Hi. I have a GE bottom drawer freezer refrigerator Model #PDS22MBRBWW that fails to keep the freezer temp below 12-14 degrees no matter the temp setting. The temperature is indicated by digital readouts in the refrigerator section.. It appears to me that the defrost heater coil stays on too long or never shuts down. The sides of the unit just behind the freezer door are always hot. If the defroster heater element is staying on, it may be caused by a stuck relay. Or, it is my understanding that the unit has some intelligence and turns on whenever it needs to. For example, this may be when the door is opened often. I believe that the freezer unit is supposed to have a chill-down cycle before defrosting, but I have no idea how to know that without forcing the refrigerator to cycle by opening and closing the freezer and listening for the compressor/fan to come on and then turn on the defroster. Any suggestions?

I would like to know of any test points and voltages on either of the controller boards, and any other methodologies to get this done in one parts purchase.

Thanks for your assistance.

After we noticed that the condenser fan was running slowly, cleaned off all the dust, etc. and not having it speed up, we decided to run a fan at the rear of the refrigerator. It cooled it down to near 0*, but it took some time after the drawer had been opened a lot. We figured this demonstrated that there was sufficient freon, but the sides remained extremely warm.

I searched and searched for some kind of schematic to find out what the plugs on the controller board are connected to, but we were short on time.
So we replaced the main controller board, which sped up the fan and reduced the temperature of the sides of the refrigerator. The freezer seemed to recover faster, too, even though it would go up to mid teens if the kids used the freezer a lot or didn't close the drawer all the way--Duh!

This was at my son's and we have since returned home, so I don't know for sure if it is working the way it should. I haven't heard otherwise, so I must assume it is working as expected.

Good luck with yours. Would be interested what you find.