GSE25GSHBCSS GE Fridge not cooling

[jonesfam0601]

Model Number

GSE25GSHBCSS

Brand

GE

Age

6-10 years

Good morning,

The fridge and freezer is not cooling, again. A member of the household mistakenly left the refrigerator slightly propped open due to a large container preventing it from closing, which wasn't discovered until we returned home from running errands. It was probably like this for about a good 3-4 hours. Once discovered, the temp on the panel was 20 freezer, 47 fridge. I closed it thinking in a few hours, the temps in both would go back to normal. I go to bed, and then wake up in the morning, nothing changed, the temps are still the same; 20 freezer, 47 fridge. I unplugged the unit, and plugged it back in.

Next, I saw that the evap coils in the freezer has frost on it. I hear the evap fan running.

What are my options and what should I look for?

Most recent work, replaced evap fan motor, main control board.

As always, thanks for the help.

 

[jonesfam0601]

Pics of the frost.

 

[jonesfam0601]

I was wondering if i just melted the frost on the coils that it would help.

 

[jonesfam0601]

Yesterday evening, unplugged the unit and I took a heat gun to the coils, i didn't remove the cover though. I let it sit an extra 30-45 min. Plugged it back in, it started to cool down, but it didn't get below 19Freezer and 53 fridge.

 

[jonesfam0601]

Evap coils still frosting up, frost is building up on the evap coil cover. My issue seems indicative of a bad defrost equipment, timer, heater etc.

 

[Jake]

You have 3 parts that control the auto defrost cycle, the motherboard, the evaporator thermistor, and the defrost heater.

You will need a Digital Multimeter to ohm test the defrost heater and evaporator thermistor.

So what we do is a process of elimination to determine the bad part. So you will want to unplug your refrigerator and ohm test the defrost heater first, but don't defrost it yet before testing it because if the heater checks good then you will need to ohm test the evaporator thermistor that's mounted on the top of your evaporator coil, and that needs to be covered in frost to ohm test that.

So take the food and shelves out of the freezer and remove the back panel inside the freezer, and test the defrost heater first, take the wires off before testing. Watch the video below to ohm test it, if that tests fine, then watch the video Shawn made to test your defrost thermistor. If both test fine, then your motherboard is the bad part.

Here's the evaporator thermistor for your model:
Thermistor WR55X10025


Watch this video below, Shawn explains how to test/replace the evaporator thermistor. Now in Shawn's video he explains how to test the evaporator thermistor from the motherboard pins, but YOUR model uses a different motherboard, so I don't know if the pins would be the same for yours or not. If not, then you will need to cut the evaporator thermistor wires off, don't cut to close to evaporator thermistor itself. Then put the evaporator thermistor is a glass of ice water, waiting at least 5 minutes, then ohm test it and it should read about 16.3k ohms.



Here's the defrost heater for your model:
Defrost Heater Assembly WR51X10055




Since you already replaced the motherboard, I doubt that would go bad so soon.

Here's the motherboard for your model, if needed:
WR55X24347 Board Main Asm

Let us know what you find.

 

[jonesfam0601]

Thanks, I'll get on this right away. I just replaced the main control board about two months ago, hopefully it's not bad, if so, I'll double check a warranty on it. Actually looked at it earlier to check to see if it had any burnt spots, and it did not.

 

[jonesfam0601]

Removed the evap coil cover, it had a sheet of ice on it, not just frost. I'm thinking there's no way any of the defrost components would work like that if they're covered in ice.

 

[jonesfam0601]

I removed the defrost heater, checked the terminals, and doesn't have any continuity. The good news is that the fridge temps are back to normal; I melted almost all of the ice/frost build up on the evap coils. I have a new defrost heater and thermistor coming today so I'll put those in. The ice build up is likely a result of the defrost heater not running?

 

[jonesfam0601]

That's what the evap coils looked like before I took my heat gun to it.

 

[Jake]

I removed the defrost heater, checked the terminals, and doesn't have any continuity.

Yes, then that's the bad part.

The ice build up is likely a result of the defrost heater not running?

That is correct.

Let us know how it goes when you get those parts installed, if the defrost heater shows no continuity, then that should be the only part you need, did you ohm test the evaporator thermistor?

 

[jonesfam0601]

Will do. I did not ohm test the evaporator thermistor, but I'm just going to replace it.

 

[Jake]

Ok, sounds good, keep us posted.