You stand in front of your open fridge. A river of melted ice cascades down. A stench of sour milk and decaying leftovers overwhelm your senses. You reach out, and hot air curls itself around your fingers.
“What’s the matter, here?” you think. “Why isn’t it cooling?”
There are a few simple answers to that question. A GE fridge usually has cooling problems under the following conditions.
Too much food
That’s right; a fridge with too much food might be a bad thing. Overloading your fridge with containers and dishes might block the air vents. And if your air vents don’t get a clear path to blow air, cooling might radically reduce.
Air vents are usually at the top of the fridge. If they are blocked, it means that you have too many dishes stacked high in your fridge.
This is why you should remember a rule of thumb: only fill your fridge to three-quarters of its capacity. The extra space lets the air vents circulate the cool air properly.
Temperature troubles
Sometimes a GE refrigerator might have faulty temperature settings. You can detect this case if the fridge has hot air inside but a temperature reading of a lower setting.
40° Fahrenheit is the ideal temperature for a refrigerator because it stops bacteria from spoiling your food. Here’s what to do if your fridge is higher than this temperature:
- Take a new thermometer and check the temperature
2. Decrease the GE refrigerator’s temperature a little.
3. Wait a day, and then keep decreasing the temperature if it is not down to 40° Fahrenheit.
Gasket problems
If your refrigerator is not cooling, you might have blown your gasket—or torn it at least. On your refrigerator door, you will often find a rubber seal. This seal is the gasket, often responsible for sealing the cooled air inside. If the seal is broken, the air will flow outside, and the air inside the refrigerator will get hotter and hotter.
The goal here is to make sure your gasket remains sealed. This will require regular checks for tearing and weathering. You also need to clean the gasket very often. If dirt and debris cakes onto a layer of the gasket, it will stop the door from properly sticking and remaining closed. So if you ever start to see dirt on your gasket, get a wet cloth right away and start cleaning.
Coils are foiled
A GE refrigerator usually has coils. These are essential cooling parts that have refrigerants flowing through as they process and expel the heated air in the fridge, replacing it with cold air.
So if there’s a problem with your coils, there’s a good chance your refrigerator will stop cooling. You can find these coils located at the base of a regular GE refrigerator. If you find yourself standing in front of a hot refrigerator, check these first. One of the biggest issues with refrigerator coils is that they can collect dust and debris. If this is the case, they will need cleaning with specialized equipment.
Clean the coils every six months with an appliance brush and vacuum, and you will be good to go.
Thermistor Damage
If you notice that your GE refrigerator is see-sawing between temperatures, it’s time to check the thermistor. The thermistor is the part of the refrigerator that regulates the range of temperatures in the refrigerator. The thermistor makes sure that the temperatures don’t go beyond the range. If they do, it just flips on a cooling cycle.
Thermistors are usually sturdy devices, but they can start to sputter if they go through heat damage. If you suspect that your refrigerator has thermistor issues, don’t attempt to fix it yourself. Thermistors are dangerous and tricky, and only professionals should deal with them.
Start Compressor Trouble
You’d think that your refrigerator should not make any noise, that it should be silent and stately as it preserves all of your food. But the refrigerator’s functioning depends on the crucial sound of the start compressor. If you don’t hear the whirring of a motor or the low mechanical humming of a compressor, you have a problem.
And a problem with a compressor might be the reason your refrigerator is not cooling or working correctly. For this purpose, it’s wise to get GE appliance parts from a trusted dealer and replace the faulty compressor and parts that are culprits leading to cooling issues.
Here’s how to be sure that the compressor is either faulty or not faulty:
- Just bend down and listen to the whirring or humming sound that should be coming from the base of the fridge.
- If you don’t hear anything, the compressor is broken.
- If you hear something but the thermostat is still facing trouble, it means something else is broken.
Parting Thoughts
Remember, there are certain problems you can fix yourself and others you have to hand over to an electrician. If it’s a matter of too many leftovers in the fridge, just clean them out. If it’s a problem with your temperature reading, just pop open a manual. But if your coils, compressors, or thermistors are busted—call a professional.
You might not be able to fix the problem yourself, and you might even worsen it. So it’s better to pick up the phone rather than stand in front of a completely broken fridge that is still pooling melted ice on to your kitchen floor.
