I’ve got a 5-6 year old GE side by side. 2 days ago, I noticed the food in the crispers at the bottom were frozen. Nothing above the crispers is freezing.
Got something out of the freezer side last night and the stuff on the top shelf was starting to thaw. I adjusted the freezer to the lowest setting and turned the fridge side up one notch. No change this AM. Any ideas?
“Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. “- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Replies
DW the scientist says you likely have some frost buildup that's causing an erroneous thermostat reading.
Her recommendation was to unplug it, let all of the frost scale melt off and see what happens. If that doesn't fix it, you may have a bad thermostat.
Thanks, Steve.
I don't see any frost anywhere, except the ice maker had a big chunk in it. I dumped it out. The thawing is going on above the icemaker. I've got a great appliance guy, but he stays incredibly busy. I'll call him later in the day if this doesn't work.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Sorry, I should have described that better. Her thought was more that the coils and the guts of the fridge/freezer had a build up of frost, not the interior walls or anything like that. So you probably wouldn't see anything amiss when you opened the doors.Me? I would have thought the thermostat was bad. But she sounded pretty sure that unplugging it for long enough to get the coils, etc. defrosted would take care of it.Keep me posted.
'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
After I dug everything out, there was some frost on the surface of the coil housing, so I'm hoping the thaw out will do the trick. Doesn't look like the air intake has been cleaned since we've had the thing either. Don't look at me - I do the cooking, not the cleaning.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
We have the same fridge. If you block the fan it will do that. Had the" guy " out and it was jammed too full according to him.
YMMV
BTW, things like Icecream and Frozen OJ with a lot of sugar don't freeze as hard as other foodstuffs, and may present a false thaw situation. Compare Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream to Breyers, the more airy and sugaray Breyers will always be semi soft, the more dense Band J, heavy on the fat and cream will be harder.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Ice cream is really strange stuff. If you want scoopable icecream then it is better to store the stuff in the freezer door which is slightly warmer than inside the freezer.(at least it has a better chance of being scoopable) As an example: icecream might be soft at 24F but solid at 22F.
A refrigerator freezer doesn't get anywhere near as cold as a chest freezer. A refrigerator is trying to do several functions whereas a stand-alone freezers job is very simple.
roger
"some frost on the surface of the coil housing"Yes, that's what I had, and it indicates a coil thoroughly covered in ice. When the auto defrost cycle keeps up with the light frosting of the coils, the cover stays at the temp of the freezer contents. When there is solid ice connecting it to the coils, the surface temp is a lot closer to that of the refrigerant evaporating inside, so it begins to frost up as well. You've got a long defrost to wait out, like all day with the door open, and assuming you've turned off the 'fridge. Have the wife unscrew the cover and use her hair dryer on the thing. Keep a sponge and bucket handy.Now, if this solves the problem, keep eyeballing that cover for a few weeks. If it stays frost-free, then it may be just that the door was ajar for a while in humid weather, or maybe someone put an uncovered bowl of hot soup in there. If the thing chokes with ice again, it could be the defrost timer has gone.
Edited 1/18/2008 11:35 am ET by DickRussell
Had a similar problem with our GE. Defrost cycle was not working, coil built up ice, but the fridge got too warm as the freezer got colder and colder. The $$$$ control board had to be replaced, after two tries. Seems alot of people are having quality issues with their GE made refrigerators. And there is always a problem with poorly trained service techs.
On two occasions my side by side has built up so much ice in the evaporator section that not much chilling was going on. The air couldn't circulate past the coils. Both times it was summer, and I think something kept the door from closing tightly. So it tried to dehumidify the summer air, humidity and all, and freezing whatever it condensed. The auto defrost cycle couldn't handle that much "frost" (about two inches of ice).
In the interests of time and saving food, I emptied the freezer, partly into the fresh food side and the rest to a cooler. I unscrewed the cover over the evaporator coils and used my wife's hair dryer to do a power defrost op. Every so often now I do a visual check of the bottom of the evaporator coils, through the slits that pass air moved by the little fan down there.
After rereading your description, I wonder if you have a fan problem. There should be a fan that moves air in the freezer side past the coil, to improve the performance of the coil and to circulate cold air thru the compartment. There also should be circulation between freezer and the fresh food side, top and bottom openings. Stuff to check. Not sure, but I think flow to the fresh food side is by fan, top to bottom. If no fan motion, and natural convective flow is heavy cold air into the bottom, that would account for the frozen crispers, and maybe the softening at the top of the freezer side as well.
