Freezer section of upright Refrigerator frozen up again
 

Freezer section of upright Refrigerator frozen up again. A couple of months ago, our top freezer section in our GE (model GTS18JBPDRWW) froze up and the temperature went way up in the entire unit. Fan in freezer was still working. (This refrigerator/freezer is located in the garage and has been working fine for 10 years) When this problem came up, I posted it and several of you gave suggestions. One person on Nextdoor suggested we remove the back panel inside freezer section and clean out the ice dam. (their fan needed replacing but our fan is working fine) We did what they suggested, using hair dryers and towels removed all the frost. Put it all back together and everything was working fine until yesterday. Then we noticed the temp gauge in ref. showed temp was going up........so the same thing happened again. We repeated removing ice, etc. and put it back together. Today it is working fine.
It appears as if the defrost cycle isn't working. Has this happened to anyone out there, and did you repair it yourself or hire someone? Please share a name and number if you hired someone and were happy with this repair person. Would appreciate any and all suggestions. Thank you in advance.

My suggestion would be to buy a new refrigerator.

The coolant is low which is normally a sealed system. You either get it charged or replace fridge because it has a leak. Finding the leak and repairing it is highly unlikely. Good Luck.

Check the defroster clock. The freezer goes through a defrost cycle which warms the freezer coils and melts the accumulated ice. The melted ice drips down to a drain pan under the refrigerator. If that's not working ice will build up around the coils.

could be the timer for the defrost coil. you could check the ohms in the coil to make sure it hasn't burnt out.{unlikely}

I go with post #2.

OMG you don't have a clue, don't follow this advice OP!
Its either the defrost timer or the Klixon control

My two cents worth. People trying to be helpful where you do not know if they know what they are talking about or are they looking at your refrigerator. I think you said the refrigerator has been running in your garages for 10 years. I assume it was not new when you put it into the garage a rough operating environment for any refrigerator. It is pumping heat into a hot and sometimes cold environment.
A newer refrigerator will likely be more efficient and save your cost in electricity. On an older refrigerator you may find parts you need are no longer made.

We used Bobs Appliance repair phone 352 897-1002. He was pleasant, kept appointment-on time and the cost was reasonable.

Aside, my sister has a GE refrigerator that came with her home. The motor has a date on it and it is 1936. Efficiency? Hey, if it that old and still running you do not ask or wonder.

I've had the same problem with refrigerators before, and nearly always it was due to a stopped up defrost drain line.

What you need to do is unplug the refrigerator and TOTALLY get rid of ALL the ice on the cooling coils by applying hot/warm air. You can just open the door and blow a fan on it, or you can use a hair dryer to blow HOT air to speed up the process.

Here's the important part. You need to make sure that the water from the melted ice runs down through the defrost drain line to the evaporator pan underneath the refrigerator. If water doesn't run down that drain line, then the line is stopped up with something. It could be stopped up with ice or a particle of food that wasn't wrapped well when you put it in the freezer. Whatever it is, you MUST make sure that line is open and draining well.

Then, after you get all the ice out of the coils and you're sure the drain line is open, plug it in and it should be good to go once it cools down good. Note: Be careful removing ice from the coils. It's best to just MELT the ice. If you try to chip it out with a knife or ice pick, you may damage the thin copper tubing that the coils are made of.

Also, you will likely have to empty the evaporator pan several times during the manual defrosting that you will do. Once you get it defrosted and the drain line open and the unit is back in service, the water that runs into the pan will evaporate when the fan blows air across it. That's why it's called an "evaporator pan".

If you do a good, thorough job of this defrosting and making sure the drain line is open, and then the problem occurs again in a month or two, then the defrost timer may need replacing. You might also check for any loose wires that run to or from the defrost timer.

You might consider getting a Home Owners Warranty. We sed American Home Shield for many years before coming down here and they repaired everything. We had a fridge that did the same thing your's is doing, they tried to fix it twice to no avail and ended up paying for a new one. We used them many times for our furnaces, AC compressors, microwave, dishwasher, wall oven, and garbage disposal. The only problem we ever had with them was one winter it took them 3 days to get someone out to fix our furnace, they knew we had 3 furnaces so I understood sending the repairmen to others before ours. We don't have the coverage here and I really didn't think about it until now, our home is 4 years old so I think I'll give them a call.

Could be a defrost heater or defrost timer. Probably a YouTube video online showing how to fix it or call Jeff's Appliance. He's a former GE tech, Jeff Rapier.

I can offer you no technical advice, but I just felt I needed to share that your picture looks exactly like the refrigerator I had in college always looked. Always.

Ask a Pro
 

Try asking AppliancePartsPros.com Use the model# in your question and they will tell you what part is the most likely. I have used them for my washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator. All their suggestions fixed the problem.

Time to ORDER a new fridge.... it may take months and by then you will have figured out your drain is plugged, your defrost timer is shot and you were also low on coolant! Put it in your garage so you can offer me a cold beer for my suggestion

It's not worth fixing. Find a used one on the classified here or nextdoor.