PTE25SBTARBS General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

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!

Replaced evaporator fan motor, and this solved the whistling noise that had developed. Reviewed and followed the removal and installation instruction video as closely as possible. This was very helpful, with a few additions. For the model PS123NGPBBB GE refrigerator/freezer, there were a few differences from the video. There a was an additional cover panel that was positioned vertically at the back of the freezer compartment below the auger motor assembly. It was necessary to remove this cover (4 screws) to gain access to the auger motor cover screws. The unit also has a different light configuration with 2 lights. I found it helpful to remove these light bulbs and the corresponding light fixtures in order to remove the evaporator motor assembly. As mentioned in the video, it was necessary to cut the 4 wires from the wire harness of the new motor, and use butt end connectors to reattach these wires to the corresponding wires in the unit. Total job took between 1 and 2 hours, and the motor change solved the noise problem.

I watched the video online and it said there were three sensors in the refrigerator, two in the freezer and one in the refrigerator. I only ordered one sensor and was going to try the one in the refrigerator first. He said the upper one in the freezer is the most difficult, but is usually the problem. So, I replaced the upper sensor and tried restarting the unit. Everything went well and it fixed the problem.

I followed the onsite video and had no problems. Shut off refrigerator, removed storage trays and bind, removed the rear panel under the light, identified the orange and pink electrical wires and cut them. Spliced the new wires of the thermostat with refrigerator wire and capped them, applied electrical tape to insure no moister makes contact with wires. Replaced rear panel and storage racks and bind. Plugged in the refrigerator and it is operations like new. I was about to purchase a new refrigerator for $ 1,300.00 and the thermostat costed $ 13.00. What a Christmas present!

First, turn off power - since I did not want to pull the refrigerator out on my wood floor I tripped the circuit breaker to that circuit and opened door to make sure interior light was off (ensuring power was off). This unit has a bottom freezer, I took out all shelves, ice maker and all parts in the way of accessing back of interior of freezer section. Removed back plastic section by removing one screw in middle top of back panel and prying it out. This was a bit difficult as it was in there a bit tight but once the plastic warmed up it pulled out ok. This revealed the compressor section and temp sensor that was attached to the copper coils with of all things - a zip tie! In pictures of this that I looked at on various web sites the sensor was on a metal bracket attached to the coil so it made me wonder if tf the factory took a shortcut? I cut the old sensor wire, stripped the two wires 1/2", and connected them to the new sensor wire with butt connectors, I put some silicone into the ends of the butt connectors to prevent moisture from entering into connectors and wrapped the connection in black electrical tape. I then "attached" the sensor to the coil using a zip tie, put the plastic back piece back on, inserted everything I took out and put power back to refrigerator. It's been 3 days and temp of refrigerator is stable, ice maker not clogging up, and compressor not running all the time! So far so good.

Removed the deli draw and removed supporting frame from bracket within the refrigerator. Snapped the replacement onto the deli basket support frame, engaging its retainers. Re-installed supporting frame and deli basket.

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.

First I removed the ice tray rack lifting it out of the way to reach the back cover of the fan. Then, the whole back inside panel had to be removed. Two screws removed the fan and bracket from the freezer unit. The missing bumper lid just snapped into place. Replaced everything in reverse order. Pretty easy job.

removed 6 screws and repaced cover.

Removed 2 screws and removed the old slide. Installed new slide and 2 screws . Done.

Turned off the breaker to the fridge because I couldn't reach the power plug to unplug it . Use small flat head screwdriver to pop out the piece, disconnected the rubber prong connectors, inserted the new piece into the rubber prongs snapped it back into place. Flipped the breaker back on and prayed it worked. It did and I saved myself $120 service call.

Replaced both the Defrost Thermostat and Defrost Heating Element. The You Tube repair video clips were extremely helpful for both operations. My difficulty was getting access to the parts that needed to be replaced in a very tight side by side freezer space. Otherwise, the repair went smoothly and the refrigerator is back in normal operation in time to save the perishable food inside.

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

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 started out replacing a bad thermostat, no problem,
when I hooked up the water, I found that the water resovior had a leak.
I replaced the resovior, easy fix, but I had to buy two 5/16 brass couplers.
then I found that the box would not get below 10 degrees, and the suction pressure was very low.
I figured that the fan motor was burned out, so I opened up the access covers, the fan motor was hanging there with broken mounts, so I replaced the motor, and repaired the mount.
Everything works great now, The parts shiping was very fast, I was impressed.
I thought I was going to get away without fixing everyones
HVAC problems when I retired.
Friends and family still remember that you are the HVAC man.
Tom