I have a Whirlpool side by side refrig. that I purchased on 11/2003. On occasion the freezer coil,which is visable at the bottom inside of the freezer ,turns red hot . If I unplug the refrig. for 1 hr and plug it back in the freezer continues to work fine for days and sometimes weeks. Can anyone help? Thanks
the coil there at the bottom of the evaperator is the defrost element and needs to get hot to drfrost the ice and frost on the evaperator. so this is a case of normal operation. it should happen every 3-4 days. you will hear some poping and sizzeling as it does its defrost cycle. it is when you don’t hear that or it dosent heat up that you will have a problem.hope this helps
one of the burners does not heat. I remove the element and plugged it into another socket and the element heats up fine. wondering if this could be the infinite switch and if this is something a novice could change.
Thanks so much for the poster of this question and also to the one who answered. I woke up in the middle of the night during a storm. Went to steal a spoonfull of icecream real quick and noticed the bright orange coils (since it was dark in the kitchen). I was afraid to go back to bed until I knew for sure it was normal. Thanks! I’m sleepy. 
beegees74 said:
Same here. I heard the popping, opened the door in the darkness and saw the orange coil - was afraid to go to bed and called my teenage son downstairs to look at it also. He said it was probably normal… but wanted reassurance before going upstairs to sleep.
Thank you very much. My fiance and I just freaked out when we noticed this. Of course it’s the Saturday of a three day holiday weekend and we knew we wouldn’t get service any time soon. This really should be in the troubleshooting guide of the owner’s manual.
I mean, come on, your freezer shouldn’t resemble the red hot coils of a toaster oven, especially when you hear water evaporating and you think there is a fire at the back of your freezer.
Thanks again for helping us sleep tonight without the fear of our house burning down.
Thanks so much for this info.
This morning I heard a popping sound from my refridgerator and I have a habit of pushing things too far to the back blocking the vents in both the fridge and freezer parts. I opened up the freezer and saw red hot glowing coils from the back of the unit thru the freezer vents.
I quickly pulled away anything inside the fridge that was too close to the back.
I checked about 20 minutes later and the red glow was gone and the unit seemed to be working normally.
I came to work wondering if my home was safe.
How happy I was to see your comments that this was normal standard proceedure. I guess it’s a hit or miss. I am in and out of my fridge and freezer a lot and have never in all my 50 years noticed this before.
Thank you for putting my mind at ease!
Thank you so much for this forum!, My husband works night work, and just went to sleep,… Of course I woke him up about the sounds and seeing that red hot coil! I was ready to unplug the whole thing, until of course I looked on here, and thanks to your honest answer my husband can go back to sleep instead of staying awake and trying to figure out what could be wrong! 
I had my freezer open tonight and my cat immediately drew my attention to popping noises at the back of the freezer. I pulled out the bottom drawer and saw red hot coils and thought the freezer is on fire! It was very hot. I almost also unplugged the freezer but jumped on the internet and found this answer. This was a fire a month ago in my building and have been very jumpy since then but everything is now okay. Looks like lots of other people had the same worry so it made me feel better.
Thank you Everyone! I had the same experience tonight that everyone else is describing. Called a friend and he freaked me out about the house burning down. Now I can go to bed in peace. Love the Internet…
Same thing just happened with my Whirlpool, the popping, but then I heard water dripping. Noticed the red hot coils in the back of the freezer behind the drawer but with a fair amount of water dripping also. Turned off the water line from the sink to the in-door water/ice dispenser in the fridge, and the coils were no longer red, and the water stopped dripping onto the coils. Is this normal or should I call a repairman?
As the only water line through the back section of the freezer is the ice maker line, you might try turning the ice maker off and turning the water back on. There can be a considerable amount of water flow depending on how much frost has built up on the evaporator. Once you have turned the water back on, try turning the ice maker back on to verify if the ice maker line is leaking or not.check and post your results.
i had a small fire i thought in back of my side by side fridge/freezer. i got rid of it bought a new one, stainless steal, its a year old now, i never noticed the same problem again the back wall of my freezer appears to be on fire, it is making that sizzle sound like drops of water hitting a frying pan thats hot. please tell me my fridge aint broke again in the same manner as my last fridge this fridge cost me a lot of money and its only 14 monthes old.
i am a typical female i better go wake up someone, i have no idea i should of been a natural blonde.
clueless about this all but why 13 monthes later would this just begin, it hasnt been 13 monthes of un noticed drip and pops and sizzle, i dont sleep well at night, this just started. like my last fridge. cant seem to catch a break.:eek:
I doubt anyone will tell you that everything is OK since we are not there to actually diagnose the problem.
But I can tell you how defrost works which is what I think you are seeing.
Your fridge has auto defrost.
Some are controlled by a defrost timer, some by an adaptive defrost cotrol board and some from the main control board.
It really does not matter.
Any ways every 8 hours or so a defrost cycle is started.
This is for a fixed time period, half an hour or so.
A heater that is at the bottom of the evaporator coils in the freezer is turned on.
The compressor, the evaporator/freezer fan is shut off and the condenser/compressor fan is shut off.
The heater then melts the frost that has built up on the evaporator coils.
If the frost was allowed to build up to the point where it blocks/clogs the evaporator coils then the freezer would not coll properly.
Also clipped to the top of the evaporator coils is a defrost thermostat.
It opens just above freezing.
So the unit starts a half hour defrost cycle, the heater turns on and the frost melts and may drip onto the heater causing a sizzle.
But lets say that all the frost has melted off after 15 minutes.
Then the defrost thermostat opens. This kills power to the defrost heater and prevents too much heat from being generated and warming up the freezer.
When the half hour defrost cycle is over the compressor and d=fans start up.
You may have a problem with the defrost thermostat not opening when it should.
NOTE: The above is for the most common defrost method. Modern GE made units do it differently. They use thermistors to detect the defrost temperature and the defrost thermostat is just a safety device.
One way to check this is to put a bowl of ice cubes in the freezer. If after a couple defrost cycles they are all frozen together then you have a defrost problem re: too much heat is being generated and is warming up the freezer compartment.
Another possibility is that you have a door leak.
This lets warm moist air into the unit which condenses on the evaporator coils as frost causing the defrost cycle to run linger than it should.
Check that the door seals are clean.
Check that the seals look OK.
Check that the hing side of the seals are not grabbing onto the frame and twisting when the door closes. This can be usually be fixed with a light coating of white lithium grease or vaseline on the seal.
Take a two inch strip of paper and place it between the frame and the seal.
Then shut the door and pull the paper out to check the seal.
Work your wat around both doors every 6 inches or so.
I had a huge iceberg in my freezer and cleaned it all out and let it sit for a week. I just ran it again 2 weeks and I just saw the red hot coil in the bottom and water running down again to the bottom of the freezer and building Ice. From what I read, the coil is normal. It kind of freaked me out at first, but it builds up water and then ice in the bottom of my whirlpool side by side.
How do I fix this?
Thank you.
Duane
So glad this information was available. Recent homeowner and wasn’t aware of this so was concerned when son brought to my attention. Glad I found info when I goggled it otherwise it would have cost for tech to do nothing
So glad this information was available. Recent homeowner and wasn’t aware of this so was concerned when son brought to my attention. Glad I found info when I goggled it otherwise it would have cost for tech to do nothing
I heard a sizzling sound tonight in my freezer, took out the bottom drawer and noticed the coil red hot in the back. I got worried it could burn up. I decided to search online for a reasoning behind this and came across this page. I am glad that it is a normal process and can feel comfortable about it. I wanted to leave my comment to let you know that I as well thank you for your honest input.