GTS18QBSARWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

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.

The Fridge and freezer were not very cold except for in the very back of the freezer (where the coils are). So I opened up the back of the freezer by first removing the dome light cover and removing all the visible screws. I then lifted up and pulled out the vent in the center of the back panel and removed the two remaining screws on the back panel. At that point I removed the back panel exposing the coils and fan. I saw that the fan was not spinning so I used a screw driver to manually turn the defrost timer found on the top of the inside of the fridge. Once I had turned the defrost timer once complete rotation, and the fan didn't turn on, I was pretty sure that it was the fan. I still wasn't sure that the fan was the only problem, but I couldnt see anything else that wasn't working properly. I decided to take a chance and order the fan motor (not the entire assembly. it is easy to replace the moter only leaving the original fan blades and housing). Once I got the part, I unplugged the old fan motor, put in the new fan motor, and pugged it in and it started spinning right away. I put everything back together the same way I took it apart and it has worked great ever since.

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.

Found burned Defrost timer contacts.

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.

I used pliers to pull lightly on the head of the switch, while I inserted a small flat head screw driver into the base of switch and gently worked around the edges to free it from the panel.

After replacing the light bulb and still no light I manually pushed the light switch button. Intermittently the light would come on then go out. I removed the power plug from the power source then replaced the light switch. I plugged the refrigerator back in and now I open the door the light comes on and stays on until the door is closed.

The old switch was hard to remove. Thinking that I may have to loosen the wires I used a socket wrench to remove a clamp. This was unnecessary. In the end the switch did come out using a large size screwdriver. The problem was that the expanding plastic tongue is not visible from the ouside so you have to try to feel your way around. If i had ordered the replacement before and not afterwards I would have seen this before hand.

Freezer worked great but no cooling to refrigerator section. Replaced with part ordered. Phillips head screw driver is all that is needed. Very easy to replace, it's plug and play. New part powered up neither the freezer nor the refrigerator. Went back to old part and atleast freezer still works. New part was no good from factory. The replacement part# matched the original. I attempted to contact PartsSelect but there was no response back.

I ordered two switches, replaced both with a knife in 10 minutes. Interior light works, thanks.

I found instructions on the web about how to do this repair, so I ordered the part with confidence. But the instructions simply said "pull out the old switchlight". That was actually somewhat difficult as the clip on the side intended to hold the part in was stubborn. I eventually used a utility to slice off the clip. From that point, it was just a matter of plugging in the new switchlight , which was very simple.

Removed fan housing from top of freezer, then the two screws holding the rest of it in place. Then two more screw and removed the vertical housing in back of freezer. two more screws and I was able to remove the whole back plate. I unplugged evap motor wire from back of freezer wall and unscrewed motor bracket. once motor was free, I removed the blade, unscrewed ground wire and installed new motor. I then plugged wire back in to ensure new motor worked and put everything back. Super Easy!!

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.