GE freezer works, fridge part doesn't.

[TOM KAN PA]

I notice that the temperature inside the non freezer part of our GE frostfree, freezer on the top is up to about 57 F. However, the ice cubes and frozen food in the freezer seem fine. What could be causing this? There have been some leftovers from a Xmas Eve open house put into it, but it's certainly not overloaded.

[DanG]

There is only one cold source (actually heat removing source) in your refrigerator. The cold is primarily used to freeze the freezer. A fan is used to distribute the cold to the food storage portion.

The fan may be blocked or have died.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing. . . . DanG

[Art Begun]

Ice cubes will freeze at 32 degrees F where as the freezer should be zero so that is not a good test. I use a radio shack outdoor radio frequency thermometer to check freezer and frig temperatures. It is a

2 part unit. One for measuring and it sends the reading to the receiver. Comes in handy for stuff like this. I discovered my GE frig was only 45 degrees and turned it down to get the temp right.

[Steve Stone]

I had this problem with a 1984 vintage GE fridge with freezer on top. The defroster used a halogen lamp that had burned out , the defrost cycle wouldn't happen, and the passage for air between the freezer and fridge compartment froze up not allowing cold air to pass.

Also had a similar problem with a Whirlpool model of same vintage at the in-laws summer home. The fan that forced air from the freezer to fridge stopped turning due to lack of bearing lubrication.

Either way everything has to come out, unplug from wall, the unit manually defrosted, water removed, then you take out the inside back panel in the freezer to reveal the problem, get the parts (GE parts are very overpriced), or relube the fan, put it all back together again and perform smoke test.

Current unit is a 1988 vintage Amana. No problems ever.

Steve

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

The 57ºF in the refrigerator section is not acceptiable at all , but need to check the temperature of the freezer area to see the temp there to really see about it. I will give you some ideals on what it is but you need these temperature reading to check on it.

Refrigerator area should be between 34ºF to 40ºF with target temp. being

34ºF to 36ºF. The Bordon Milk Company will pull dairy products out of the store at 41ºF or above. They have the 40ºF as the Max. Temp. they will allow their product to be in.

Freezer Area should be between -5ºF to +5ºF with the target temperature being 0ºF . Bordon will also pull the ice cream or ice milk products out of a store with the freezer temperature is +17ºF or above. The new Ice cream or ice milk product will begin to melt at +17ºF but real ice cream will stay frozen up to 32ºF but they have this +17ºF as a cut off point to remove all dought.

Now to the refrigerator here. I think you may have a air door shut inbetween the freezer and the freezer areas to stop the flow of air to the areas. Now without tring to explain all the different models and different number settings here. we can just say this. Set all control knobs of the refrigeator to mid scale and wait 24 hours to see if it corrects the problem. If it has 1 to 10 on the scale put it on 5 . if it has A to E settings set it on C setting. All manufactors of the refrigerator design their boxes to be run normally at mid scale.

now you can have the condenser coil plugged up or the condenser fan motor has stopped running.

Now you could have a freon related problem of low on freon or compressor failing slowly.

now it can have a defrost problem and the evaperator coil is freezing up and it's heading down hill. If this is true you will see ice stating to build up on the back wall or the floor of the freezer area. The area of the wall will not be a little frost but you will see ice on it.

Now you could have a evaperator drain pan stopped up and letting the frozen water block the air flow across the coil. This is very rare but can happen.

You need to post back the temperatures of the areas , about the condenser coils plugged up or the condenser fan motor froze up and not running, and see about the ice build up in the freezer area.

TURTLE

[jim]

if the freezer part is cold and the ref. part is not or vise versa: then you have to adjust the air that comes from freezer to the ref.... you either have too much cold air going to the ref. from the freezer or not enough..... all the cold air comes from the freezer(the only part of the unit that will have an evaporator coil(the cold that gets cold)... on my whirlpool they have two knobs inside, one for the thermostat that says(colder...hotter) and another one for the air flow, they both look the same, but only one controls the electricity for the unit, the other one controls air flow, that is probably your problem, bad air flow to the unit... adjust the control.....

[Dan O.]

There are lots of possibilities, the most common of which are described at the following link:

My frost free refrigerator is not cooling properly. What might be the problem?

Dan O.

- Appliance411.com

=Ð~~~~~~

[Art Begun]

Regarding Bordon's strict quality standards. I guess they haven't checked my grocery lately.... Recently I bitched to the store manager when I found a bunch of their Bordon cheese up to 4 months over expiration date! The mold was obvious.

temperature

number

compressor

freezing up and

condenser

running, and

[jeff]

Hi,

Some common trouble makers for a warm refrigerator....

jeff. Appliance Repair Aid

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

I was quoting from their guide lines for their dairy products and not from their R & D department on mole research ?

TURTLE

[Keith S.]

Check that the Lights in the Ref side go out when the door closes. We had a GE that the door switch failed, and the Ref side couldn't cool below 50f, the freezer side was fine. I guess two 40 watt bulbs on all the time, was too much for it.

[alt-hvac Moderated]

I've also seen sluggish evaporator fans. Low RPM.

GE had some problems with bad compressors, but that woulda affected the freezer some more.