Since last weekend my refrigerator (GE Monogram side by side) temp has raised a few degrees, it has always been dead on 37 degrees and now it is in between 40 and 42 and won’t go down. It is still set at 37 but it won’t get there. I tried setting it to a lower temp to see it f it would make a difference but it doesn’t. Fan is running, there is no ice in the back that indicates problems with the defrost system and freezer is working fine at 0 degrees. Not sure what to think of this.. not even sure if i should worry for a few degrees of difference, except the refrigerator seems to be running all the time… any ideas on what might be going on?
Pull the back panel out and clean the jellyroll condenser if dirty. If still not right, pull the back freezer panel and check the frost pattern, should be uniformly frosted, not partially frosted.
If ok, you probably have a refrigerant leak for a pro to look at.
Thx so much for your reply. I had a GE service guy come this morning. He did not have a clue of what is going on with my fridge. He said the only thing he could try is to replace the mother board, which would cost more than $400 (pat + labor) and he couldn’t guarantee that would fix the problem. I am very relunctanct to expend that money with no guarantees the problem will be fixed and very upset with GE… this fridge was over $3000 and it is only 5 years old! he did not mention a refrigerant leak as a possible problem
[quote=richappy;538098]Pull the back panel out and clean the jellyroll condenser if dirty. If still not right, pull the back freezer panel and check the frost pattern, should be uniformly frosted, not partially frosted.
If ok, you probably have a refrigerant leak for a pro to look at.[/quote]
All the symptoms point to a refrigeration system maxed out, that’s why it is running all the time, new motherboard would not fix it.
For a fridg running all the time, the freezer should be colder. Also, depending on electric rates, you are probably wasting $100 per month.
I would try to replace the two fresh food thermistors, one located behind the damper cover, the other, ( if you have a second one) at the bottom of the fridg section, just might fix your problem. Stuck in ice water, they should each read 16.6 kohm.
I’m updating this thread because I had a similar problem. I have a 48" Monogram side by side. I noticed the doors were not sucking shut like they used to, the compressor seemed to run nonstop (our electric bill reflected it) and the last week or so I had cooling issues in the freezer. It was set at zero but would climb to 6 degrees. I woke last week to find the compressor dead and the freezer was 28 degrees. The unit is 7 years old but for $7,500 I expected better and was pissed.
Here’s what the problem was. The compressor has attached on the left side an inverter. It can make the compressor run in 3 stages - low, med and high. Mine was stuck on high. Perhaps the inverter is wide opened and some circuits just reduce the voltage - these burned out. The compressor gets pretty hot so I don’t think it’s the best design to have the inverter right on the compressor. Just test to see if the inverter is getting juice. If it is then the inverter is bad if the compressor doesn’t run. The inverter is a $165 part and can be easily replaced with like 3 screws. Once you loosen the ground screws the metal wall/divider moves giving you room to get the inverter out. There’s even a YouTube video on replacing the inverter. This expensive refrigerator has the same compressor/inverter as many other GE refrigerators - go figure.
I replaced mine in about 20 minutes. It took a few hours to get to the right temps. Once it got there the compressor would slow down and or cut off. Even the condenser fan would slow down or turn off. I had forgotten that it would do this. I figure the inverter was having problems for at least a year. Now when you open/close the freezer and try to open the fridge side the door suction is really strong - like when it was new. I’m very happy that by searching this forum and others I was able to fix my refrigerator. I hope this helps someone down the road.
Thank you so much for this post. I was able to troubleshoot and order part with your advice. The inverter was the problem. Only thing my husband and I did wrong was we turned the refrigerator off with the circuit breaker . After replacing part and turning refrigerator back on nothing seemed to change. We pulled refrigerator out from the cabinet, unplugged from the wall, and twenty minutes later plugged it back in. It worked!!! Thanks again your post helped us to troubleshoot.
Glad it helped. The suction on my fridge was super strong/like new after my repair but a few months later it isn’t that strong??? I’m thinking the ice dispenser door may not be sealing totally??? Everything else had been working like a champ. I put a power strip/surge protector up up by the plug so I can turn it off from the strip and it has protection from surges. If you have a 48" monogram built in I don’t know how I would move it.
Thanks for the heads up on freezer. Great idea for power surge cord. We moved our built in by slowly wiggling it back and forth. So heavy. It’s been almost 24hours and frig seems to be working great. I was worried about compressor heat but read that was normal. Warm to hot touch ok. Super hot to the point where your hand can’t take heat is different. Love these blogs-have saved a great deal of money troubleshooting so many different things. Thank you again and keep me posted.
K
Why does that recommendation have value? A power strip without protector parts has a switch. And something essential - a circuit breaker. Adding protector parts sometimes results in house fires. Why would it do anything useful other than enrich its manufacturer?
Same logic also applies to a circuit breaker. Why would a circuit breaker cause problems? To a refrigerator, that is same as disconnecting its power cord or turning off nearby power plants. It is electricity. Any switching anywhere in a circuit does what disconnecting its power cord does.
Adding an update - this Monogram 48" side by side has problems that mainly come down to poor ventilation in the compressor compartment. The top door/flap that hides the mechanicals doesn’t allow enough air flow. The compressor is constantly hot. The other week we were out of town so I turned our a/c up to 78. When we came home I noticed the compressor was crazy hot and the freezer was at 3 degrees - instead of its normal 0. It was running nonstop and struggled to get back down to 0.
I did some experimenting by testing the compressor compartment side temp - it was about 120 degrees. I left the mechanical door opened and placed a fan shooting air in the left side of the machanical area so it would blow through the coils and be pulled through by the condenser fan. The next morning when I woke up I checked the compressor and it was cold/room temp - I was worried that the inverter or something broke. The freezer was at -1 and the fridge was at 37 - so it was working right. I soon realized that with better ventilation the compressor will shut down and it appears that the efficiency is tremendously improved. I also noticed if you just leave the mechanical door opened it also helps the compressor stays cooler - but for obvious reasons you can’t leave it opened. I bought a fan controller and two 4" fans. I use the controller to turn the fans on at a certain temp. I put one fan on the left side to bring in cool air and the other fan will be on the condenser side to exhaust hot air. I wish I would have thought of this years ago. You could also just have a small good fan set on the left side permanently blowing air. It’s been a few days now and the compressor iis often off or just warm to the touch. Without these fans it was almost always running and usually really hot.
Let me know if there is any downside to what I’ve done. It seems like GE could have cheaply improved the ventilation on their own and saved owners a lot of problems.
I’ve searched the web and this thread is the best source I’ve found for trying to figure out why our GE Monogram is not cooling. I changed the inverter. Checked the OHM’s coming from the motherboard and everything was in spec. Then pulled my meat and veggie bins and the evap core was a solid block of ice. I thawed it out and a day later plugged it back in. Cooled within specs the last 2 + weeks and now the fridge is back in the 40’s and the evap core is iced up. Looking for suggestions. Thanks. Jimmy
Have you tried to talk to an engineer? Every time that I am encountering an issue related to any electrical or mechanical part, I have a friend who fixes everything for a living and he will solve the issue. I know the basics of everything around the house, but when I am encountering something that exceeds my knowledge, I call him. Recently, we’ve had a problem with our AC and we had to call someone from airconservicingsingapore.com in order to fix the issue because my friend didn’t know what to do. Eventually, they have managed to fix it and now everything is back to normal
My built-in 48” monogram was having problems cooling in both fridge and freezer so I made sure to clean all of the coils (even though they weren’t dirty), vacuum out mechanical compartment and left the flap door open. It cooled and was just about down to temp when someone (I will never tell who) left the fridge cracked overnight. The fridge went up to 50° and freezer 21°. NOT GOOD!!! The compressor and fan were running and the temp was coming down. I just went to the store and came back, and the temps were back up and the compressor nor the fan are running.
WHAT DO I Do?!?!?
I have a side by side refrigerator. I’m trying to set the temperature for both sides