GSS22VFMDWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Came home in the morning and found that everything in the freezer was defrosted. The fridge and freezer were warm so I checked the web to see what the problem could be. After about 15 minutes I found what the two causes could be. Since the parts were so cheap, I decided to change both the defrost heater and thermastat. It's been about a week since I changed the parts and no problem.

After de-energized unit (by removing electical plug from outlet),I removed the rear panel at bottom of unit. I then removed the mounting screw to the water valve. I then disconnected the wiring assembly from the old unit. I then removed the water supply lines going to the icemaker and water filter. I then placed the water supply into the replacement water valve. plugged in wiring assembly to new unit and rehung water valve inside refrig. Turned water valve on at water supply to check for leaks, finding none I then replaced back panel on refridge and plugged in electrical cord and returned refrige to normal place in kitchen.

Had to turn off water and remove back panel and with a few tools the part was off and the new part put on in less that 30 minutes!! Finding parts on your website were easily found.

De-iced cover and removed two phillips head screws and two 1/4 " nutdriver screws to expose coil, defrost heater and defrost thermostat. Deiced the coil and surrounding area with a heat gun. Removed two screws that hold the defrost heater in place, disconnected the wires to the original heater. The original assy. was a single quartz and the new one was a double quartz. This required rerouting the left wire along with the right one, but was no problem as the wire was plenty long enough. Re-installed the assy. with the two screws. I replaced the defrost termination thermostat, even though it tested good, because I have had experience in that it would be the next to go, and not to in-convenience the owner in unloading the fridge a second time. The only difficult part was fitting into the freezer compartment. As usual, order by 3p.m. and shipping is the same day and is a real joy to use Partselect.com

Unplugged refrigerator, removed cover, defrosted with heat gun, replaced Defrost Thermostat, and replaced single element with double element Defrost Heater. All went very well with minimal difficulty, and instructions that accompanied parts along with the instructional video on your site, made the repair quite easy. The repair is going on the 4th week now, and no freeze up yet.

Poped out with screwdriver the old swithch and unplugged the two wires. Plugged in the wires to the new swithch and pushed it back in the hole where the old switch was before.

First I removed the two screws that hold the element in place. I then pulled the element out about 3 inches and disconnected the two wires, it was really simple. I conected the new element & defrost themostat (instuctions were included with the parts). I replaced the cover pluged the fridge in everything was woking fine. I placed a themometer in the fridge & have been watching it for 2+ weeks now it is working fine. To anyone who is looking to do this repair, on thier own, I reccomend it. It was very simple & required little to no skill. No reasopn to throw away money to call a repair man.

After mopping up the floor - the whole freezer that was iced up melted - that's how I found out about the problem...

Disconnected the power, emptied the freezer, removed the shelves. Under the ice maker was the light cover - I removed that first, then the two screws holding the back panel in place - The light panel was covering the top screw.

With the screws removed, I pulled out the back panel - which needs to be jiggled around a bit to get it past the shelf brackets.

With the cover off, I could see the mostly de-iced coil at the back of the unit. The defrost heater was visible at the bottom of the coil frame. To remove the bracket/heater, I removed the two cross head screws (one on each side) holding the bracket to the coil frame. I then twisted the side tabs of the bracket assembly and pulled the entire bracket/heater/wiring from the coil frame.

With better access tot he bracket/heater I was able to disconnect the wires. I grabbed the new bracket/heater, reattached the wires and pushed the bracket/heater back onto the coil frame and closed the side tabs firmly attaching the bracket to the frame. I then screwed the tabs back onto the frame.

Replaced the back panel, screwed it in place. Put back the light cover and then the shelves. Turned the appliance back on and left it for a few hours - before checking to see if there was any drop in temperature. There was, so after 24 hours or so I reloaded all the food...

NOTE: I was certain that the heater had failed! When I pulled the OLD one out it was obviously burned out - the glass tube was blackened and pieces of the element could be seen in the bottom of the tube.

So I replaced a burnt out defrost heater; replaced the thermostat for good measure and STILL the freezer compartment was freezing up. WHY didn't I look more closely at the ice making system sooner!!?? Thought about it for a while and decided that it had to be that the solenoid in the water valve was NOT shutting off water flow to ice maker (overflowing the icemaker and running over & down interior of freezer compartment making an icberg).

Took off about 4-5 backcover screws with one size nut driver. Moved to a size larger driver to remove 1 screw holding on the water valve. And what some people don't realize is that you can push in the connectors (push them down) and THEN pull the water lines out as long as you're careful and someone hasn't already tugged on the waterlines with some force. You don't have to cut the lines off at the valve. Put the water lines in the new valve and put one screw back in it; then 4-5 backcover screws and you're done!!! At most 15 minutes...that is if you want to clean the condensor unit located behind the backcover (on the newer models within the last 4-6 years).

EASY!!! Do it yourself and save a BUNCH of money. If you're getting a flooded freezer compartment or icebergs created in there then check whenever you hear the icemaker drawing in water and see if water is running down the interior.....problem solved!

While the switch did last for 9 years, the design is poor due to the failure mode. The failure should be to fail off or not able to turn on the lights which would be inconvenient but would not warm the refrigerator contents. Arcing at the contacts eventually caused the switch to "weld" closed. It is not obvious that this is occurring so it took some time to recognize why the temp inside the ref was high while the freezer was OK. Replacing the switch was easy once it was recognized as the problem. All that was required to replace the switch was to remove the screws holding a fiber cover and then pulling off the aluminum cap which covered the switches. Unplug the switch an squeeze the keeper on the switch to release it and pull down. Pop the replacement switch in place and plug the wires harness back in. All in all it took much less time to replace than it has to write this up. T Pope

The existing light switch was very hard to remove. I ended up having to grab it with a pair of pliers and pull it out. Once it was out, it was very easy to put in the replacement and it seems to be working fine.

Unplugged the appliance for safety. Removed two 1/4" screws that held the assembly in place. Carefully removed the wire guard that retains the glass shield. Unscrewed old light bulb and replaced with new part. Reversed the steps after cleaning glass cover.

First I unplugged the refrigerator, then I had to open up the back of the freezer, use the hair dryer to defrost the ice that had built up in it. Then I unscrewed the screws on both ends of the existing heater unplugged the old heater and plugged in the new one. Then with the sensor, I cut and stripped the 2 wires attached to the old sensor 1 inch away from the sensor. Then I spliced it with the wires on the new sensor, applied wire nut and black tape tightly. Then I put it all back together.

Disconnected power. Removed evaporator cover in freezer. Removed the bad defrost heater. It is a glass tube about 10" long. The tube was black since the internal heater wire burned out. Use a hair dryer to melt ice in evaporator. Since there was excessive water coming from melt ice, I removed the back panel and took out the white plastic drain tube and collected water from the tube in a bucket. I put everything back and used the refrigerator for three days without problem, before the new heater arrived. Then I put on the new tube and everything was fine so far.

as described, I used a thin screwdriver to wedge in and pull down existing, broken switch. I was able to pull it down about a 1/4 inch, but wasn't quit able to disegage it until I gripped it with pliers. I then pulled it out, unplugged the old switch, plugged in the new switch, and carefully tucked the wires back into the fridge and snapped the new switch into place.

10 minutes total.