[stormwatcher]

I have a side by side GE refrigertator Model# ERS 2022 DA BB...... Serial# 2284574

The freezer seems to be working fine. Cold......food frozen....Ice maker still makes Ice.

The refrigerator section in not cold. We noticed the milk not as cold as normal last week.......it seems worse now.

When I say refrigerator it is not cold........it is not hot either......probably a few degrees cooler than ambient temp.

What do think the problem is and why is this happening?


Thanks in advance for help!

Edit: I have been reading and feel that my problem is probably in the defrost section. What is the best way to test and see if the defrost heater or defrost timer or both is bad.

[woodchuck]

Make sure the fridge temp.control knob is opening the damper(vent) between the freezer and fridge. That's how the cold air get in the fridge side.

The evaporator fan in the freezer blows the air through the vent. Make sure it's working.

Refrigerator Repair Guide: How To Test the Evaporator Fan - ACME HOW TO.com

If there is a problem with the auto. defrost there will be ice built up on the evaporator which is behind the back panel of the freezer.

[stormwatcher]

Thank you! I will double check that......although I am pretty sure the fan is not the problem..........I can hear it running........I am at work and cannot check now.....but I am sure that the problem is either what you suggested........damper not opening or I have a defrost issue.......ice is preventing air flow into the beer chamber.

[stormwatcher]

Since I did not get any help in this forum......I thought I would post my own solution. From reading other forums and posts.....I found that my refrigerator has a defrost system in it. When this system malfunctions........Ice builds up on the evaporator coils......preventing good air movement from the freezer side to the refrigerator side of the frig. This cool air from the freezer, is what cools the refrigerator. I pulled the panel off the inside back of the freezer and found the evaporator coils plugged with ice. The glass tube/heater looked black. I checked the heater for continuity. Meter never moved. I knew the heater was bad. Now I was not sure if the heater just went bad or the defrost thermostat had gone bad first and burned out the heater element. In my case.........I just went ahead and bought the defrost heater and thermostat assembly. Very simple to replace.

First I unplugged the frig.

4 screws to remove to get the frezzers back plate off........

found the ice .........
placed towels down in the drain area and used a hair dryer to melt the ice.

with ice now gone.....i could just unplug the thermostat/heater assembly from the harness and removed the two screws that held the heater in place.

replaced heater/ thermostat assembly.......re- routed new assembly wires the same way as the original.......plugged in the assembly to the harness

replaced back plate with 4 screws..........took about 15 minutes and $65.00 cash

[cjwdoyle]

I have a GE side by side model TFX20jrsm, with what sounds like the same problem. After a few days the inside of the freezer had frost/ice. Took the back panel (inside freezer) off and coils were covered with ice/frost. After looking at the first defrost heater (this one has two) could see that it was shot. Not sure about the other one but they come packaged together so will replace both, also thermostat comes with these heaters so that will be new also. The place I purchased the parts recommended replacing the defrost timer just to be sure everything was working fine. That is what we are doing. Total cost of parts was just under $100.00 Hope this helps.