[COLOR=#000000][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]GE 5 years old side by side and [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]I vacuumed the coil, which was not cover with lint that bad, but the compressor will not shut off and the [FONT=‘Calibri’,‘sans-serif’]temperature control is set at 5 and I moved it to 6 which is colder (range is 1 to 9). I also pulled it away from the wall. Any advice?[/FONT][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[quote=rhemshot;367209]GE 5 years old side by side and I vacuumed the coil, which was not cover with lint that bad, but the compressor will not shut off and the [FONT=‘Calibri’,‘sans-serif’]temperature control is set at 5 and I moved it to 6 which is colder (range is 1 to 9). I also pulled it away from the wall. Any advice?[/font]
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Rhem,
If I understand this correctly,
Your refrigerator is cooling but not cold enough ?
What about the freezer compartment, is it cooling properly ?
If it seems to be isolated to the refrigerator compartment, you probably have a bad auto damper/ thermistor assembly,
Located inside the fresh food light bulb housing.
Both the freezer and refrigerator side are not cooling as normal and the motor continues to run.
With both sides not cooling as normal would that change your diagnosis? The tempature is 50 degrees on both freezer and refrigerator sides.
I spoke to a repairman over the phone and he had me to check the back bottom portion of the freezer to see if there was a build up of frost and it did. He said it could be the defrost element. Could it be that and anything else? He recommended getting a blow dryer and putting heat on the coils and this would temporary solve the problem until it could be fixed for several days as the temperature would go back to normal. Is that true and is that the correct procedure with the blow dryer on the coils?
Rhem,
Yes, the other servicer is most likely correct, when to coils get clogged with frost, the air does not circulate properly, eventually both compartments will get warm.
We would’ve gotten there, had I seen your other responses, and had more information.
There are other components involved than just the heater assembly, but that is a pretty common failure.
The repairman came and tested the defrost element with his ohms tester and said that it was working and thought it could be the Board Main Control, so I told him that I would order and install the board myself. The refrigerator did start working as normal after I got rid of the ice on the coils, but it was starting to build back up. What is your recommendation?
Rhemshot,
Do you know if he checked the defrost thermostat, or the evaporator thermistor, while he was there ?
The defrost thermostat should be a closed circuit(across the 2 wires to the thermostat) below 140 degrees.
The thermistor should read 5,000 ohms at room temperature(77 dgrs) / and 36 to 48,000 ohms at (0 dgrs).
If your readings are in those ranges, then replace the “mother board”.
GE refrigerator manual defrost test
With the refrigerator running, unplug it and remove the motherboard cover in the back. Locate the
power connector in the bottom, left. Pull the connector off the motherboard and put a wire jumper between the connector pins that mate with the motherboard pins labeled line and def. Plug in fridg.
If you now get defrost action in the freezer, you motherboard is probably bad.
If no defrost, you have either a bad defrost heater, or defrost thermostat.
In this way, you will be able to confirm which parts are bad.
[quote=richappy;373183]With the refrigerator running, unplug it and remove the motherboard cover in the back. Locate the power connector in the bottom, left. Pull the connector off the motherboard and put a wire jumper between the connector pins that mate with the motherboard pins labeled line and def. Plug in fridg.
If you now get defrost action in the freezer, you motherboard is probably bad.
If no defrost, you have either a bad defrost heater, or defrost thermostat.
In this way, you will be able to confirm which parts are bad.[/quote]
Richappy,
Thanks for the info.
It’ll come in handy for future reference.
You are welcome, I copied that from another site and added to the sticky “GE refrigerator (GSS* HSS*…” That sticky has a whole lot of valuable info for these refrigerators.
Hopefully, this info will help prevent people from ordering the motherboard by mistake without doing some tests proven to confirm which part is bad.
[quote=richappy;373475]You are welcome, I copied that from another site and added to the sticky “GE refrigerator (GSS* HSS*…” That sticky has a whole lot of valuable info for these refrigerators.
Hopefully, this info will help prevent people from ordering the motherboard by mistake without doing some tests proven to confirmation which part is bad.[/quote]
Correct,
That’s why I’ve kept your info as well.
Thanks,
It has been about a month since the refrigerator temperature started increasing and I had the repairman come out. Prior to him coming he asked me to use a hairdryer to defrost the coils inside the freezer panel and the refrigerator started working normal, but he said the coils would freeze back in a week, and tested the olms inside the freezer and said it was fine and thought it was probably the mother board but was not sure. I paid him for the service call, but decided to buy the part myself and waited to see what would happen. Now after a month the freezer coils froze and did not defrost on its own. Do you think I should buy a new mother board $150 or could it be something else?
I would also replace the defrost thermostat and evaporator thermistor, cheap enough. They can become intermittent, or cause partial defrost.
I purchased the Main Board WR55X10942 and step two of the installation instructions mentioned to (eliminate thermistor wire in pin 2 of J1 connector). I did not cut any wires at this time and wanted to share with you what the wires were in the J1 connector that has 9-pins available for connectors
Starting from left to right connector:
- has no wire
- half white and half yellow wire
- thick white wire
- gray wire
- half blue and half white wire that also jumps over to the #6 connector
- the half blue and half white that jumps from the #5 connector and the half blue and half white wire jumps to the #9 connector
- has no wire
- has no wire
- the half blue and half white wire that jumps from the #6 connector and the half blue and half white wire coming out
Should I cut the Yellow and White wire in connector 2 pin or can I leave it connected? Again, The #2 connector pin is associated with the Thermistor. What is that?
You cut off the J! pin 2 wire if the serial number letters of your fridg. are included in the list on the instruction sheet.
[COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]I cut the wire on pin 2 of the J1 connector and when I plugged the refrigerator in the possible sounds from the compressor and evaporator fan did not come on, so I wired the #2 pin back and the possible sounds from the compressor and evaporator fan started running. The temperature has not lowered and ice crystals have built up again on the lower back wall of the freezer. If the mother board was the fix, would the ice build up on the freezer coils melted?[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]I looked on [COLOR=#800080]www.appliancepartspros.com[/COLOR] and found the defrost thermostat part, but I did not see an exact part for the evaporator thermistor. [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]Model GSH25JSTASS[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]Serial FM206799[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]In the mean while I will do my routine blow drying of the coils [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings]J[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=‘Verdana’,‘sans-serif’]. [/FONT][/COLOR]
Replace both the defrost limiter AP3884317 and evaporator thermistor AP3884317
I have a local Appliance Parts Depot near where I live. To make sure I get the correct parts could you tell which part from www.**************.com as there were similar parts. Thank you in advance.
I think the website was not viewable so here it is again. APD - Appliance Parts Depot - please google the website. Thanks