We have a bottom mount refrigerator that burned out its overload relay in April (one month after the 5 yr. compressor warranty). I replaced the relay and the refrigerator began working again.

A few days later, the refrigerator stopped cooling well enough; the FF rose to 60F and the freezer to 45F.

We emptied it, and bought a temporary 2nd refrigerator while I planned to fix this one myself.

I plugged it in again, and after 24hrs, the freezer slowly got down to 20F and the FF to 37F. I turned the freezer temp control down, and the temp in the freezer shot up to 50F and the FF warmed up as well.

I pulled the evaporator coil access panel, and the coils are only 50F, but there is ice on the inlet (I believe) of the coil Here are two pictures of the area:





Thanks in advance!

Hi,

Sounds and looks like you have a sealed system/compressor problem. Your freezer should be getting colder than 20 degrees.

Normal is 0-10 degrees for all freezers.

Jake

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Thanks, Jake.

It almost seems like the refrigerant is trying to run backward through the evaporator coil orifice. That's the only explanation I can think of for icing on the line but a warm coil. Have you ever heard of this?

The appliance parts place sold me a GE replacement part as the overload relay & capacitor. This is probably a stupid question, but is it possible for the compressor to push refrigerant backward?

I've seen it happen once on a GE refrigerator, but it would be extremely hot in the freezer if yours was pushing the refrigerant backwards.

Jake

__________________
Appliance Repair School 1987-1988
Star Appliance Tech. 2 yrs. 1988-1990
Wards Appliance Tech. 11 yrs. 1990-2001
Sears Appliance Tech. 4 yrs. 2001-Oct. 2005
Jake's Appliance Repair Nov. 2005-present

If you need more repair advice help on your appliance, click Here

Look-Up & Order Parts

Shop Home Appliances