GE Refrigerators

Well we have one of the GE side by side refrigerators that VM offers. I think it's standard refrigerator for the Parkside collection. Well it's about 2 years old now and over the weekend we started to notice things were not as cold as they should be. Then yesterday I got home from the store and was putting things away and the fridge was warm. The freezer was dripping water as it was warm as well. I checked the temps and the fridge was sitting at about 60 degrees and the freezer was at around 35 degrees. Way outside the 32-35 degrees for fridge and below 0 for freezer.

We normally keep the fridge and freezer at a cold setting of 5. I put it up to 9 (coldest setting) and the fridge seemed to kick back in. After running all night I put a thermometer in the fridge and it was reading about 28 degrees. Last night the freezer was reading 7 degrees before I moved the thermometer over. I suspect that it got a little colder in the freezer as well. I didn't think to check the freezer temp this morning.

I obviously need to re-adjust the temp for the fridge as it's to cold now. Has anyone else had a similar problem like this? Obviously the fridge still works as it did cool it when I changed the setting. This is very odd. If the thing truly is broken I'm thinking we should just get a better one cause this thing is CHEAP.

 

Sounds like the compressor

 

Our GE side by side (6 years old) did the same thing a month ago. We called one of the 24 h /7 day repair places ("AVC" rings a bell). They came out the same day (a Sunday) and replaced the defrost heater element in the evaporator. The evaporator is what makes the cold air in the freezer. The heater keeps it from clogging up with ice and frost. The refrigerator suffered first and then the freezer gets warmer. The part looks like: http://www.pcappliancerepair.com/cg...=WR49X392&cart_number=8666840_97432&brand=GEH

We paid $289 for the service call and the replacement of the heater and also the heater thermostat (apparently the next part to go). The repair man said that this is a common problem with the GE's. In fact, I met him in the driveway and as I told him the problem he said he knew what it was and grabbed the part before entering the house to look. Incidentally, he said all of the refrigerator brands have some problem that sneaks up after 5 years. I wonder if this is endemic to the builders grade. It was the first refrig repair we have ever had.

Good luck.

-Jim

 

Thanks for the info Jim and brim, If it is part of the evaporator then it might still be covered. The thermostat won't be though. If it is the compressor that should be covered as well.

 

Ours did the same thing w/in 2 weeks of moving in (we are the original owners so this was a brand new appliance). After two visits they fixed it..there was some plug or whatnot that hadn't been connected properly. And the circuit board was replaced twice.

No problems since BUT my fridge this morning is warm and there's water condensation everywhere. I'm thinking perhaps we didn't close the door all the way (you have to push it hard or it'll be cracked) overnight so hopefully it'll kick back in. If not, that's yet another GE appliance that sucks & needs replacing (our "upgraded" dishwasher is a POS too).

 

well our fridge is limping along right now. GE can't get out to look at it until friday. Right now on the coldest setting I've seen the refrigerator temperature range from 28 degrees to 45 degrees. This is without anyone opening the doors (external thermometer). The freezer ranges from -14 degrees to 7 degrees. To top it all of it's probably not covered under warrenty anymore.

Good luck with yourse JenTimC. I hope it's not doing the same thing ours is.

 

It will be Tuesday when they get to us. Sure hope the food doesn't rot. Why did we bother with an extended service contract I wonder? I want to replace both POS' now!!

Update: moved all the food to our backup fridge in the garage (thank goodness we have one!) Grrr

 

we had the same problem, ours started the problem when it was 9 months old. 2 things that could be wrong, clogged vents in the back or door alignment problem.

 

yea we unfortunatly don't have another fridge. We've been forced to start throwing things out. I've noticed that when the fridge is reading 50 degrees or more that when I open the door the panel that has the numbers on it does not come on. It is also very hot. I believe that when the thing dies that the panel heats up and that in turn heats up the fridge portion of the refrigerator. The freezer seems to loose it's temperature much more slowly. All I have to do is hit the module until the lights come back on and then the refrigerator comes back to life for another 6-8 hours lol. Either way the repair man is coming out tomorrow.

 

Well it's working again. I know we have a door issue which maybe what started the warm down but after that, it didn't even sound like it was running for at least a day. It'll get checked Tuesday so until then we're living in the garage I know GE will reimburse you up to $100 per episode (we've used that nifty clause twice in the past).

 

And which clause is this and where can I find this clause

 

When I had called the first time to schedule service, I complained about the fact that my food spoiled & did they have anything to reimburse and I was told that you can get $100 (you'll have to send them a receipt - I sent a copy of mine w/highlighted fridge/freezer foods & it equaled over $100) for each "instance" of spoilage..probably based on what the GE technician finds too!

 

I'm considering a new fridge - one that doesn't stick out into the kitchen six inches. You can bet I won't be buying a GE after reading this. AND...I think I'll start some serious looking as my current one (came with the house, GE) is 6½ years old now...sounds like borrowed time....

Dawne

 

Well the GE Guy came out and found 2 issues. One was kind of a side effect. The door had somehow slide down a bit. It was not causing the temperature problem. What it was doing though was not shutting off the lights inside when the door was shut. So it basically made the issue worse by heating up the fridge when the thing cut out. He also found the control board to be bad. So he adjusted the door and replaced the control board with a new one (apparently it has new software as well). Total cost was $150 for the repair. He did not charge me for the control board.

Good luck on tuesday JenTimC

 

It ended up being the easy for him to fix door alignment issue. Basically when it doesn't close all the way (usually unnoticed by us) everything then gets warm & it just takes a long time to kick back in. He fixed the door so it will close all the way on it's own (like it used to do). So no major issues but it was a pain anyway