We bought our Ranch Home here in November, 05. Last week, I noticed some water on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator and thought my husband had dropped an ice cube when filling up the cooler for the golf cart, so I wiped it up and went out to play golf. When I returned, there was a LARGE puddle of water on the floor...and my husband hadn't been home!! I looked in the frig and the whole bottom of it was full of water and so were the backs of the glass shelves. This is one of the "standard" 22 cf refrigerators they put in the "less expensive" homes. I called Home Warranty and was told to call G.E. and if they couldn't help, they gave me the phone number of a local service company they use. I called G.E. and was told they could come on Friday...this was Tuesday!!! I told them that wouldn't work as we already had water seeping under the new wood laminate floor next to the kitchen. I then called the other number they gave me and they had a guy here within an hour. After much effort, he was finally able to remove the back wall of the freezer (from the inside) and found one huge block of ice. He told us the "valve assembly" that is supposed to let water into the ice maker only when called upon to do so, had failed and was slowly dripping water into the back of the freezer and refrigerator. It had been melting and freezing and melting and freezing for quite some time he said...thus the water pooling inside the frig and then leaking out under the door seal onto the floor. He said the part would be $250.00 then the labor charge. We had already paid $78.00 for him to come and diagnose the problem. He said we had to empty the entire unit and leave it open for at least 2 weeks, and a month would be better, to let the foam insulation dry out. He said at that point they could install the new part, BUT...there were no guarantees that it would function properly because the foam could dry into dust and be ineffective. At this point, he told me that this was the 300th PLUS refrigerator like this, with the same problem, that he has seen in TV personally. He said this doesn't include what other service companies have seen. It was his opinion that these were cheap "construction grade" refrigerators, bought in bulk for a cheap price, that TV should have never put into these homes and that G.E. should have recalled all of them.
Needless to say, I had to empty everything out (after just having gone grocery shopping >
and cart it over to my neighbor's house (fortunately they aren't here now...being snowbirds) It took me 7 trips in the 90+ heat to accomplish this. THEN...I had to go shopping and buy a new one. That was not an easy task, as very few manufacturers are making appliances in Bisque now AND we had a limited space for it to fit into. We did upgrade to a S x S w/ice and water in the door, but had to go with another G.E. due to the color and size. For reference...Home Depot has this model and at a good price. They said the majority of their appliance business is Villagers replacing defective units.
I really believe that a refrigerator in a NEW home should last longer than 2 1/2 years...don't you???? ???
I have, today, written and mailed a letter to the Warranty Department stating this fact and asking them for some reimbursement of our expenses. I believe they should stand behind what they put into these "quality built" homes and I will keep you posted on what they say...if anything. My letter may just get filed in the ole "cylindrical file"...if you know what I mean!!
Anyhow, homeowners with this model refrigerator/freezer be on the lookout for water pooling under the drawers and on the shelves. Also look for icicles hanging down into the refrigerator portion from the freezer bottom.
Can you imagine what we would have found if we had been gone out of town for any length of time??? I shudder to think!!! :edit: