GST20IBMDWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I must admit - I thought I'd attempt to do this repair and end up calling a service guy to finish it. I'm not mechanically inclined AT ALL but thought I'd give it a shot after reading others experiences. I'm glad I did. The fix was easy, but there was initial anxiety while reading the instructions that came with the part - as they mentioned the possible need to cut some wires. Fortunately that was not necessary..... Removed three screws from the rear plate to expose the part needing to be replaced. Remove the fittings from the old board (needed plyers to do that - be gentle), take the old board out by using needle nose pliers to squeeze the white plastic tabs and pull the board free. Reconnect fittings to new board and you are done. Works better now than ever - obviously the old board had an issue that GE should have recalled, as many others had the same problem.

Ordered a new Main circuit Board. It arrived next day. Unplug the fridge to take away electrical power. Unscrewed the panel on the back of the fridge near the top. I then pulled the wire connectors off the circuit board. Gently pull the board off the plastic tabs. Push the new board onto the tabs. Reconnect the wire connectors. Screw the panel back on.

Diagnosis of symptoms was condenser fan not running, due to faulty main board.

First: removed the cover over the main board, which was too hot to touch. Bad design flaw, no ventilation for the board, which I believe made it fail. We got another year of service with the cover removed.

Second: after reading people's experiences here, ordered the board and popped it in. (Note: needed a pliers to compress each of the 4 plastic studs holding the board in.) Works like a champ.

Third: did NOT replace the cover. At our altitude the air can't conduct enough heat to prevent cooking the board. Need to allow circulation.

I bought the GE Refrigerator about 4 years ago for about $1500. The defrost Heater failed about one year ago. Then I called local repair guy, he replaced the Defrost Heater and charged me about $250. Now it happened again. I think we should try it to fix it by myself. I found the parts from partselect.com, it costs me $50 with 2-3 days shipping. After it replaced, it works fine again.

Note: Symtom: cannot make cool air, Frozen area with frost on the wall. Regeriator "leaking water" on floor since iced food started to melt...

Solution: open the cover of the wall inside of frozen zone, use hot water to defrost it gradually. removed the failed Defrost Heater and replaced it with new one.

Note: after you defrost the area inside of the wall, your refrigerator will work normally without the Defrost heater without any issue about week while you are waiting for the parts coming.

Turned the power of to the fridge took the food out of the freezer put in the fridge took out all the shelves and took off the panel to get to the coils. I used a hair dryer and a shop vac to defrost the coils used the shop vac to suck up the water as the ice melted also put some paper towel in the drip tube so the water would not go to the drip pan. Took off old defrost heater which was a single heater the new on was a double heater fished out the blue wire from the left side of compartment and ran it down the right side plugged both wires into the heater mounted it into place and put everything back. Turned on fridge and it has been working fine ever since. Thanks for the last person that did this I read his review and it really was that easy
Thanks Jerry

Removed back wall cover over coil. Defrost all ice with a hair dryer. Cut white wires and replaced Temperature Sensor. It has been working for a week and no trouble at this time. If you have this system on your GE refrigerator do this before replacing the motherboard. I must admit I was thinking that was the trouble. Motherboard was replaced after 5 years old now 5 years later my thinking is this a 5 year problem. So try the Temperature Sensor.

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.

Simple; Removed the panel, unplugged the cable connections to the mother board with a rat nosed plier.
Then to remove board you must squeeze closed the 4 plastic retainer clips in each corner, or they can accidentally be pulled off with the board.
Removed the board, re-attached the new board on the clips, then the cable connectors, then the panel.
Plugged in the refrige and it has been silent ever since.
Follow the instructions and anyone can do it.

Simple directions were provided. It took more to clean and vaccuum than the actual repair. Yes I replaced the motherboard in a referigerator. Just keep not of the connectors and were they came off from on the original board. Dont just rip them off because the new board has some different connections. So follow the directions and take your time if your not sure. But really it a cinch. No more whoooo sheeesh and howling noises from the referigerator. Thank goodness.

Unbolted the back cover, pulled out old board, replaced with new bored and powered back on. It is working great now.

The replacement part went in quite easily and quickly. The instructions sent with the part was pretty self explanatory. I have also replaced the defroster element, the defrost thermostat and now the main control board. After having done all this the thing is still freezing up. After disassembling the whole freezer section I found yet another temperature sensor (Also known as Thermistor). I'll replace this part next and if it still freezes up you'll be able to find it sitting on the curb. Thrown enough money at this ten year old fridge and a new one will be in order. Thanks Parts Select for reasonably priced parts, the posts to help with the repair and the fast shipping.

First, I removed the cover plate from behind the fridge. Next, I carefully pulled the main board out (four little clips holding it in) and disconnected the plug in wires. I connected the wires to the new board, popped it back in place and replaced the cover. Very easy to do.

follow the easy instructions replace 3 temperature sensors cut the wires and crimp them with new sensor and it works like new

Replaced Defrost Thermostat. Tricky removal of light fixture cover and evaporator cover. Light cover screw removal is not intuiitive and the eveaporator cover tabs are not easy AT ALL to remove.Once they are removed, simply 2 screw removal of rear panel.

Had to unscrew screws holding cooling coils to gain access to thermostat mounted on a coil in rear.

Simkple matter to cut wires, remove old thermostat and splice replacement back on. Found it simpler to re-mount thermostat on top coil greatly simplifying process.(Why didn't they place the original unit in this much more accesible place?)
Re-attach coils to rear wall replace rear panel, light fixture cover and evaporator cover.

Refrigerator has been running fine this past week.

Received parts NEXT DAY! FANTASTIC!

The back panel was unscrewed, we read the directions with the circuit board and followed them. It was very easy to unplug the old faulty unit and plug in the new replacement part. It was done in 4 minutes flat. Very easy to do yourselves!