Thread: [FIXED] GE side by side fridge side not cold

Jack,
to tell you truth, it will be easier to fix it myself, than keep calling those iditos another one came, and again: motherboard and something else.
uhh... will try to get in myself to measure ohms on the lamp.

thank you for your help.

Yes, I agree, yes, you could do it yourself and fix it right just with some testing.

Keep us posted on the outcome.

Jake

Hi all,
I am new to this forum and one of the first threads caught my attention to similar issues I am having so would like to chime in here with my problems.

I too have a GE side by side with sub par cooling in the refrigerator so is this a common issue with their products? I have owned several GE refrigerators over the years and this is the first one that does not perform well.

I recently moved and bought this unit brand new about 3 months ago. It is a PSH25PSWA side by side with an LCD control panel. I set the refrigerator for the maximum of 34 degrees and the coldest reading I get inside is 39 degrees using a Taylor refrigerator/freezer thermometer. The LCD display indicates the temp is 33-34 degrees which makes me wonder where this is measured.

I have had milk products not making it to the date code on the containers and was blaming the milk companies for this issue when in fact it would seem to be the fridge is at blame. The temp reading on the only shelf that milk containers will fit is 45 degrees!

This refrigerator is in a climate controlled house where the ambient temperature is around 72 degrees. I have a new Kenmore stand alone refrigerator in my garage that only cost around $400 and it shows a temp of 39 degrees and my garage is far warmer than 73 degrees right now. On older GE refrigerators, I had to be careful where to set the controls or I would be freezing food in the refrigerator side so what's up with this very expensive newer model?

Obviously, this unit is still under GE warrantee and I will be calling them out to diagnose this issue, but from what I am reading here, there seems to be some on going problems.

Would you all recommend an extended warrantee on these new refrigerators?

Thanks in advance,
Bob

Yes, I would recommend getting the extended warranty on this model, and basically on all models that are electronically controlled.

Jake

PSI23SGNBS Side x Side Refrig: Power went out on frig.Temps on elec. thermostat were found to be over 60 in Frig. and over 50 on Freezer side, icemaker kept trying to make ice, resulting in 100s of gallons of water spilling out of unit onto floor, out into dining area (hardwoods) and below:
no one home for 3 days: you can guess the rest: insurance adjuster says it could be over 25k for repairs : water downstairs through floors, carpet and sheetrock ruined, new kitchen cork flooring ruined: Now for the good part: GE tech came out and asked questions (which owner's elderly Mother apparently couldn't answer fast enough) so he said After complaining to GE consumer svcx. a different tech came out and replaced the motherboard and it seems to be OK...
The adjuster mentioned a company called Diversified Product Inspections, which keeps a data base on all these product failures. Is this information available to consumers or only insurance people?

What should the owner do here? Trust GE or cut the water off to the Refrig. every time they leave the house?????

Gentlemen, I have been following this thread and learned some good information. I could use some advice on a similar problem with a GE side by side refrigerator (model# GSS25UFMBBB).

Several weeks ago I noticed the fresh side was getting quite warm and traced it to a frozen over evaporater coil. I visually inspected the defrost heater and ohmed it out to 22ohms which would seem to indicate a good coil. I defrosted it and put it all back together and hoped it was a one time occurrence.

Today, the same thing happened. I replaced the defrost thermostat and it turned out that was a good thermostat anyway. My particular GE thermostat is just a high limit one there for safety because it has a thermistor clipped on the evaporater coil that it senses the evaporator coil temp with. I removed the evaporator thermistor and it appears to be good. It measured around 6K at room temp, and went up to over 13K when I put it in a cup of ice water which leads me to believe it is good. There's no way I can be certain as I don't have the table that correlates ohmic value to temperature for this particular thermistor (NTC).

The only thing left is the adaptive control board or something very unlikely like a bad wire harness. I know it is going to freeze again since I have not replaced any failed component yet so would you recommed going ahead and replacing the board? Does anyone here know how to force a GE side by side into defrost mode? My model is a GSS25UFMBBB model. Thanks.

One more thing. When I opened my GE dryer up for a repair once, it had a sheet inside with common repair part numbers, a schematic, and a diagnostic flowchart. Do they put these in refrigerators and where would it be?

Man this site rules. I spend some time searching some other threads and found the class action lawsuit for certain GE side by side models. I called GE up and sure enough, my fridge was one of the effected models. I asked the lady at the call center if the control board was one of the parts covered and she said it was not but the heater was. They scheduled a tech to come look at it next week on their dime so if I'm lucky he'll be able to pinpoint my problem. At the least maybe he can explain to me how to do some of the diagnosis functions on the control board like forcing the system into defrost mode. I'll let you guys know what happens.

Originally Posted by MtMama

PSI23SGNBS Side x Side Refrig: Power went out on frig.Temps on elec. thermostat were found to be over 60 in Frig. and over 50 on Freezer side, ice maker kept trying to make ice, resulting in 100s of gallons of water spilling out of unit onto floor, out into dining area (hardwoods) and below:

no one home for 3 days: you can guess the rest: insurance adjuster says it could be over 25k for repairs : water downstairs through floors, carpet and sheet rock ruined, new kitchen cork flooring ruined: Now for the good part: GE tech came out and asked questions (which owner's elderly Mother apparently couldn't answer fast enough) so he said After complaining to GE consumer svcx. a different tech came out and replaced the motherboard and it seems to be OK...
The adjuster mentioned a company called Diversified Product Inspections, which keeps a data base on all these product failures. Is this information available to consumers or only insurance people?

What should the owner do here? Trust GE or cut the water off to the Refrig. every time they leave the house?????

I don't have any information on Diversified Product Inspections that I can give you, sorry.

If its working good again, then you don't have to turn the water off to your refrig. every time they leave the house.

Jake