Unit wasn’t getting cold enough. found that the motor/fan assy was barely turning replaced the control board, and now the fan is spinning fine, but the freezer is only going down to 6 degrees and the refrigerator is at 45 and will not get any colder regardless of temp setting. could the sensors be bad, too? or what should my next step be to troubleshoot? can’t find a service manual for this model. any suggestions??
[FONT=‘Times New Roman’][COLOR=#000000]Sometimes when the fan is not running or is running slow a thick layer of frost will build up on the top of the evaporator coils blocking airflow. If this is the case remove the frost and the problem will be fixed. Refrigerator Not Cooling Repair Guide[/COLOR][/FONT]
thanks for the tips. will look at the coils and see if there is ice build-up. hopefully that will solve the problem
There was ice build-up. took a heat gun and melted the ice. both the freezer and refrig got cool for a while but temp rose up again. still can hear the fans running and can feel the air circulating. picked up 2 temp sensors, and will replace them tonight and hope that does the trick. any other things I should check, before I have to make a call to the service center? the tech wanted $75.00 to come out and “defrost” the unit with no guarantees that it would do the trick
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Was the ice build up all over the coils just part of the coils? [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Was the ice build up enough to block airflow? [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]When it stopped working for the second time was ice built up again? [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Let me know and I will help you as much as possible. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
My daughter called a service tech, since she didn’t want to wait for me to get to her place to fix the refrig. the service tech defrosted the ice from the coils, but when I looked at them, I found the temp sensor was surrounded by ice. seems that the service tech melted all the ice from the coils, except for the ice that the sensor was surrounded by. plus it looks like the service tech tie wrapped the sensor to the top of the evaporator, since the tie wrap wasn’t cut or trimmed. Now both the freezer and refrig are around 50 degrees. Is there a certain place that the temp sensor is supposed to be mounted to on this model? I was going to replace the sensor, but should I just splice it into the existing wires that are there or shound I feed the wires thru the unit’s rear panel and connect the wires directly to the connector?
here’s an update on this unit. displayed temp of freezer is 47, displayed temp of refrigerator section is 57. has airflow circulation in freezer compartment, so temp is getting cooler but not cold enough in either compartment.
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Give it some time the service tech had the doors open and it wasn’t cooling to start with. However did he just melt the ice and say it’s fixed? Or did he say anything about changing a part? Using a tie to put the sensor on the evaporator is ok most of the time it is held on with a metal clip. All the ice needs to be removed if he left some remove it. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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he just melted the ice build-up and said that it was fixed.didn’t say that it could be other problems
when I got there, the temp of the fridge and freezer were 65. I removed the back panel in the freezer and melted the remaining ice. let it run overnight. called my daughter and now the temp of the freezer is 47 and the refridge is 57
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Oh ok I thought he worked on it today sorry. You can try the sensor and yes just splice it into the existing wire. You removed all the ice three days ago correct? Now it is iced up again. It is icing up too quickly for me to believe it is a defrost problem. You need to check the door gasket on the fresh food and freezer doors. Also make sure the door isn’t being left open for any reason. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]With that being said you are saying it is not work even with the ice off the coils correct? Or did the ice return overnight? If ice is back on the coils overnight air is getting into the refrigerator somewhere. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]The fan is running right? Sometimes the fan will cause the main board to go bad. If this is the case the old fan may have caused the new board to go bad. But I wouldn’t suspect that unless the fan wasn’t working. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Post what you find. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Another thing to think about is that the service tech should (don’t know it he will or not) come back without another trip charge if it is not fixed. I know if I work on anything and it is not fixed I have to go back free of charge. I am not talking about parts I am just talking about the $75 trip charge. I don’t know about other service companies but this is the way we have always done business. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
I looked at the coils and the only place that had any ice was around the sensor. I thought that maybe the tech didn’t melt that portion of the coil.
the rest of the coils were ice free. this was 1 day after the tech had come out. do you happen to know which connector and pins are the ones for the sensor on the control board? and does anyone know if the service manual is available for this model? can’t seem to find it anywhere
thanks for all your time and help
[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Times New Roman]There should be a set of pins marked J1. On these set of pins the sensor that goes on the evaporator is on pin 4 and pin 5 counting from the left. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[COLOR=#000000][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]You probably won’t find a service manual for this refrigerator. Only GE service techs have them for the most part. [/FONT][/SIZE]
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[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]Just to be sure we are on the same page when I say iced up I and talking about thick ice that would block airflow not a thin film. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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Refrigerator repair guide
the ice that I saw that was left was about 1/4" thick on the right corner of the coil where the sensor and power connectors were. couldn’t say how much ice was on the coils before, since the service tech had melted it away before I could see how much there was. If the service tech didn’t move the sensor before he melted the ice, could the sensor have gotten fubar’d from excessive heat??
why dose it frezze up is there a reason i just replace the mother board because the ice won’t come out the door and now ice comes out the door and temp wouldn’t even get cold ???
here’s the latest update. spoke with my daughter, and she said that all the service tech did was take the trays and door off of the unit and melted the ice on the rear wall of the freezer. He didn’t even take off the rear panel to check the evap coils or anything. when I removed the rear panel, the only ice build-up that I saw was in the right corner where the connector and the sensor were mounted. now it looks like I’m back to step 1. don’t know if I want to even bother calling the service tech back, since that is all he did the first time for $75.00
[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000]I think we need to know if it is refrigerating properly. The compressor should run almost continuously if it is not cooling. If not you may have a problem with that. Let it run for a while, then remove the evaporator cover with it still running. On the coils you should see a thin film of frost (not thick ice) on the entire coils. If the frost line doesn’t cover the entire coils you might have a refrigeration problem. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Times New Roman]I don’t think the sensor got damaged from the heat. It is very uncommon for these sensors to go bad to start with although GE did have one bad run of them. With that being said sensors are not expensive or hard to install so you might want to try it. Hopefully it will fix your problem. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
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[SIZE=3][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Times New Roman]As for the service tech he may be good at repairing appliances and he may not be I can’t say but I can say that if I work on something and I don’t fix it I want the costumer to let me know. In a perfect world I would repair everything on the first trip but it doesn’t happen. The percentage of callbacks I get is low but I get some and as I said before I go back free of charge. I can’t speak for the tech that worked for you but you did pay him to fix or at the very least diagnose the problem. I think he owes it to you to come back (although he may not think so). I am not saying that if he comes back and spends two hours repairing the refrigerator or makes other trips that you wouldn’t owe him anything I am just saying that he should stand behind his work. [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE]
I’ll try replacing the sensors and see if that fixes the problem since I picked up 2 of them when I picked up the control board. The guy at the store where I bought the parts gave me a name of a service tech who he says will definitely stand behind his work. might try him if I can’t fix the problem
Finally got a chance to look at the unit. Pulled the evaporator cover, and ther was ice only in the right corner where the sensor and wiring harness is located. there was no ice at all on the evaporator coils. both the compressor and evaporator fans are running, and there is air flow in the freezer. looks like I have a refrigeration problem, which hopefully should be under warranty. At least I did replace a bad control board. I put the old one back in and neither fan ran, so I put the new one back in and now at least both fans are running