Edited 1/18/2008 7:51 am ET by DickRussell
Thanks, guys. I'll take a look.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Did the fan suddenly get a lot quieter?
In the freezer compartment, after you remove the ice maker and a hundred other pieces, there's a Panasonic fan with an enormously long and unstable shaft. First the bearings go out on the shaft and it gets noisy, then the bearings go all the way out and it gets real quiet. This happens around 5 years of age.
New fan motor is something like $75. Removal/replacement is a several hour project the first time through, probably an hour for a pro.
If it's not the fan motor it's likely the electronic drive for the fan. Dunno what that costs or where it is, but it couldn't be any harder to replace.
Thanks - I haven't noticed any change in the sound. Afterwhile, I'm going to put the food outside and unplug it for a while and see if that helps before I call the appliance guy. I can spend two days on it and still not get it fixed.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Try to find out if the fan is blowing any air.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
Google "appliance repair". You will find some parts dealers have excellent diagnostic sections for DIY ers. They also have schematics for various models which show the parts and give you an idea of how to replace them.
OK. Thanks to you guys, I'm up and running again.
The fan is working fine - I took the vent panel off the back where I could see it and cleaned around it.
The coil was iced up solid. I had to go to two site meetings this AM so I left it sitting unplugged for about 4 hours. No sign of water dripping out when I got back. Finally figured out how to get the coil cover off and lo & behold, the coil was completely iced. Took over an hour with a hairdryer to thaw it.
Just got it dried out and plugged back up. Everything seems to be working fine. Fortunately the temp has stayed below freezing today, so my deck is working for a temporary fridge.
http://grantlogan.net/
Did Gunner buy lunch?
Did Gunner buy lunch?
Nah. He tried to, but I didn't have the hour to drive each way today.
http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Man, you realize I'm going to have to report back to DW that she was right?? LOLGlad to hear it's fixed.'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
Man, you realize I'm going to have to report back to DW that she was right??
Well, don't give her too much credit yet. I'm suspecting I just treated the symptom, not the disease. I'll keep you posted.
http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
Way to weasel !! roflmao
;-)
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
One of my all-time favorite Simpsons lines seems appropriate here:"Don't discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel."'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb
I wasn't attempting to discourage him, quite the contrary I was applauding his "Weasel". It truly was a good one. LOL
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
If this is the type with a freezer drawer on the bottom and a two-door refrigerator on top, the refrigerator portion is cooled by a fan which brings air up from the freezer. If the freezer works and the refrigerator does not cool, then the fan is not working.
It's a side by side - no drawers. It's working again, but the question is will the coil re-ice.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
The coil will ice up again but it may take a while. There is a timer which turns on the defrost heater a couple times a day. It may be broken or the heating element is not working. The timer is simple to replace so you might want to check it out. I replaced the defrost element in a refrigerator last year. It was pretty easy actually.
I want to qualify this - Older refrigerators had a timer - I assume the newer ones do also.
new ones have a control board at $250 a pop
Ouch!
Of course it will freeze up again.
Basically what happens is that the coil is in the freezer and air is blown or sucked across the coils. Some of that air is bypassed into the fridge. The cold control sensor is in the fridge even though the knob could be in the freezer. Temperature in the fridge is fairly critical say 40-45F where the temp in the freezer really doesn't matter a whole lot as long as everything remains solid. Freezer temps when all is working okay is about 10F but it can vary greatly.
The freezer coils are probably about -20F and with the fridge door constantly opening moisture gets in a the coils frost up. As the coils frost up the frost insulates the coils so the temp coming off the coils begin to rise. Normally you wouldn't notice any differrence in temp as the coils frost up.
These coils are defrosted by electric heaters that glow red hot (and I mean red hot) which are controlled by a plug-in type timer. In series with the heater is a small defrost thermostat that kills power to the heater if things get too hot. As an example: the timer might alot 20 minutes to the heaters but if the coils are only lightly frosted 20 minutes might be too much and the whole freezer starts to warm up and you don't want that so the defrost t'stat kills the heater for the remainder of the time alotted by the timer.
Plugged coils are very common and the most common cause is the defrost circuit which contains the time, heater(s) and defrost t stat. One of which isn't working.
A faulty fan can cause similar problems but not really the same.
A leak in the refrigerant can give you coils that are plugged only on the top but looks like a defrost problem.
