Hey Gene, this is one heck of a thread!

Anyways, here's my dilemna which started a few days ago. Thursday night I noted the ice cream was kinda soft in the freezer, and woke up Friday to a warm fridge and cool freezer. Had to go to work so I called my wife around 8 and told her of the dilemna. Placed a thermometer in the fridge and the temp was 50, but when she checked the freezer everything had refroze and freezer temps were around 10. I have her adjust up the fridge temp settings and later that day it was down around 40. Later that evening I did some looking around, and the only thing I had noted was there was not much air flow to the fridge through the damper, so I manually opened it. Freezer temps remained around 10 and fridge around 40.

Everything seemed fine until today, when I noted the fridge had warmed up again. Once again I noted no air flow from the fridge to the freezer. Thinking there might be more to the problem, I located my model number and googled, which is how I found this thread. I have GE Side by side, model GSH25SGPCSS, and the parts breakdown is here Freezer section replacement parts for General Electric GSH25SGPCSS Refrigerator | AppliancePartsPros.com

So here is what I have done so far...

1. Cleaned compressor coils.
2. Removed panel in freezer. Evaporator coil was NOT iced over.
3. Manually opened the damper control.
4. Set the freezer at 5 and the frigerator at 9.


Another side note, when I removed the back panel in the freezer, some of the coil fins appeared to be crushed in, and at the bottom where the heater assembly is the right side screw was ripped out of where it attaches to the evap coil frame. The panel came off really easy, and I bought this fridge new 6 years ago and have never taken it off before. Really not sure how this happened.

Right now I am waiting patiently to see what the temps work out to. I am thinking it's just an issue with the damper controller, but looking for a more professional opinion. I'm not beyond changing out the damper and a few more small parts in an effort to fix this.

Just an update...

Working the night shift last night, my wife called around 11 pm and said the fridge was at 50F and the damper was not open. The only thing I changed was that I had turned the ice maker on. I told her to turn it off, open the damper and leave it overnight. I got home this morning and the freezer was at 0 F and the fridge was around 30 F. After about 4 hours of sleep I got up and the conditions were the same, so I turned the ice maker back on. Got home about 20 minutes ago and the damper was once again shut and the fridge was 60 F and the damper shut again! Arrrgh, this is getting frustrating. So the ice maker is off and the damper manually opened.

Is there something else going on here? If you can help I surely need some advice....

OK, I have been reading this topic all day, have made it through 30 pages. I have the same problem as most, freezer seems to be freezing fine, fridge is warm. From looking quickly at it earlier before having to come to work, I don't think the fan in the back of the freezer was spinning. Will that stop if there is a defrost problem?

I am going to start troubleshooting in the morning. This is my secondary fridge, model is Maytag PTB1953GEW. It's about 11 years old. It sounds like first step is to "see if there is frost bulid up on the back panel in the freezer." Is that just opening up the door and looking at the back of the freezer compartment, or taking off the cover on the back of the unit and looking?

Thanks, wish me luck.

Sorry for the delay.

Have you removed the rear panel in the freezer to check how the evaporator coils are covered with snow and/or ice?

Have you checked the air flow from the freezer into the refrigerator?

Here are the breakdown diagrams and Replacement parts for WHIRLPOOL KSRA25CNSS00 Refrigerator | AppliancePartsPros.com

Gene.

No problem Gene, as I'm sure you have a life outside this forum! ;)

I'm certain the evap coil had a layer of snow since water dripped from the coils as it warmed. As stated though it was not completely iced over.

Both evap and condenser fans are working fine. Condenser coil had some dust but not much, which I vacuumed and blew out what the vacuum didn't get with low pressure air.

At the present moment here is what is happening:

I have the freezer set at 4 and the fridge set at 1. The evap fan, compressor and comp fan cycle on and off normally, whereas before everything seemed to run continuously. Freezer temp is about 10F. The fridge temp I am manually controlling. It normally stays around 40F, but when it starts creeping up towards the upper 40's I up the setting to 2. This opens the damper, and if not watched will drop the fridge temps into the lower 30's, resulting in frozen food in the fridge! Dropping the fridge setting back to 1 closes the damper. I usually do this a couple times daily.

The only thing found so far that was a problem was that the fridge door did not always turn the light off, therefore this was a major source of heat in the fridge. I adjusted the door and the light goes off every time.

:confused:

Thanks Gene for the input! I'll look to replace that sensor and hope that it solves my problems.