Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Refrigerator sick! ?'s

My refrigerator is not cooling properly and the freezer will barely hold at 30*! It's a sideXside model GE. The back, inside wall of the freezer is covered with ice/frost. I cannot find any air leaks around the doors but that doesn't mean that there is not one. This happened about three weeks ago and I emptied it and let it defrost for about eight hours and it seemed to work alright until 'today'! What might be causing this that I'm overlooking? I've vacuumed the underside as far back in there as I am able to see and reach and the back outside is solid: no coils, etc., just the plug in entrance for the cord.

It has two controls on the 'fridge side at the top,(knobs) marked 0-9 (they are on '9' now/max cool) and at the bottom, by the drawer in the center of the unit is a "lever" that moves up and down. As far as I know these have not been moved since the unit was installed about eight years ago.

Is there anything in particular that I need to do or look for to stop this "frosting" of the freezer and loss of cooling into the 'fridge side?

Thanks for any help.
Darrel

P.S.: Neighbor is having same problem with his, too, but a different brand! Maytag is what his is!

My sears side by side fridge with water dispenser and ice cube maker which was new was not cooling right, turned out to be the fan on the freezer side not running which meant the cold being produced was not being circulated around, got new fan installed and temps went back to normal and all parts of fridge got cool.

Unplug it for a day, let it completely defrost.

Should be GTG after that.

easy fix........clean the drain & tube/s ... blow them out to........then u will good to go......

Went through the same thing about two years ago with a Whirlpool side x side. It was the defrost timer, easily replaced but if it's an older model might just be better to replace the fridge.

Phil

If the coil is icing over it is likely that the defrost heater element is shot. uncover the coil and look around the base, it will look similar to a small fluorescent light bulb with a wire at each bend, black burned spots indicate that it is toast.

As stated above if its a repeating process then defrost timer, switch or element. My Jenn-air need that a few years ago, Found instructions on the internet and ordered the parts, took about 20 minutes once it was defrosted.

If its only happened once, it might be just that one of the doors didn't shut completely and the unit had to run continuously to keep up and so froze up , shut it down and defrost it and see what happens.

Pull that back panel off that has the frost on it and you're likly to find a solid block of ice. Take your wifes hair dryer to it (not getting too close). My Whirlpool lasted for about 18 months after the first time and second time it took out the fan motor and I think caused a leak in the coil, lasted for another 4 or 5 months... after replacing the parts, third time lost quite a bit of the frozen meat.

The refrigerator was about 9 years old when it all started and would have been better to replace at the start. Can't trust them not to go bad when least expected.

Phil

Before you spend any money remove the lower cover panel and make sure the coils underneath are clean. Mine get covered in dog hair and dust.

check you defrost timer, or your defrost heater, or if it has a board, check that, also it might be a thermister. I just went through the same thing, it ended up being my defrost heater and my main board, also You tube is your friend on this.