This isn’t really a construction question, but you’re the smartest guys I know, so here goes.
GE side by side refer/freezer, came with the house, probably 5-10 years old. 3 years ago it worked fine. A year ago we noticed that the refrigerator would freeze stuff that was on the top shelf in the back, on the right. Lately it’s freezing the produce in the lower drawers too.
I know jack about appliances, except how to size cabinets to fit around them. Is this a service issue? The coils on the back are enclosed and I have not looked at them. Other than that I can’t imagine what might be necessary. My wife wants to get a new one (partly due to the ergonomics of this one) but that might be hasty. What gives?
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Count your blessings, you now have a big freezer.
Same thing happened to me at one of my apartments. There is a thermostat type device inside the refrigerator that controls the compressor. If that dies, the compressor runs continuously and you get a frozen food section in the fridge. That could well be what your problem is.
Usually it's on the "ceiling" of the fridge compartment and will have a "dial" (actually there are usually two dials -- one is mechanical which controls air flow between the freezer compartment and the fridge side, the other is electromechanical controlling the compressor -- you want the one with wires connected to it) Unplug the fridge, take apart/remove whatever covers are on the thermostat, pay close attention to how it is mounted (there's often a thin metal capillary tube coming out of it that goes up between the fridge box and its insulation), and take it to your local appliance parts supplier (yellow pages) to get a new one. Put the new one back the same way the old one was.
Best of luck.
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It definitely doesn't freeze everything, and it isn't unusually cold in most parts of the refer. The water and milk don't freeze. In fact, the dial is set to a temp above the suggested point, and it still freezes stuff in certain areas.
You still need to rule out the thermostat.
Put a thermometer in there long enough to get a baseline reading. Turn the thermostat down a few notches and let it sit at least overnight. If you don't get a drop in temp, it's the thermostat. If you do get a temp drop, set the thermostat back where it was, and let it sit again.
Same test on the mechanical air flow thing (maybe it's blocked or something's wrong with it, or it's termostatically controlled in some way on your model). If that passes the test, and you still have frozen food in the fridge, you've gone beyond what I know about refrigerators.
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Have you tried adjusting the thermostat? They can get bumped, and sometimes a small change means the difference between cold milk and crunchy milk.
Thermostat is OK. Most stuff is at the right temp, especially the liquids. If anything they're a little warm. There are just a few spots that freeze, and one is the produce drawer.
I get that in my cheapie Roper fridge. Frozen lettuce is no good. There seems to be a fine balance between the freezer adjustment and the refridgerator adjustment. I don't know how the thermostat works for sure, but the freezer blows air into the refrigerator in the center top rear or the fridge. The thermostat may be reading the freezer temp or the fridge temp. The other knob controls the baffle between the units, if I'm right. If you get it just right you have good hard ice cream, and nice crisp lettuce.
Like you, I'm pretty clueless about appliances.
My side by side (GE), probably about the same vintage as yours, started doing a similar thing last summer (frozen lettuce, thawing in the freezer, fairly warm milk).
Called the service guy....little plastic fan in the top rear of the freezer section was stuck. No parts req'd....been fine since AND he showed me how to fix it next time.
Tuition? $40.
BTW, he told me when I made the initial call, "Do NOT unplug the refrigerator"....apparently it has some kind of a brain that flatlines if you unplug it, making trouble shooting more difficult if it's something more than what mine turned out to be.
Edited 3/12/2006 11:14 pm by Notchman
That makes sense.My 3 yo one appears to have several fans in it that it seems to run even when the compressor is not running.I am guessing that one will "steal" cold from the freezer if it is cold enough, but the refigerator needs cooling.
Had similar problem once with the freezer fan, stuck by ice; root cause was however a part failure of the automatic defrost timer, all OK after defrost timer fixed.
My advise which works 80% of the time is to defrost it manually.
Use up all the food, then shut it off (unplug it). As the temperature comes up to room temperature, be prepare to sponge up all the water and keep the doors cracked open.
Most likely an cold air passage is iced up.
reset the thermostat control...
button for that is under the mainadjustment knob...
do it with the refer UNPLUGED...
still freezes change the thermostat...
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I think I might know, pnly because we had a GE over/under back in about 94-96, boiught newe then for the rent we we living in...had same problem.
First, some background -
a combo unit usually works by using the compressor to make the air cold enough to freeze in the freezer, then vents that same air through to the refer space.
In ours, we learned the problem by called the 800 tech number for adcvice, which is probably what you should do before proceeding, to see if they have a service buletin out on your model.
In ours, there was a ventilation channel from back of freexer to back of refer. with freezer on top, the cold air was supposed to settle naturally, being heavier, into the refer. How much I think was controlled by a flapper door which was controlled by a ___?___I don't know.
But anyway, there was a problem with the way the auto defroster worked or drained, so that this vent gate would ice up regularly, say every six weeks. They had a fairly easy fix, though I'll be darnmed if I can remember what it was.
I'm thinking that there was a small ( 3/8"?) plastic drain line from the freezer defroster unit running down the back outside of the appliance into the drain pan underneath. Someplace where that drain line exited trough the wall of the dfreezer, it would ice up and get blockage, so the moisture would then spill into the vent gate and ice it up.
But ya know, my brain is awfull old so this might be nothing but a shortcircuited synapse on my end. call GE
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Make sure it also seals properly all the way around. It may be running constantly if it is letting cold air out, causing localized freezes.
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