GE Refrigerator Not Cooling

by Glennis

Coils Iced Up

Coils Iced Up

I have a GE side by side, model GSL25JFPDBS, purchased late 2005. Fridge side started getting warm on Friday, suddenly cold again Sunday,then warmed back up and stayed warm - hasn't been below 56 since. Ordered defrost thermostat and thermistor (replaced the one on tube above defrost thermostat) and replaced them on Wednesday. While waiting for those parts to arrive, Tuesday morning I got up to my freezer having thawed.

Wednesday, after replacing those parts, freezer cooled off enough to freeze stuff, but temp is all over the place. BTW - when I opened the panel over the coils, there was a little frost on the lower coils - since it'd been
non-functioning during the night, I figured the coils had thawed and that replacing the parts I did would fix the prob. But freezer temp never settled down, and the fridge is still 56. Today I replaced the thermistor in the damper assembly on fridge side and when I restarted the unit, the damper did open - but then must have closed and stayed closed. I can push it a little
from freezer side and it slowly swings up, stays for a bit, then closes again. Fridge is still 56-60. Right now, freezer is just below 30; earlier today it was at 7.

I'm about to go take the back panel off to see if the coils are still clean or
not.

I've opened the freezer door and stood there for a minute or so - sometimes the
fan comes on, sometimes it doesn't.

Late last week we did have some rolling power outages and I'm afraid the motherboard might be my real problem. I put the fridge ona surge protector yesterday before I restarted the unit after replacing the parts in the freezer
section.

I live out in the middle or nowhere - there are no licensed/bonded repair people out here - the nearest wants $250 just to come out whether he can fix it or not - no can do. I'm down to the point of just ordering a motherboard and
praying a lot - but hoping for an opinion from you on my logic. I'm a single mom and can't buy a new fridge, so I'll take any input I can get.





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Answer

Hi Glennis,

If you leave the door open to the refrigerator for three minutes the fan should come on and if not I believe you have a main board problem but it could be the fan or both. See this page for more GE Refrigerator Fan Motor Diagnostics

When you replaced the thermistor and the defrost thermostat did the coils look blocked with ice like the ones on this page GE Refrigerator Not Cooling? I also put the picture at the top of this page.

If so did you get all the ice melted and is it back like that again?

It is normal for the damper to close when you have the doors open to the refrigerator, you can press the door switch to see if it opens back up.

If all checks ok replace the main board.

I hope this helps!

Thank you,
Shawn/administrator

Comments for GE Refrigerator Not Cooling

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Mar 30, 2013
 Freezer not freezing
by: Anonymous

I have a GE refrig, I believe the model number is
GT221BMARWWMA307325 both upper and lower fans are working compressor is not coming on. I opened freezer one night and everything was thawed out. What do you think the problem is???
Mar 31, 2013
 RE
by: Anonymous

If both fans are working and the compressor isn’t then more than likely you have a bad board. (unless the compressor is hot then it could be the compressor start relay).

Take the board off and look on the back of the board for burn marks. It is common for a solder joint to come lose causing this issue and if this is the case the joint will be burnt looking.

Replace the board and it should go back to work.

Thank you,
Shawn/admin
Apr 16, 2014
 check for board relay burn out
by: jr

I have found many with this problem and quite often a bad relay on the board is the culprit and is usually easily fixed with a drop of soldier.
Apr 17, 2014
 Burnt solder joint
by: Shawn/admin

This page talks about repairing solder joints.

Electronic Board Repair
Jun 04, 2014
 GE side by side Fridge not cool enough - model #ESH22XGPA WW
by: Mel

First off, I am not sure what year our GE side by side fridge freezer model is (ESH22XGPA). I believe we bought it about 7 -8 years ago, but can't be sure...can't find original paperwork.

The freezer works fine but fridge temp is too warm. It fluctuates between 40 degrees and if door is opened shoots up to 45 - 50 and stays there for a while. At one point the temp never dropped and it ceased to cool at all.

In the freezer we discovered there was no frost on the bottom back panel but there was frost build-up on the top back and around the vent area that goes to the fridge...so we took a blow dryer and melted it and the fridge started to cool again hours later. But the temp never went below 40 degrees and the frost started to come back again a few days later on top back of inside freezer. We have the temp setting at 9 now.

We had a repair guy out and he never removed the back freezer panel to look at the coils as he didn't think it was a defrost issue since there was no frost on lower back inside freezer - he was perplexed (or not experienced enough) as to what the issue could be and left without repairing anything.

We have looked at the door seals and they all look good - no cracks and they seam to hold the seal just fine as far as we can tell.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Oct 16, 2016
 GE monogram ZISS420DRISS side-by-side frig
by: David

The first issue was both freezer and refrigerator became warm. I tried changing a thermistor as a shot in the dark with no affect. I then researched Shawn's videos (excellent explanations and instructions) and other trouble shooting and discovered the compressor wasn't running. After testing with a multi-meter, I determined the Inverter board was bad, replaced it and all worked again.

A few weeks later the Frig side started warming, and there was condensate in the Frig compartment near the damper door in the left-top. I thought that the damper door might not be opening, and I thought it might be the thermistor in the frig because it was cold due to the condensate. I tried heating it with hot water, and it did seem to work for a few times.

I followed Shawn's video to do the testing of the defrost cycle using the plugs on the control board to test the defrost thermostat and the heater element and they had continuity. I then tested the evaporator thermistor which tested fine as well. I tested the evaporator fan from the board, and it had the 13+ DC volts from the J2-3 to the J2-8 connector. However, when I test the J2-3 to the J2-4 I am getting 13.68 volts also instead of 12 or 8 or 4 as Shaw indicates. Originally the evaporator fan was running before I dismantled, now it isn't. From Shawn's video, this indicates it is the control board, and that both fan and control board should be replaced. I am double checking the testing, including testing the fan removed from the refrigerator, since it is expensive.

One of the things we learn from Shawn's videos is that things are connected. So I am trying to figure out if the original issue with the inverter was caused by the defrost issue. It seems likely that the compressor was running more and this led to the inverter overheating. But I am not sure. If Shawn is reading maybe he can comment.

Thanks Shawn for the efforts you've made to offer your experience. It is truly valued. David



Comments

The only thing I will note is that 13.68 is 12 volts for all intents and purposes when it comes to testing this sort of thing. The .32 volts you are not seeing is negligible.

Thank you,
Shawn/admin

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