PTE25SBTJRSS General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

This was generally an easy fix. The work was in such a confined area of our side by side and my husbands shoulders are broad so that was a little more challenging but overall a quick, easy and cheap repair doing it ourselves without having to call a appliance repairman.

Bent the motor bracket down, then using a rat tail file, elongated the holes in the back panel of the refrigerator to secure the fan in the "centered" position. This was a problem that was with the refrig. since it was made. The parts involved were perfect. NO problem at all installing them.

You guys ought to win some sort of website Emmy. I found your site as I was searching for a new motherboard, thinking this was the cause of the temperature control problem. I took the time to go through the little diagnostic process you offer and I discovered that the much less expensive defrost thermostat was more often the root cause of the problem ($8 vs $160 for the new motherboard). The part arrived within 3 days and the installation video was enormously helpful. Removal of the rear panel was more difficult than suggested on the video. I'd suggest removing the freezer light fixture before trying to remove the panel as it is nearly impossible to bend the metal panel around the light bulb bases. Anyway, the whole job cost me about $16 for parts and delivery and the fridge is running fine. The combination of the diagnostic tool and the installation video were fantastic...far beyond expectations.

Find a video on youtube. Remove 6 screws. Pull the Styrofoam part up before removing the panel. Unplug and Remove the fan assembly.
You will need a NUT DRIVER to take the bracket off the backing plate.
I ordered the red grommet and the red bumper. You need TWO of the red grommets if that is the problem. My freezer was about 8 years old, and the grommets were worn and compressed, the bumper was not. Replacing these parts DID NOT FIX the problem. I needed a new motor.
I probably disassembled and reassembled this stuff about 7 times before I got all the parts and tools. Each time I had to unload the freezer.

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!

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

Had to defrost the freezer to melt off all the ice before servicing. Once that was done the icemaker replacement only took about 15-30 minutes to complete. The new icemaker came with many accessories and adaptors that were not needed and the instructions were based on replacing an older model and not really clear for my model. They mentioned not being able to use the new stripper but it was exactly the same as the old one so I left the new one in place. All in all it was easy and did the job.

Took out freezer rack took off the back panel also light bulb found the DEFROST THERMOSTAT cut the 2 wires remove the thermostat strip the wires on the new thermostat splice the to wires together with wire nut wrapped wire nuts with electrical tape put new thermostat back were the old came off of put panels back in place also the racks and bulb plunged in the power and guess what it works like a Champ with in 1 hour making ice and going through defrost cycle nice Thank You Guys for your video and the how to do Thanks Ken

I followed your video and completely dismantled the refrigerator evaporator motor, fan, brackets, and grommet, I completely cleaned the refrigerator including the cooling coils. I then ordered the evaporator motor ,fan, grommets, lid bumper, and brackets. The order would take a week to arrive. In the meantime I cleaned and reassembled all the old parts, waiting for the new ones to come. Guess what! The refrigerator was quiet as a mouse. I really did not need the new parts, but I kept them anyway just for good luck. Not bad for a refrigerator that's twenty four years old.

After unplugging the refrigerator-freezer and emptying out the contents I snipped off the refrigerator thermistor, stripped off the wire insulation and used a butt splice. That did not solve the problem. So, a day later I unplugged the refrigerator again, transferred the freezer contents to a newly purchased small freezer unit, took off the back panel inside the freezer portion, and saw a large amount of ice build-up on the silver coils inside. This ice was quickly melted off using a hair dryer and packing towels below this accumulated ice. Then I snipped off the two freezer thermister sensors and the defrost sensor. I soldered the wires together for a hard splice, wrapped the individual wires with rubber electrical tape, and then wrapped that with plastic electrical tape. After re-assembly, the refrigerator-freezer has been working flawlessly for over a week at optimal temperatures.

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.

Look at various pertenant DYI articles and videos on the internet. Replaced water filter with bypass plug. Checked water flow to icemaker water solenoid. Ran icemaker diagnostic test which failed. Ordered replacement. On receipt of replacement, began replacement work. To wit: Pulled fiidge from wall and unplugged. (Not necessary to shut water off.) Removed small freezer basket. Unloaded main freezer basket, removed it then removed the freezer door. (A screw on each side bolts the door rail of the chassis slide to the freezer chassis slide.) Loosened screws on rear, top of partition between icemaker and small freezer basket. Pushed up on partition front and popped out U-bar supporting partition bottom being carefull not to bend it. Removed same. Removed screws from partition and set aside. Removed grilled "thingy" between rear of icemaker and partition. Now have access to icemaker screws. Loosened the screws, pushed up and out and carefully let it hang by it's connector. Fiddled with the connector locking tabs and finally got it loose. Compared old and new icemaker. Have to keep the old water funnel. The new wiring harness was stiff and the connector had a different orientation. Twisted both the wiring harness and connector to align connector while the icemaker hung by it's cable being careful not to let the icemaer slip and fall to the bottom. After much fiddling, got the connector inserted and locked. Set icemaker over the two screws, pulled it down and tightend the screws. Put the old funnel into the new unit being very careful to get it right the first time. Put grilled "thingy and the partition and U-bar back in, put door back on, put the ice cube bin back, freezer drawers bac and reloaded the frozen food, plugged fridge in. Done! Time to replace icemaker was about 20 minutes and another 2 hours to do the rest ofthe work. Still required only a nutdriver and phillips.

unplug refrigerator. Remove Ice bin then remove the cover off the ice maker,(slides off from bottom then lift off top) no reason to remove ice maker completely. Remove center gear screw and remove main gear from Ejector blade. remove (3) screws holding the front plate. The motor and switches are attached to this plate from behind, do not remove the nut from the from the stud that adjusts the travel for the motor. The Motor and switches will come upt with the plate and the shut off arm will come out of a hole in the top right. Its ok just be careful when you put it back to get it in the hole. remove the old cam and replace it wint the new one and reassemble. Its a bit tricky to get all of the microswitches over the new cam just carefully wiggle the plate and cam and don't push too hard. once everything is lined up it should go back together and you can replace the screws and main gear :)

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.

First i removed two screws that holds the ice maker in, unplug the plug to the ice maker. I was able to remove the old one. Place the new one in screwed in the two screws and pluged in the plug and in just a little while i had ice again. I am a women, if i can do it any one can. I had a repair man tell me it was going to be $250.00 dollars to replace it. I got on line ordered the ice maker and had it in 4 days. Very fast shipping and easy to install. Tina Kearns Beaumont, Calif