Fridge isnt quite cold enough

[Cos]

Add another thing to the plate of crap to deal with this month......

My fridge has been acting up since a power outage a couple weeks ago. The power went out, the wife came downstairs and the food was getting warm. We moved it into a cooler and went to work. When we came back it felt cold and put everything back.

We started to notice that our food was spoiling quickly (milk and meat especially) so I put a thermometer in there. It is around 55 deg F. The freezer appears to be working absolutely fine. I googled and people said it was most likely condensor coils that were dirty, since the fridge was included with our house, and the house wasnt cleaned, well I figured that was the issue. We moved everything into the deep freeze, I unplugged it and let it thaw, and cleaned it up. The condensor coils were disgustingly bad and I scrubbed and shop vac'd as best as I could.

We turned it back on and went for a walk. In the last two hours the freezer appears to be back to freezing but the fridge is back at the 55 deg level.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Abeo]

How long did you let it thaw for? If enough ice built up around the cooling coils, it could take some time to thaw.

[Cos]

^^ yeah not that long. Figure I should shut it off? I turned it off for about 45 minutes to an hour

[Darell_n]

Leave it off for 2 days if you can. Be prepared for a gallon of water to leak out the bottom if the evap coil is frozen up. Is this a top or bottom freezer?

[Cos]

Thanks I cut the breaker right after Abeo's post. It is a top freezer.

Ill check the drip tray before I go to bed.

[kamakurakid]

It takes a couple of days to melt all the ice, there might be a plugged hose/tube as well in the interior icebox area. This is what a service guy was telling me when he was working on my stove. He said two days and "do not touch it".

[Cos]

Just seems weird it was around the same time the power went out. Maybe the ice melted just enough to get somewhere it shouldnt have....

It is off and I wont touch it until tuesday. Thanks guys

[benyl]

Hmm.

Is it a GE?

Mine is a GE and I have had to replace the circuit board 3 times ($300 a pop). I could have bought a new fridge!

The board doesn't tell it to go through the defrost cycle (to remove the ice from the condenser coils).

If you open up the condenser, you can defrost it with a hair dryer in about 30 minutes.

[Cos]

Originally posted by benyl
Hmm.

Is it a GE?

Mine is a GE and I have had to replace the circuit board 3 times ($300 a pop). I could have bought a new fridge!

The board doesn't tell it to go through the defrost cycle (to remove the ice from the condenser coils).

If you open up the condenser, you can defrost it with a hair dryer in about 30 minutes.

Whirlpool. Not sure if that is a division of GE though.

[Abeo]

Forgot to check back in on the thread, seems you got a handle on it. I'd let it thaw out as much as possible like others have mentioned.

I went through this trying to help my parents out, their fridge would build up ice around the freezer coil. The fridge had a weird heating element next to the coil to melt off the ice, and that would take a shit every now and then which let the ice build up to the point it was plugged solid.

Part of their problem was leaving the door open in a humid climate (fridge was jammed full of crap and the door wouldn't close), also putting things like hot soup in with no lid. After spending many more times than the fridge was worth on repairs, they bought a new fridge and that solved the icing up problem.

[Cos]

Well it dripped a bit yesterday, about a cup or two, but nothing this morning. Not sure if the wife emptied it an hour ago though before she went to work.

Ill give it a check around lunch

[spike98]

Mine exibited similar behavior. It was a GE. Turned out it was the defrosting element that was burnt up. The ice would just build and build then the bottom cool section would just stop working.

I replaced the element and all was well. Empty the freezer and check under the bottom panel. Thats where the coild and fan should be.

[Unknown303]

Buy a new better fridge. Problem solved.

[eblend]

Might have to buy a new fridge? I got one for sale on Kijiji in great working condition, would be a ton cheaper to buy used vs new.

[Khyron]

I had that problem and defrosted the coils with a heat gun (they are inside the freezer behind the back wall).

Was fine for about 2 weeks before it iced up again. Figured it was either the fan that defrosts the coils, the sensor that turns on the defrost cycle or the mainboard which is always stupid expensive.

Look at new fridges, if it's a 5-700 dollar fridge I'd buy a new one. If it's a 2000 dollar stainless deal I'd call GE or whoever and have a tech come out and fix.

[kamakurakid]

Whenever I get anything serviced in my home, I ask the tech what he owns. The washer tech said he has a 20 year old washer with very few electronics, he said this as he was replacing a $500 circuit board. The stove guy I think said GE, Whirlpool and Kenmore were good brands. All said to stay away from anything with all the bells and whistles and to go old school if possible, mechanical over electrical was their theory. My parents (frugal) buy whatever gives the longest warranty and they abuse the free service calls for every little thing, they buy everything from Sears.

The guys repairing this stuff know what is best overall, I have even phoned a repair shop and asked for their opinion. They service it all and are not married to any brand.

[ganesh]

We have been having the same issue with our GE profile. When we bought the fridge 5 years ago it costed us a arm and a leg. I can't believe after spending that kind of a money this fridge would give us issues. Issues started just after 5 yrs ( So No warranty). Called GE and they confirmed the same. So we called one of the local authorized repiar places long story short after multiple visits the issue remains the same and at this point GE is no help to us.
We are looking to replace the fridge. Definitely I will not recommend any one to buy any GE products. - They are garbage, the only reason we ended up putting them in our house is because of the builder.

[Khyron]

They are all the same. Cheap electronics etc. Moral is buy something cheaper that you can afford to replace after 5 years instead of lasting 10.

Same with furnaces - medium efficiency is way cheaper usually because the high efficiency have the expensive 800 dollar mainboards/whatever else that break every few years.

Lessons learned. :(

Edit: Extended in house warranty/replacement plans - I only buy for fridges and plasmas.

[Cos]

Well so it stopped gathering water once I got home so I plugged it back in and let it run. In the last 3 hours it has already dropped to near 40 deg F. Not sure wtf that is about. I will give it until tonight to see what happens.

:dunno:

[Guillermo]

maybe the ice was frozen around the thermocouple that measures inside air temp? that happens to our one at work sometimes.

[skandalouz_08]

I had the same problem recently, ended up getting a new fridge instead of bothering to fix it. A new used fridge that is, cost nothing on kijiji and works great!

[sillysod]

I had the same problem. I googled the problem and determined it was the Defrost Heater.

Bought one from Atlas Appliances and fixed it myself for $20.00

[Cos]

So had something a little strange act up on it again. Yesterday the power was out. Fridge was obviously off. When they power came back the fridge didnt go back on. I let it sit for a while and it never did come back. It had power as the light was on.

I turned the Rheostat all the way to 'coldest' and it fired up. I left it at the middle setting and the fridge ran right down to being cold. It hasnt skipped a beat.

So it seems that when it loses power it doesnt recognize to turn back on.

[Unknown303]

Get new fridge.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Cos]

Well....... found my food warm again this morning, and when I got home. Ordered a new one though a beyonder. Nice guy and gave me a decent deal (I think anyways ;))

Appreciate the cold beer. :thumbsup:

[Cos]

Big thanks to masoncgy.... got me some cold beer now!

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z455/thecosworth/2011-09-08185039.jpg

[masoncgy]

Looks good! I'm a huge fan of black appliances... and seriously, not nearly enough people opt for that choice.

:thumbsup:

[Tram Common]

You shoulda just put your fridge in a fridge. :poosie: