refrige not cooling

by Joe
(Knoxville, TN.)

I have a GE model #GSS201EMD WW its not cooling on the fresh food side the freezer side is freezing I had a bad defrost heater and I replaced it but it still does not defrost I checked my heater connections ther good I checked the defrost thermostat its good and I checked the thermistor that was attached to the evaperator coil I put it in ice water for 5 minutes or longer and it would read around 14k is this good and what else could it be a bad component on the mother board?
Thanks JOE

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Answer

Hi Joe,

14K isn’t that far off, it should read somewhere around 16K. This means that the temperature in the ice water was 28-30 degrees or at least the thermisotor “thinks” so. The ice water should have been around 32 degrees and the thermisotor should read around 16K. I don’t believe this is your problem but it is off a little so it won’t hurt to replace it.

If the thermisors, heater and defrost thermostat are all test ok then the only thing left is the main board.

I don’t typically recommend this but it may be a good idea to jump out the heater to see if it will work when you take the main board out of the equation. On the back of the board there is a blue plug at the bottom with three wires on it. On the board these wires are marked. There is one marked line and one marked heater. Use a jumper wire to jump from line to heater with the plug disconnected from the board. Make sure you do this with the refrigerator unplugged and with the plug disconnected from the board. Also make sure the jumper is in the connector good and tight or it will arc and possibly mess the plug up. (I may erase this paragraph in a week or so because I don’t like recommending jumping out the heater I just hate to see you replace a main board on the count of a loose connection. ).


Once the jumper wire is securely in place plug the refrigerator back in (leave the plug disconnected from the board) and the heater should come on. If it doesn’t there is a loose connection somewhere or the new heater is bad (I wouldn’t rule that out). If the heater does come on replace the main board and that top thermistor.

Thank you,
Shawn/administrator