GTS22FBPBRCC General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Must have spent 10+ hours solid looking up info on the internet. Our ice maker had broken years ago, the door flap had broken years ago and I thought this was the end of a fridge after just 6 years 8 months.

GE offered a "broken appliance" warranty for $379 for one year, with no guarantee that when a technician came to look at it, the repairs would be covered by the warranty!!! No thank you, you just want me to buy a new fridge. Okay, challenge on, I'll fix it myself.

I took everything from the back of the freezer out. Spent an hour defrosting (note: use hair dryer next time). Ruled out a motherboard problem (even though it appears I have the old style motherboard), removed dust build up from fan intake. I could not get the heater to come on, so I cut off the thermostat defroster and connected the wires together. The only way to get the heater on was to set the freezer control to 0 / zero.

So, ordered part from partselect.com and it arrived the next day!!!. Installed and unit appears to be defrosting okay after a week.

So now I'm back to order the ice maker part. The door flap will wait for another time.

Note: I've put in the time for novices and recognizing how the freezer is constructed.

Time includes taking everything out of the freezer section, unscrewing everything, diagnosing problem, fixing the problem, putting everything back. I would say allow 3-4 hours and pat yourself on the back if you do it quicker.

Note#2, if you have a large build up there is a hole in the floor of the freezer section. If the water does not evaporate it will run out of the hole and into your wooden floors! Place towels both inside and outside the unit just in case!

Gaskets designed to just press a flange into channel around doors. I tried everything..I pre-heated gaskets ; I put dish soap around flange; I used (carefully) a heat gun as I pressed gasket in. Really very difficult to get the gasket to seat fully. I don't know if there is a tool to help you do this, but you need strong fingers/thumbs and endurance. Once seated, you will need to heat the gasket to get it to fully seal against the fridge. Just lightly heat along the gasket with the doors closed and press open the fold with your fingers. I let the doors stay closed over night. Works great now, but I probably will call a repairman the next time. I miss the old gaskets with a zillion screws..PITA, but easier.

I have not yet done the repair. After watching this repair video two problems came to mind. First I only ordered one grommet not knowing that there were two (or more I don't yet know). The second problem is that this video must be for a fridge from like the 1940, but it looks NOTHING like mine from 2008. The manual shows a bazillion parts and frankly I'm just a wee bit afraid to get started, and I am generally very handy, buuuttttttttt I don't know about this one

I didn’t do the repair because I ordered two grommets. When they arrived, one of the packages was empty! Instead of just sending me another one, they refunded the part so I still need one. By the way, I was not refunded half the shipping either which was more than the part itself.

Easy

turn off the refrigerator,then open the cover and saw lot of ice. then get a hair dryer blower and blow a heat to melt the ice. cut the thermostat defrost.

Totally followed the instructions of the video that came with the sensor. Unplugged the the fridge, defrosted the freezer. Cut off the main sensor that usually is the one that goes out. Installed the the new sensor with new wire terminals, crimped them and covered with electrical tape. Fridge works like a charm. Partsselect is excellent. Saved me a few hundred dollars versus having a GE Tech come and do it.

Find online diagram of freezer section for reference. Disconnect power, remove evap cover plate (214) by removing one of the drawer guide rails.

As evidence of your problem, you might see a giant block of ice built up around the coil. Let this defrost this before continuing.

Find THERMOSTAT DEFROST (24) sensor and clip connecting wires. Match replacement sensor wires by color. Twist and solder wires; or wire-nuts and twisting alone might be okay. If not soldering, seal the wire-nuts connections from moister with a good sizeable piece of duct tape. Make sure your wires are out of the way and not left dangling on the evap heater coil, where they could melt.

Suggest concurrent replacement of evap fan motor if this has not already been done in the past.. This become noisy with age and damage from the ice build up seems to have made mine worse.

Nothing much. It needed the snack pan, which it has never had.
The door was the main issue. My young son would hang on the door. We started having problems with it not closing. Then on day it snapped off. We repaired the screw but found the hole was stripped out. We moved the door to the other side. When the door fell off it broke the upper door shelf. This was a quick slide in repair that did not require any tools.

first removed two srews removed rear panel hair dryer to melt ice (took 30 minutes) cut two wires to thermostat spliced onto new part clipped it onto tube -done replace rear panel and 2 screws. very easy job after reading other letters and their experience -saved myself $500.00

Turned the wire protector to the side. Turned out the old bulb and replaced it with the new. Turned the wire protector back in place and I'm like new.

I found a replacement evaporator fan motor and 2 mounting bracket grommets at PartSelect.com at a reasonable price. I watched the installation video provided and installed the new parts as shown in the video start to finish installation time 22 minutes.i

i took out back frame and cleared off the ice on the metal condenser. I cut wires from old thermostat and removed it. Stripped new wires and attached to the wires in the frig. We taped it with electrical tape and put it back and closed it up. it works beautifully! We watched a video on youtube and that helped a great deal!

Unplug the refrigerator. Pull all shelves out of the freezer. Remove light bulb shield and light bulb. Remove the two hex head screws on either side of the light bulb. Wiggle out the back wall. It is a tight sqeeze, but can be done. Locate the sensor on the top of the coils. It is held on by a simple clip. Wiggle the sensor and twist a little to take it off. Take wire cutters and cut the two wires into the sensor near the sensor to allow lots of room to splice in the new sensor. Strip about a quarter inch of wires left in the freezer. Use some sort of wire connectors, like twist caps, which will allow you to connect the two wires to the new sensor. Make sure to match the colors. I used shrink tube and line connectors. Once you have the new wires spliced together and protected with either shrink tube or electrical tape, tuck the excess wire out of the way and attach the new sensor. This is easily done by slight pressure on the sensor with the tube in between the clip and sensor. Make sure the wires are tuck out of the way and reassemble the freezer panel, light bulb, and shelves in the reverse order.

I watched the online video on how to replace a defrost limiter. It was almost exactly like my situation and made the job seem familiar. It was inexpensive ($8 part)and easy to do.