My fridge is breaking down before a holiday weekend and I am having trouble finding someone to fix it. Hopefully, someone can help me out.

First of all its a 3yr old GE. Not sure if there is a warranty still in effect and my landlord is off on a cruise in the Carribbean so I can't check with him.

The bottom (fridge section) is not maintaining its temp. The freezer part seems to be working fine. A couple of weeks ago I had the same issue and cleaned everything out of the fridge as well as the freezer. It quickly returned to the proper temps. Because it held a proper temp I assumed that something may of been blocking the circulation. I replaced the contents of the fridge and some of what was in the freezer. I was careful to not block the circulation. I also vacumned the coils and lower vents in the front and rear if the unit. Things were fine until 2 days ago when I noticed my thermometer was reading higher than it should (50 degrees ) in the fridge section. I put the freezer and fridge temps to max cold and waited to see if there was a change. Temp in fridge still reads around 50 degrees after a 24 hr period with mininmal opening of the door.

Basically, is it possible for the fridge to die while the freezer continues to perform as it should? I'm getting -8 readings on 2 different digital therms for the freezer. That is lower than I normally run it...I did turn it to max cool.

Any ideas on what it may be? Can a fairly handy person fix it or do I need a pro?

thanks in advance folks and enjoy your weekend!

 

I don't know much about reefers other than the 48' ones but here goes. The fridge uses a coolant like your car a/c uses (not sure of the type) and it cools by being compressed and then being pushed through the cooling tubes through the fridge case. I don't know how the temp is regulated between the freezer (maybe coolant is more compressed?) and fridge, but if it isn't cooling, the system is low on coolant (needs charged) or the compressor is going out, or there is a leak in the system. Good luck, and yes, you can fix it yourself.

 

This same thing happened to my fridge. Do you have vents (holes) in the top of the refrigerator? The way mine works, is the freezer circulates cold air through vents that go down through the bottom part of the refrigerator. My drain for the coils on the back of the freezer got froze up, so when the coil would drain, it would drain towards the vents. Eventually, the vents were full of ice, so no cold air could get down to the refrigerator. I had to tear the freezer apart and defrost everything, then had fun getting the ice out of the drain.

 

Try this link to trouble shoot your problem

http://www.appliancestuff.com/refrigerator.html

 

What 92f150 said is probably correct. I'd take all the stuff out again and use hot water with a wet-dry vac to defrost everything real good. Also make sure your coils aren't freezing up, but if the freezer is working good I wouldn't suspect that. Good luck with it.

 

Mine circulates the same way. Did they refreeze after the big thaw?



thanks lcampbell, I'll keep that low coolant info in mind.

 

It hasn't happened since I defrosted it, probably about 3 months ago. I bet you have the same problem, my fridge was 2 years old when it happened to me, so it will probably be ok for another 2 years!

 

Thanks Weadjust. I'w printing this and sticking it to the side of my fridge. Good stuff!!

 

agreed.

Thanks folks. I have my afternoon cut out for me.

 

Hmmmm....At 3 yrs old, that GE fridge should not be having problems. Cleaning the coils is definately a good maintenance step. Is it a frost free fridge? If so, then no manual intervention should be needed for proper defrosting of any accumated Ice in the freezer coils. Is the fridge door being opened often or for extended periods of time? Have you checked the top, bottom and side magnetic seals on the door for proper fit and that they sit flush with the fridge body? Have you consulted your users manual? I had a similar problem with my fridge(don't remember the namebrand right now) and we adjusted both the top and bottom settings everywhich way and it did not help. I finally looked into my manual and it stated to never jump settings and only gradually adjust settings one step at a time. I started back on the 2nd to highest temp settings on the fridge and let it stabilize overnight. Then the next day I took it down to the next coldest setting, and the next afternoon did it to the next preferred setting and that worked. Good luck. You might want to check the GE website for any appliance FAQ's. Happy Fourth! Hope you get it working soon.

 

A few more thoughts...

Are there independent controls for the fridge & freezer? If so, the t-stat for the fright may have failed open.

Can you hear the evaporator fan(s) running? Some units have a fan for each compartment & if the unit fails, there will be insuffiecent air circ to maintain temp, but only in the affected compartment.


Hope you resolve your problem.

 

If your freezer is down to -8 then your refridgeration system is fine. But, you are not getting any cooled air down to the refridgerator section. you should have two controls, one to set the temp with and the other is more or less a diverter control. you turn one way for colder freezer and the other for warmer freezer. what it does is divert more or less childed air into the refridgerator. That air passage is definatly blocked. Since the the other dial is the thermostate it thinks the refridgerator is not cold enough and keeping the compressor on all the time there for your freezer is at -8 deg. F. All of the childed air is staying in the freezer compartment. In addition to checking for that blocked or iced over vent between the freezer and refer part check the the other control (the one with letters) it may have become blocked too.All the dial does is rotate the air control diverter.
Good luck