GDR23DSEARBS General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Instructions say run capacitor is by motor, but on this frige its in the refrigerator compartment. The capacitors looks different, one square and the other long

First I was told the compressor was bad. A quick YouTube lookup diagnosed it as 1 of 3 thing. Starter relay, motherboard, or compressor. First two are cheap, compressors are not. A rattle in the relay will tell you if it’s bad. Since there wasn’t I looked to the motherboard. A burnspot indicated it was the board that was bad. Partsselect had the cheapest board at the same quality. Fast delivery and I simply plugged in the ports to install. There was a small cover with some bolts to take off but nothing intricate. Plug and play and I was up and running. Great experience with the website and no previous experience with repairs of this type.

I used pliers to pull lightly on the head of the switch, while I inserted a small flat head screw driver into the base of switch and gently worked around the edges to free it from the panel.

I visually inspected the compressor and narrowed down the source of the noise to the freezer area. Then I removed the doors and the screws securing the divider panel. Next I removed the bottom panel of the freezer, the styrofoam insullation panel and the evaporator motor. The motor is mounted between two grommets. I replaced the grommet facing the fan blades. The aluminum reflector below the styrofoam insulation panel had also come loose. I reattached it and reassembled the refrigerator in reverse order. The noise is gone!

Simply take off the back panel. Remove the old run capacitor which is attached to the compressor by a white part. It pulls right off. You will have to unplug two wires. I took a pic to ensure I plugged the wires back up the correct way. Then I attached the new capacitor to the white part and put on the sleeve that was included, plugged it back into the compressor and zip tied the excess part of the sleeve. Once done plug fridge back up (always unplug electric devices when doing maintenance) to check before replacing back panel. It may take a few minutes before it kicks on.

I opened the back panel of the fridge and exposed the compressor. Unplugged existing run capacitor and installed new one with the addition of the sleeve that is stated must be installed around the run capacitor.
Everything I read and on this web site says that based on these symptoms, that the problem is the run capacitor. I searched and search for a part called a start relay which plugs in to the compressor. This run capacitor plugs in to this other part which I take as the start relay.

Installing this run capacitor did not solve the problem. The fridge compressor keeps cycling on and off. Freezer doesn't keep as cold as it should.

The old switch was hard to remove. Thinking that I may have to loosen the wires I used a socket wrench to remove a clamp. This was unnecessary. In the end the switch did come out using a large size screwdriver. The problem was that the expanding plastic tongue is not visible from the ouside so you have to try to feel your way around. If i had ordered the replacement before and not afterwards I would have seen this before hand.

After replacing the light bulb and still no light I manually pushed the light switch button. Intermittently the light would come on then go out. I removed the power plug from the power source then replaced the light switch. I plugged the refrigerator back in and now I open the door the light comes on and stays on until the door is closed.

I ordered two switches, replaced both with a knife in 10 minutes. Interior light works, thanks.

replaced lights in refrigirator and freezer

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.

It just unpluged and the new one plugged in. Simple. The part was reasonable and arrived very quickly. It sure is nice to have a light in the frig again.

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.

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.

turn breaker off first then use thin blade screwdriver and plastic pry bar to remove light socket and switch there was plenty of wire so work was easy to install at both ends