Refrigerator problem
 

Need some help ASAP! The freezer side of my fridge isn't working. Everything is defrosting even when I have the setting set at coldest.

Anyone have any ideas of what to do?

My fridge is one of the side by side fridge/freezer made by GE.

1)throw everything into refrigerator side
2)buy new fridge

Call a guy to get it fixed or get a new fridge.
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Open it up, and vacuum the cooling fins. Maybe clogged with dust. But probably the compressor is broken. If you are handy, open up the back if you can.

Yeah, I'm gonna open it up and see if anything is broken. Gonna do it after I eat some dinner.

Where is the fridge located?
maybe somethings wrong with your thermostat?
I have a fridge in the garage and when it's too cold outside it doesn't work properly because the thermostat doesn't sense a difference in temperature [between the air outside vs the freezer] so it never turns on the compressor to the freezer

your fridge is busted so buy a new one asap. The problematic side will probably cycle between working and not working so best bet will be to replace.

Inside your fridge, there is likely spout that gathers condensation.
Make sure it didn't ice up. Clean it out if necessary.

clearly you are confusing your priorities

I have another freezer to store stuff, that's why I'm doing it after dinner

Apparently, there's a lot of frosting inside the freezer for some reason. Is that even a good sign =/

Not sure. How was dinner?

Fridge rookies...

Get a screwdriver and take off the back panel from inside the freezer. There I suspect you will find your coils have frosted over, such that air cannot pass through the heat exchanger. No flow means no spreading of cold.

So if you have a spare fridge/freezer you can just leave it off for a day with a drip bucket. If you a in a rush, a hair dryer will hurry things up, but keep it moving, you don't want to melt any plastic parts (you can also pour hot water on it, but it's generally too wet and wild).

So, after defrosting the freezer, you could just slap it back together, and it would work for about 3 days before frosting over again. You need to find out why it is not defrosting itself. Three components plus wiring can be suspected: the 'motherboard', accessible from the outer rear; the thermostat/switch that clips onto the coils (a little round thing with two wires); or most likely, the defrost heater. Yes, fridges heat up the cooling coils when the thermostat senses it is too cold (frosting over).

The heating element looks a like a cylindrical light bulb; it probably has a blackened part of the glass, just like a blown light bulb.

If it's the heater, go to Mabe in Vancouver and buy a replacement kit. They sell the thermostats too. You can replace both for material cost less than a repairman would charge to look at it. Also much cheaper than a new fridge, until the compressor fails 6 months later. The heater is easy to install with a screwdriver, the wiring is plug in sockets. The thermostat will probably require some wire snipping, stripping and soldering, if you're into that (cover it with something watertight).

You'll need the model number of the fridge for the replacements, it should be on the upper right side of the fridge. If you unscrew the switch holder for the temp settings, you might find a circuit diagram and spare list inside.

Thanks DasHooch for the input. I let my freezer defrost over night and will take a look at it in the morning.

Is your refrigerator running?

could be clogged with ice (due to cracks in your ice tray; common ) so unplug the fridge, take everything outta ur freezer, get a blow dryer and put it over the vent where cold air is suppose to pass and melt all the ice or if u dont have a blowdryer just wait til everything melts

The defrost heater burnt out, need to go replace it.

from what you say, you've got a auto defrost issue.

evaporator is built up with ice, and not allowing air circulation.

how do you know the heater is burnt up? did you check it with a meter for continuity? i ever rarely see evap heater elements get burnt out.

yeah my fridges heating element went too.. Those damn glass bulbs are soo fragile.. I miss the old days when it was made of metal and invincible.. :D.. Either way weve already replaced it twice..

check to make sure the lines to the freezer are not frozen with ICE... i.e. where the COLD AIR BLOWS THROUGH to keep the freeze cold that its not rock solid.

I'm trying to replace the defrost heater, but my model part changed and uses a two tube defrost heater instead of the single one that was originally manufactured with. It's the correct part.

But I'm having trouble tying up the pink + blue wire with a wire nut, it keeps on falling off. And it says to seal it with silicon? Going to do some google search and see how other people dealt with this.

Before you google, have you had dinner yet?

No dinner yet :fullofwin:

If it is your better catch it

so what are you having for dinner tonight?:)