GBS22HBSW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I went to a GE repair center to explain my problem, the service center reccomended that I have a techinician come out o look at it. $75.00 for the visit and what ever labor and materials wuld cost.

I went on line to see if there were others having this same problem and found that there were many with the same problem.

After reading some of the ways that people found out what was wrong ...it became a matter of three components, the timer, heater or thermostat.

I tried the most common component and the less expensive one first , the thermostat switch I installed it very easily snipping two wires and attaching the news using wire nuts I used the diagram on this website to pinpoint the component and there has not been a problem since.

I removed the old temperature sensor by cutting the wires. I attached the wires of the new sensor with wire nuts and mounted it in the same bracket.

I applied some tips learned by reading other reviews. So before I started I grabbed my trusty vise grip pliers and a small screw driver. I locked onto the switch actuator, the part that the refrigerator door pushes in, with the vise grips and pulled on it just hard enough to get the screw driver inserted in the right side to push in the catch clip so the switch could be pulled out further each time the catch clip was depressed to the next detent. Then I used the screw driver on the left site to encourage the switch past the detents on the left and very quickly the switch was out of the mount. The wires from the refrigerator pulled out with the old switch. I unplugged the old switch from the wires and plugged in the new switch and shoved the new switch back into the mount, wiggled it a couple of times to make sure it was secure and the job was done. Once I applied the vise gripes at first, the whole job took less than a minute.

First, unplug the refrigerator. Next, remove the lower panel on the back of the refrigerator that covers the compressor, condenser and fan compartment. Looking at the refrigerator from the back, the condenser fan is at the lower right corner. There is no information about removing the fan motor, so it took a bit of study. It became obvious that the plastic fan venturi (panel with hole in it for fan blade) needed to be removed. There were two screws that held the venturi panel in place. After removing these screws the top half of the venturi panel could be bent down and pulled from the cabinet. Note that there are tabs and slots on the bottom of this panel that will need to be matched up when replacing the panel. Next the fan blade needed to be removed. This is done by pulling firmly on the balde and it separated from the motor shaft. The most difficult problem was to remove the motor from the motor bracket. There is very little room to remove the two phillips head screws from the front of the bracket, so I used a socket ratchet wrench with an adapter that would hold a phillips bit. This allowed me to remove the screws which were at a right angle to the wrench handle. It took quite a few incremental ratchet movements to remove each screw. After the screws were removed, the motor and wire could be removed by prying the plastic motor bracket apart. There is a insulated cover that is tie wrapped over the motor plug. This was removed and the plug was removed. The steps were reversed to install the new motor. Be sure the venturi panel is positioned correctly and that the fan blade is pushed firmly onto the motor shaft.

The most dificult was the diagnosis. The condenser fan was turning slowly and the entire compressor/coil unit was too hot to touch. Removing the rear cover panel and placing a small desk fan behind the refrigerator cooled the compressor coil unit and allowed the freezer to get back to the 1 degree F operating range. This made my wife happy because she could continue to use the refrigerator and was willing to put up with the fan noise.

The Part select recommendation page stated that the most common cause was a control board failure [which was ultimately true] but I orderd a control board, a compressor fan motor and a themostat to be able to fix it in one exercise. The parts took ~3 days to arrive and during this time the desk fan kept the freezer at correct operating temp.
Replacing the control board and repowering the refrigerator [ took 1 hour] immediatly brought the original compressor fan motor up to speed. However it took the unit another 2 hours to get back to the 1 degree operating condition. The temperature had risen from 1 degree to 4 degrees in the time the unit was powered down.

went to your website and viewed exploded view to find the sensor( there are two I just picked one to replace for now), pried the cover off carfully and pulled out the sensor. I snipped the wire in the middle leaving plenty to work with. I shortened the wire on the new piece, spliced the wires together and with some 3M rubberized, tape wrapped them up, replaced the sensor back into the cover and snapped in place.

put fridge into test mode, failed One sensor. Took it out, Tested it, Ordered part also picked up splice kit from electric store spliced it truned on and good to go

Took panel off back of inside of freezer section, took off old sensor from the evaporator, spliced new sensor into the existing wires, waterproofed spliced connections, snapped sensor back onto evaporator, then put panel back on the inside of the freezer. Really, it took only 10 minutes to fix. Now refrigerator defrosts like it used to, and temps have settled in at specified temps.

Noticed the problem in November 2009. Replaced Hi Limit Sesor for Defrost thinking it was the freezor temperature sensor. Did not fix the problem. Replaced Motherboard. Did not fix the problem. Called Sears Repair. They mis-diagnosed the problem and told me it was the sealed system. I doubted them and sent them home. Replaced the correct freezer temperature sensor that connects to the motherboard. FIXED.
Removed a panel, cut two wires, soldered and insulated two wries, reinstalled panel.

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.

No self defrost. Measured heater coil with ohm meter which was OK (not open). Ordered 2 temp sensors (there are 2 in freezer, 2 in fresh food sections). The original and the new all meaured ~150 ohms. Replaced one by one. This did not fix problem. Ordered defrost thermostat. Original measured ~150 ohms - new one was ~100 ohms. Unpluged refridgerator. Removed coil panel (4 nut screws) in freezer and light cover (1 small phillips screw). Locate defrost thermostat clipped to top of coils (orange / pink wires). Cut wires and unclipped thermostat. Stripped insulation off of wires and reconnect using wire nuts. Clipped thermostat back to coils. Ran refridgerator without panel on coils to see if coils frosted up again and listend for fans/compressor to stop ( took hours). Opened freezer and viewed glow of defrost heater. Problem resolved.

The door seemed like the seal wasn't holding the door shut tightly, also the door wouldn't close on it's own even after adjusting the level so it leaned slightly backwards. I thought at first something had happened to the door seal, but it looked in tact. Then I noticed that there was some rubbing on the steel near the lower pin hinge of the main door. I removed the door, by first removing the 3 bolts that hold the upper door hinge. Then lifted the door off the lower hinge. The door is very light and easy for one person to lift. I found that the lower hinge pin slides into the door which has a plastic bushing called a thimble. This is a washer with a collar on it. For some reason, this bushing was missing it's collar. I simply slid the old one out, and replaced it with the new, slid the door back on it's lower hinge pin, then reinstalled the upper hinge pin after sliding the pin into the uole in the top of the door.
The door closes better now than it ever did, and works very freely when opening. Replacement of the thimble also created a better alignment of the door to the refrigerator body, and now the door seal holds tightly, and once again gives that bit of resistance when you open the door.

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.

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.