The temperature in the freezer side of my GE Side By Side has started fluctuating between 0 (the set temp) and up to 7 or 8 degrees. The fridge temp stays pretty close to 36 (the set temp) while this is happening.
This has been happening for about two weeks now which was around the time we either experienced a power surge or were hit by lightening (Killed the garage door opener and some other small things). All of the items in my freezer are now covered with about half an inch of ice and my ice cream gets soft then re-freezes.
I finally decided to take the back panel off the inside fo the freezer and the fully expected the coils to be frozen up which would lead me to believe it was a defrost issue with a bad heater, board, or evaporator fan. BUT, the bottom half of the coils only had a little frost on them and the top have were clean. I left the cover off and the fridge running, and the coils have since begun to freeze over due to the extended period of time the doors were open while I disassembled the cover.
Prior to taking apart the back cover (while the fridge was unplugged) I also double checked the resistance from the J9 wire to the J7 pin 9 wire and got a reading of 20 ohms. I had an issue with the J1 connector pins 4 and 5 as I couldn’t get any reading but i think my probes were too large to make contact with the wires.
Not sure if this makes sense, but ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!
Pull off the motherboard cover and remove the gray, three pin power connector and place a wire jumper between the mating pins labled line and comp. as seen on the motherboard. Plug fridg in and see if the evaporator gets totally frosted,if so, pull the motherboard AP4436216 and inspect the back by the big power relay. If bad solder joins,re-solder.
Well, I left the cover off the evaporator overnight (with the fridge still plugged in and the door closed) and my evaporator coils are frozen up and my temp was hanging around 7 degrees (set at 0 degrees).
Should I still jump the connection on the board?
I would check for bad solder joints in the back of the motherboard, seems like the compressor is shutting down sometimes without you knowing it. The results from your test indicate you probably do not have a refrigeration problem, just something intermittent.
This may be a stupid question, but I can’t find the answer or picture on any of the other threads in the forum. Which of the components is the power relay on this board.
My experience is with larger power relays that are not located on motherboards and so identifying which component is the relay will let me inspect it more closely along with a general review of the solder on the backside of each component.
Also, is this whole motherboard recall by GE worth messing with and trying to call GE for a reduced price on a motherboard (in the event my board is fried)?