My problem started about 2 years ago, the freezer temperature started creeping up when it was hot outside. We put a freestanding fan blowing on the back (at the bottom) and all was well. In the winter, the fan wasn’t needed.
This summer, however, the fan wasn’t working any longer and the freezer started to overheat again. Eventually, the fridge section started to creep up and it quit cooling altogether. I checked the fan inside the unit and it was blowing rather slow. It sat for a few months and I then replaced the mother board. With the new mother board, the fan is now spinning well but after running all night, the temps never came down, both fridge and freezer read 73 degrees.
What should i check / replace next? Thanks for your help!
In my sticky above " replacing GE fridg motherboards and evaporator motors, I stated you must replace both the motherboard and evaporator motor whenever you have problems with the evapoator fan motor. Not doing this will most probably burn out the motherboard as GE uses a weak evaporator motor driver that burns out when the evaporator motor fails.
Just check if the evaporator motor is running at full speed.
If ok, you might have a bad compressor. Gauges and amprobe would confirm.
Evaporator motor is running full speed. When i first plug it in, a relay turns on and I can hear the compressor turn on and then the relay clicks again turning it off. Waiting a few minutes, the relay clicks it on and then clicks off after about 60 seconds…
If the compressor is running, the condenser coils should get warm, check and post results. I don’t think your compressor is running, and the click noise is probably the compressor overload cutting out.
Actually, sorry i just rechecked the diagram and i was referring to the condenser fan in my original post and the condenser fan is the one that is now running full speed (but previously running very slow with the old mother board)… I need to find the evaporator fan…
Condenser coils are not getting warm (at least they’re not getting warm in the 15 seconds that it seems to try to run.
Sequence:
0: Plug in, fast clicks, hum increasing in frequency
17 sec: click off (click does seem to come from compressor and not from mother board), hum goes away
139 sec: click on and humming which increases in frequency
156 sec: click off
339 sec: click on and humming
355 sec: click off
543 sec: click on and humming
559 sec: click off
unplug
During all the clicks on and off, there is no heat coming from the condenser coils.
I haven’t located the evaporator fan (is it in the freezer?)
Maybe you are right and the compressor is bad and overload is shutting it down, but how does it explain the previous problem where it needed an external fan to cool? Should I try the old mother board? Should I locate the evaporator fan? Could it be a bad temp sensor telling the compressor to shut off?
When i mentioned previously that the compressor was warm and vibrating, it had run all night before I checked it - it was actually more hot than just warm…
Any advice is welcome - i really appreciate your help!