[pvc]

GE Profile Arctica (PSI23SGMD MD) – Freezer is warming

Freezer is warming (melting the ice cubes in the ice maker). The refrigerator side works fine. When this first started the freezer would sometimes get cold/freeze again. But now it just seems to stay warm and not get cold again.

I read other articles about freezer not working and they said take the back cover off to get a look at the freezer coils. I did. The coils had sporadic chucks of ice on them spread out over all the coils. Not specifically on one section of the coils and not completely iced over (just small ice chunks about half an inch wide. This was not very much ice and it was almost melted by the time I got the coils uncovered. It created a little over half an inch of water in the bottom drip tray.

I dried it out with a hair dryer and then started it again to see what it does. I am leaving the cover off for now to see what happens with the freezer coils. After about an hour of running the freezer coils are nice and frosty. But the top three coils have no frost at all on them??

I have a picture of the coils. But it seems like I would have to find a place to host my image in order to attach the image here.

[pvc]

After a couple of hours it seems to be cooling nicely. Perhaps the problem is with the defrost timer, defrost heater, or defrost thermostat???

I don’t know where to find the defrost timer on this model. It has a computer circuit board inside a small square access panel on the lower back of the unit. I’m guessing that the defrost cycle is timed by this circuit board.

I can see the heater at the bottom of the coils. I have no clue as to how to activate the heater in order to test to see if it works.

I can see the thermostat clipped to the top coil tube. I don’t have a meter to test it with. Perhaps I should start with replacing the thermostat. The part doesn’t seem to cost very much ($10 or $12).

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Picture of the coils. Click on thumbnail to enlarge:

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Picture of thermostat. Click on thumbnail picture to enlarge:

[pvc]

Picture of frosty coils. Click on thumbnail picture to enlarge:

[pvc]

After more reading/thinking I am guessing that it's NOT the thermostat. If the thermostat were failing that would mean that the thermostat is failing to shut off my defrost heater. That would mean way too much heat from the heater melting everything rather quickly. That's not what is happening.

What I have is gradual warming and I have ice on the coils (like it has not been defrosting properly). Now I'm guessing that I have a faulty defrost heater or a faulty defrost timer. I don't know where the defrost timer is on this model so I will concentrate on testing the heater element. Like this:

How To Test the Defrost Heater

[pvc]

I removed the defrost heater. I am waiting to test it until I can borrow a meter. However the instructions say that it still may be bad even though it tests for a non zero reading. They say:
"You may get a reading between those extremes and the element may still be bad, you can only be certain if you know the correct rating of your element. If you can find the schematic, you may be able to determine the proper resistance rating. Also, inspect the element as it may be labeled."

It says G7102 on the end. Here's a couple of pictures. The ends easily slide off to reveal the heating element/wire coil. Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge:

[pvc]

We tested the defrost heater element. The meter didn’t have an ohm setting of X1 so we used a 200 ohms setting. When touching the probes on the terminals we came up with a reading of 21.8 (almost 22). So now I think that the defrost heater may be OK too.

Does anyone know how the defrost timing cycle works on this model? The model number starts with PSI, not PS1 (PSone) as I first thought. Model PSI23SGMD MD.

[woodchuck]

Your were right about the board controlling the defrost. It senses when it need to defrost by how long and how many times door is open etc. Part 801 on this diagram.

[pvc]

Thanks woodchuck. Since the defrost timing happens in this motherboard on the bottom back of my appliance, I could use a little advice before replacing the mother board ($100) the defrost heater ($55) the defrost thermostat ($15). And if I do replace these should I replace them one-at-a-time or all at once.