GSS20DBPJCC General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Can’t repair it yet. Because it’s taking you too long to send me my parts. Tried calling but your answering service conveniently won’t answer. Had to cancel first order and reorder hopefully to receive faster.

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.

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.

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.

This is such an easy fix!
1-Unplugging the fridge and emptyi it. Remove all shelves.
2-remove the 2 screws at the top of the back panel with a 1/4 inch nutdriver. You'll have to tilt ithis panel forward and sideways to get it out.
3- DO NOT CHIP AT THR ICE COVERING THE COOLING COILS? Replace one shelf and rest a hair dryer on low heat on the shelf.. Plug the drain hole at the bottom with a rag so all the melted ice water doesn't flood the floor under the fridge. Soak up the water with a rag and bucket- this should take 20-30 minutes.
4-Remove the red and blue power cables from the element. Only 2 philips head screws hold the defrosting element in place. Once it's out you can tell it's burned out because it looks black like a burned out lightbulb.
4-Plug in the red and blue power cables to the new unit. You will need to reroute the blue power cable because the new unit has both power connections on the same end.
5-Replace the cover panel by sliding it in at an angle and replace the 1/4 inch screws.
6-Replace the shelves and plug in the fridge.
That's it!

The most difficult part of the repair was the melting of the ice and preparation. I did change a single element heater for a dual element heater, which required a little manual flexing of the sub-frame, but it assembled with little issue. I was lucky, I did not have to splice the extended harness connection. Rerouting my existing gave sufficent length.
Not sure if the single elements were changed for dual, but it did have the same PN as the unit I replaced.

Parts select sugested checking the freezer side on the side by side if there was frost on the back panel. I took the back panel off on the freezer side inside the freezer. I found that the freezer coils were full of ice.Had to use a hair dryer to melt all the ice. The heater element was bad on the bottom of the freezer. I ordered a new defrost element an installed in 40 minutes and is running fine.You can still use the refrigerator until the new part comes in if you melt off the coils.It will last about 2 weeks.

WE (WIFE) took out the old parts an replaced with new one ..Be careful to get the placement of the Grommet or they "POP" out on you. fast ship on the parts too.

I watched the repair video on partselect's website for the condenser fan motor and realized I could do the repair. The hard part was putting the two screws back on the bracket to mount the fan. (they were not easy to get to with your hands let alone tools) other than that super easy and great experience!
Tom

Separately (from a different site) purchased new compressor fan and motor. I purchased the grommets here because the other site listed the grommets as temporarily out of stock. I did watch one of the videos on PartSelect about the grommet replacement. Repair was pretty simple, biggest challenge was getting to the screw on the far side of the motor. Removed the two screws holding the fan motor into place. Removed motor and blade. Reinstalled with new fan blade, new grommet and new motor.

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.

Attempted to remove whole bracket per PartSelect YouTube video. Our refrig must have been slightly older or something, because the bracket would not come out no matter how much we begged and pleaded. ~ So we replaced motor in place, which was a headache, but doable. Seems to work fine, and much quieter than the old motor.

Simply followed the video -- VERY helpful... BUT: getting the bottom tab to re-insert into the holder after the motor was replaced was VERY difficult...!!! Until I discovered that I could move the refrigerant coil (upon which the tab mounts) just enough that I could get the tab inserted...!!! "Twas NOT as simple as it looked on the film...

Being able to move both the fan motor holder (with the tab) AND the coil made it happen, easily...

I replaced the compressor fan.

I removed food, then removed shelves.
The light bulb and shade had to be taken out.
removed two screws from interior back panel.
defrosted cooling coils
removed two screws from defrost heater
took off two wires ...done
reversed procedure to finish installation