. For example, I prepared 2 pounds of ground beef with 1 packet of taco seasoning and used that in place of the beans. This meaty version does especially well with some chopped veggie toppings (tomatoes, scallions, lettuce, etc.), since it is so hearty. Make sure your baking dish is a deeper lasagna-style one, since this version is a little thicker!

Photo documentation of the complicated layering process  

Salsa


Tortillas


Refried Beans (and/or meat)


Salsa


Cheese


Then repeat those layers one more time (from tortillas through cheese), finish with final layer of tortillas, salsa, then cheese.  Here's what it looks like when done baking!  (I added the cilantro in the last 5 minutes or so of cooking.)