Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerator ED25PQ model not defrosting, running constantly, loud freezer fan appliancerepair

Firstly, let me start off by saying I've already replaced my thermostat in the fridge as well as the defrost timer because it wasn't cycling to defrost mode nor did it cool anything down until I replaced both parts. I also recently cleaned the dust from the underside of the fridge, which had probably been accumulating for a few years. Now that those have been replaced and my fridge is cooling and defrost timer kicks into gear every 8-10 hours, I let it run for about 2 weeks during which the defrost timer cycled less and less until it stopped defrosting altogether. So I'm guessing it's possibly the defrost thermostat in the freezer or the control board that's causing this issue. Before I took everything apart, I noticed my freezer fan was louder than usual, and that it was running constantly.

So I try to manually advance the defrost timer so it turns on the heater, except now the freezer is frosted over too much, including the part where the defrost thermostat is attached, and the heater doesn't even come on. I turn the fridge back on after exposing the frosty evaporator coils, manually advance the timer to start the defrost cycle and nothing happens. It's only when I take a heat gun to the coils and melt most of the frost that the heater actually decides to come on. So the heating element does work, just not when the coils are frosted over.

Any ideas on how to fix this issue? I've ordered a defrost thermostat so I'm hoping that fixes it but I wanted to get some different opinions on what the cause might be.

Also, for the manual advancement of the defrost timer (I use a flat head screw driver), is it supposed to rotate on its own or is that strictly for manual defrost? It doesn't seem like it rotates at all until I actually rotate it manually.

Thanks for all the help!

EDIT: After completely defrosting the coils, my fridge came back on and started cooling again, but the fan was still quite loud and when I manually advanced to defrost mode again, I noticed the heating element did not come on like it should. I'm currently watching it to see if it eventually turns on by itself and I'll update this if/when it does.

EDIT2: The heating element did not come on during the defrost cycle this time. When it did come back on the fan noise that I thought was loud was only loud while I had the back panel off. Once I put everything back together, there was no more loud fan noise.

Submitted September 12, 2016 at 08:30PM by fpsmoto http://ift.tt/2cq8j2S appliancerepair