CTS18FBSFLWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

my daughter found the item number through your friendly website. Ordering was easy, delivery was fast. Great packing. My refrigerator is happy again..Would definitely order again!!!

Pulled the two wires out from the access hole in the lower part of the refrigerator. Put them in the spade connectors on the new switch, and pushed the switch into place.

Just as your video described, although due to the age of the fridge, it took a bit longer to remove the defective switch. Your video made this so simple, I can't imagine why we lived with a dark fridge for so long! I was ready to buy a whole new fridge, as repairmen are often nonexistent for small repairs. I am the biggest fan of your company & it's repair video. THANK YOU SO MUCH

My wife and I followed the installation video & put the gasket in hot water. We struggled to get it started in the second corner on top. Gasket had cooled down so wasn't wanting to go in the slot. I finally got the bright idea to use a hair dryer to warm the gasket as we pushed it along.
That helped us finish the installation.
Not sure the new gasket is the complete answer to the leakage at the top of the door (forming ice crystals). The MAGNETS ARE WEAK compared to my 1 year old GE top freezer refrigerator!
My newer refrigerator "snaps" shut.

Using plyers Pulled old switch down and out. Put new one in and pushed new switch up into position. The switch plugs into the contacts, no wiring needed. Worked like a charm. You saved me 200 dollars GE repair bill. Thanks

removed the old gaskets with the putty knife to pry it loose then pulled the old gaskets off. Soaked the new gaskets in slightly boiling water to make them better able to straighten out and then installed by lining them up and pressing them in place, making sure they were lined up and that they were in the track provided for them.

repalaced the old one with the new one. easy

Removing the old gaskets was very simple. Replacing the fresh door gasket was the most time consuming. It would have been easier if I had help, it took a some time and patience. The gasket works perfectly. The freezer gasket was easy to replace. The gaskets fit perfectly, thank you. For the ladies out there, you if I can do it, so can you.

per your instructions

Checked the defroster coil which is located behind the rear panel in the freezer compartment, it was still working. Followed the schematics down to the defrost timer, which is located in the lower front of the refrigerator and tried that. Plugged in the new part and the problem is solved.

easy pry out, disconnect wiring, connect on new switch and press in switch.

Pulled out old shelf and put in new one. However the new shelf is too narrow and will break at some point just like the old one. Apparently no way to fix this issue.

Defrost timer is hidden in the control panel in the refrigerator top middle. Turn to off and remove two screws which are hidden behind white tabs. I had to pry the old timer from the plug with a screw driver because it was tight. Try not to short across the terminals. Plug in the new timer. Replace it in the clip where you got old one and reinstall the controls. The freezer was still all frosted up so I had to remove the cover and defrost it with a hair dryer to get it to work. Then I turned it on and it works great.

The original gasket had ripped and the magnet strip was hanging out. Following information from several youtube video clips & suggestion from the seller, I soaked the gasket in a tub of hot water for 30min to make it more pliable. After removing the old gasket, I put on the new, which only appeared to just snap into a metal tract. However the door couldn't seal. There were big gaps. That is when I realized that the gasket was still rigid. So I took a heat gun and carefully blew hot air on the gasket as I pulled it out enough for the metal edge of the gasket to attach itself to the refrigerator. Took quite a while to get it to seal correctly, but seems to be working well now.

My brother-in-law is a 15 year refrigeration technician who I called and described the problem to. He told me to put an "amp clamp" on the line side of the wires (black) that go to the starting controls on the side of the compressor. The motor has a label that has a number on it (LRA) that he used to determine the max amps it would pull. In this case, if the motor pulled 10 amps, then the motor was bad and I'd have to buy a new refrigerator. It was pulling less then 9 amps so he thought to buy a new overload, since the capacitor checked out (measured by multi-meter). As soon as the part came, I removed the back panel (4 screws removed by nut driver), removed the clip that holds the overload/capacitor assembly, detached the two wires from it, and removed the capacitor from the overload. I swapped in the new overload and repeated the above process in reverse. The only difficulty was that the new part was different in that the plug-in locations for the two wires were in different locations, and not marked. I had to disassemble the old part to figure out how it worked so I could deduce how the new one plugged in. Once that was solved, it was a quick fix. This was not a repair that just anyone could do; it required someone with a lot of experience to help me, and I am an engineer.