All in all, it will happen again within a couple of weeks this time of year (less than a week in the summer). My bets are in the defrost circuit. Takes less than 5 minutes to see if it is the timer or not..................if you have the tools and know how:)
roger
My bets are in the defrost circuit. Takes less than 5 minutes to see if it is the timer or not..................if you have the tools and know how:)
Yeah, i figured the fix was temporary. I don't have either the tools, the know how or the time to fix it. But, I've bought myself enough time to get my appliance guy here next week and I didn't lose my food. Thanks for the info.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
"These coils are defrosted by electric heaters that glow red hot (and I mean red hot) which are controlled by a plug-in type timer."Not all of them.The Energy Star models uses more logic to determine the time to defrost.I have a 3 YO GE side by side. Defrost and other functions are controlled by a microprocessor.But in my case it was the heating element.Easily seen by how dark it was..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yes, good point. I have a fairly new fridge and it still has a plug in timer but am aware that some models do have circuit boards and thermisters that sense temperatures.
Years ago some fridges used a reversing valve(like a heat pump) that pumped hot highside refrigerant into the evaporator and defrosted it. Very simple idea but the reversing valve always caused problems.
A very simple fridge, with a little(shoe box size) or no freezer, was called a cold plate system that had no timer, no heater and rarely had a fan. Excellent system as long as you only wanted a fridge.
We (me and the wife) are starting to, or at least trying to shop more European in that rather than storing 6 months of food in the cupboards and freezer we are starting to shop more often. In actuality it isn't really more often because even with tons of food we already have we still shop for food almost every day. I'd rather have the stores warehouse the food and we buy fresher daily. Just think how much smaller a kitchen could be if we only stored essentials.
roger
Had my Maytag french door style ice up twice lately. Older fridges went through a defrost cycle determined by a timer. Newer computer types monitor compressor cycles and whatnot. I did the thing with the hairdryer. Got a factory manual from an online place for $ 22. Found out I could get it to defrost manually by holding down both light switches and toggling down (or was it up? ) the button for fridge temp. They have all sorts of diagnostics built in.
Keith
When the frig goes into the defrost cycle the heater warms the coil area that is covered with frost crystals. The frost melts and drops into a catch pan which has a drain tube that leads to through the bottom of the freezer and empties the water into an evaporation tray underneath the fridge.
"Crud" from the cooling coil will often collect in that tube and slow the water down. The water that is trapped in the catch tray in the freezer then freezes when the defrost cycle finishes.
Over several days-weeks of defrost cycle the ice continues to build its way up the cooling coil thus restricting the flow of air over the coil and effecting the the coolness of the refrigerator and freezer areas.
To forego another glacier in your freezer,unplug & unload the freezer, remove the coil cover and check out the catch pan. If ice has already begun to accummulate thaw it out with the hair dryer. Then take a 36" piece of THN 12 copper wire (or some other flexible wire type material) and gently "roto-root" the drain hose.
Check the evaporate tray for results and be sure to clean the tray and the exit end of the hose.
If the glacier comes back ....then you have the need of a service tech to check out what piece of the frig's technology is kaputzz!
................Iron Helix
Thanks guys. I was checking out how the drain worked while I thawed the coils. It seemed to be working, but I'll check it if/when this happens again.http://grantlogan.net/
"Because I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat. "- Unidentified Indian Immigrant when asked why he wants to come to America
One other thing -- never expect the drain pan to be big enough to handle a complete defrost. You need to mop up the bulk of the water somehow before it hits the pan, or you'll end up with a lake under the fridge.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
True, while the immediate problem is fixed, the cause remains unknown. It could well be one of the parts mentioned in above replies. On the other hand, all it would take is something bulky on a freezer side shelf keeping the door from closing tightly, and going unnoticed for part of a day in humid weather to result in enough ice to clog the coils to the point where the defrost cycle won't handle it.We've had this happen twice on a Sears Kenmore (made by Whirlpool?) 25 cuft side by side. Both times were in summer humidity. Last one was six months ago, and the hairdryer handled it easily. And, yes, it took me about an hour each time, too. It seems to be fine. If I slide out the frozen veggies tray at the bottom, I can look through the slits at the bottom of the cover over the panel over the coil assembly and see the bottom coils. So far they have been frost-free.I can't say that a not-quite-closed door caused the problem each time. However, since the coils have remained clean since the summer, plus the fact that on occasion the door has indeed been kept slightly opened while at first glance looking closed, I am inclined to suspect that an open door did cause the situation both times. I'll keep a close watch on it this summer.Since your unit seems to be working for now, you might hold off on an expensive service call until the problem shows up again. Maybe there's a problem, and maybe not. My two cents.