GSS22VFMDWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

This is the third time the defrost heater has failed, the part was shipped prompt, and the replacement was upgraded to a dual coil. The repair was quick and more cost effective than having a repair guy come out .

My GE SideBySide fridge stopped making ice. The green LED light on the icemaker was not blinking. The water dispenser worked fine. Fridge is only 5 years old. Freezer temp set at 7 degrees...fridge at 37 degrees. I have been using these temps since new. GE hotline suggested freezer temp should be at zero degrees. That did not work. Second call suggested an airflow issue within the freezer...there should be 1 inch space between food and back wall. Still no ice. The water valve looks to be the issue. I ordered it and got it in 2 days. Valve is in the back bottom, refridgerator side. Push the white collars around the water hoses...Then pull the hoses out. An adjustable wrench removes the nut for the inlet hose. Disconnect 2 electrical plugs. Be sure to push the water hoses fully into the new valve. I pulled the white collars out a bit to insure a tight fit. I was surprised at how simple this was to install. As it turns out, I was still getting no ice. I ordered a new ice maker and now I'm getting ice. The icemaker was EVEN EASIER to install.

I watched the video online, followed the instructions and within minutes had the part installed. The frig light was working once again! I will say the original switch was very snug and I had to do some very minor scraping of the plastic to get the new part to slide in.

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

I took out the old drawer and popped off the front plate which I popped on the new drawer and then put the new drawer in.

It did seem to me that the new drawer was not quite as substantle as the origonial drawer.

replaced the drawer, amazing to me that I managed to order the right drawer and it fit

Very simple fix. Just remove the back cover, unscrew the water valve, unplug the water valve and disconnect the water line. Then reinstall the new one. Takes about 15 to 20 min and it worked like a champ

By the time this failure (failed defroster heating element) is evident (top of freezer starts thawing), the entire freezer coil is encased in a block of ice & frost is visble on the back freezer panel.
Empty the freezer & unplug (or turn circuit breaker off) then remove all racks and the light bulb then remove the two lower drawer guides using a phillips srewdriver (2 scrwes each). Use a 1/4" nutdriver to remove the two panel screws on either side of the light bulb socket and pull the panel out, unclip the green grounging wire and set panel aside. this exposes the freezer evaporator coil which is probably encased in ice. If so, use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt the ice away. This takes a half hour of heat application and a bowl or other catchpan should be placed under the coil to remove some of the resulting melting runoff so the evap. pan under the fridg/freezer unit won't be overwhelmed with the excess water.
Replacing the defrost heater & bracket assembly itself is just a matter of removing two phillips screws on either side of the bracket assembly, pulling the bracket free and then uncliping the two electrical terminals. Clip in the new unit to the eletrical terminals & replace the screws, reinstall the rear panel (don't forget to reconnect the ground wire), install the drawer backets, light bulb, shelves and drawer & reapply power. Replacing the bracket itself w/o the defrost proceedure takes about 15 minutes.

Note: If this symptom occurs and is diagnosed (the heater tube will be black and electrically read as "open" using an ohmmeter) and you cannot get the heater assembly & bracket assembly immediately, you can use the heat gun (hairdryer) manual defrost proceedure noted above to get the the unit running while you await the parts arrival. I used the manual defrost procedure and there was just some moderate frost on the coils after five days when I was able to install the replacement part.

i unplugged the fridge, first i removed the racks, then unhooked the grounding clip. the i tool off two 1/4 nut screws holding the backplate. then i used my wifes hair dryer to thaw out the ice. after it thawed out i unscrewed the element bracket which is secured by two philips screw. after taking the screws off, its just unplug one end at a time and plug it to the new one to avoid confusion. then reverse install to put back together.

Removed cover in freezer over evaporator,unbolted element ,plugged ,and replaced, very simple. Should be first thing checked when theres a problem.

I called the repair tech who obviously did not want to come out, thank god. He told me to remove the back panel of the freezer and also check fan on back side. Told him there was alot of ice on freezer condenser and he advised that defrost heater was probably shot, and referred me to partselect.com. I unplugged the frig/freezerer, and removed the heater and saw it was blackened and cooked. I used a hairdryer to thaw the condenser, and the new part arrived the next day. I reattached the 2 plugs, 2 screws, and put the back panel of the freezer back on. I plugged the appliance back in, checked it 6 hours later and the frig is cold again. It was a VERY easy repair and took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. I was quoted between $40-$78 for the part at 3 different places in the phone book, which would have also required a 45 minute drive. I got it here for $38 including shipping and it arrived in 24 hours !
With the "blow-up view" appliance feature on this web-site, and simply being guided to the correct part by entering the model number, it was a very easy ordering process and repair.

Replaced both the Defrost Thermostat and Defrost Heating Element. The You Tube repair video clips were extremely helpful for both operations. My difficulty was getting access to the parts that needed to be replaced in a very tight side by side freezer space. Otherwise, the repair went smoothly and the refrigerator is back in normal operation in time to save the perishable food inside.

This is such an easy fix!
1-Unplugging the fridge and emptyi it. Remove all shelves.
2-remove the 2 screws at the top of the back panel with a 1/4 inch nutdriver. You'll have to tilt ithis panel forward and sideways to get it out.
3- DO NOT CHIP AT THR ICE COVERING THE COOLING COILS? Replace one shelf and rest a hair dryer on low heat on the shelf.. Plug the drain hole at the bottom with a rag so all the melted ice water doesn't flood the floor under the fridge. Soak up the water with a rag and bucket- this should take 20-30 minutes.
4-Remove the red and blue power cables from the element. Only 2 philips head screws hold the defrosting element in place. Once it's out you can tell it's burned out because it looks black like a burned out lightbulb.
4-Plug in the red and blue power cables to the new unit. You will need to reroute the blue power cable because the new unit has both power connections on the same end.
5-Replace the cover panel by sliding it in at an angle and replace the 1/4 inch screws.
6-Replace the shelves and plug in the fridge.
That's it!

The most difficult part of the repair was the melting of the ice and preparation. I did change a single element heater for a dual element heater, which required a little manual flexing of the sub-frame, but it assembled with little issue. I was lucky, I did not have to splice the extended harness connection. Rerouting my existing gave sufficent length.
Not sure if the single elements were changed for dual, but it did have the same PN as the unit I replaced.

Replaced Double Outlet Water Valve then defrosted coiled plastic water tubing at bottom position inside refrigerator into pan of hot water for 10 minutes. Water still did not flow. Defrosted refrigerator and water dispenser immediately resumed operation. Suggestion -
defrost refrigerator first.