GE ClimateKeeper Dual Evaporator System Freezer
Not Freezing
The ClimateKeeper dual evaporator system is incorporated on some GE energy star refrigerators including GE Profile refrigerators, GE Café refrigerators and Monogram refrigerators. What this means is there is two evaporators rather than one so the fresh food section and the freezer cool independently from one another. Traditionally, refrigerators have one evaporator in the freezer so all of the cold air for the fresh food section comes from the freezer. This is good and works well but there are huge advantages to a dual evaporator system.
Have
you ever said or heard someone say that their ice taste bad? This because
airflow from the fresh food section mixes with the air in the freezer causing
the ice to taste like food in the fresh food section. In other words, what you
taste is the onion from the fresh food section. Another good advantage is that
the humidity of the fresh food section is significantly higher. This allows
fresh produce and unsealed foods to stay fresh longer. Moisture sensitive foods
can be stored on open shelves without a lot of moisture loss.
Some of
these refrigerators use a variable speed compressor. What this does is allow the
compressor to slow down and speed up when the situation calls for it. This also
gives it the energy star rating because this compressor uses far less energy.
As we know in the ClimateKeeper dual evaporator system, the fresh food section and the freezer section cool independently from one another so when repairing them we treat them as two separate refrigerators to a certain extent. On this page, we will talk about the freezer not freezing. Here are other pages on these refrigerators.
GE ClimateKeeper
Fresh Food Not Cooling
GE ClimateKeeper
Refrigerator Not Cooling
Freezer Evaporator Fan Not Running
If the freezer section in a ClimateKeeper dual evaporator isn’t cooling it could be the fan motor. If the freezer fan stops working on a traditional refrigerator, it will cause both sections to stop cooling but with the dual evaporator this will only affect the freezer section. If the evaporator fan isn’t running, the fan or the main board could be the problem. This section will describe how to find out if you need to change the fan, main board or both.
First thing you should do is open the freezer door for more than three minutes. After three minutes the refrigerator will enter a liner protection mode, which will turn the fan on. If the fan doesn’t come on, you will need to determine if the fan or the board is bad. Leave the door open to ensure the fan should be running during testing. Also leave all plugs connected, even the J2 plug at which you will be testing. To test this, locate the main board on the back of the refrigerator. On that board there is plug marked J2, this is where testing for the fan is done.
Set your meter to read DC voltage and place your black (common) lead on J2-pin 3 (third pin from left) and your red lead on J2-pin 8 and you should get 12-14 VDC and if you don’t, replace the main board. Next leave your black lead on the same wire and test to pin 4 and this pin should read 12 VDC. Note that if the refrigerator isn’t in liner protection mode you may get 8 VDC to 4 VDC, this just means that the fan is on low or medium speed mode at the time of testing. If the voltage is correct and the fan isn’t running, replace the refrigerator fan motor. If the voltage isn’t correct replace the board.
Freezer Section Not Defrosting
If the freezer section in a ClimateKeeper dual evaporator isn’t cooling it could be because it is not defrosting. If the freezer is not defrosting, frost will build up and block airflow, which has the same effect as the fan not running. To see if there is a defrost problem, remove the back wall of the freezer and take a look at the coils. This picture shows how the coils will look if there is a defrost problem.
Diagnostics for freezer not defrosting is the same for these refrigerators as
it is for other GE side-by-side refrigerators. Read the section on defrost on
this page GE
Refrigerator Not Cooling or read this page Refrigerator defrost problem.
Thermistor
The main board monitors the temperature in the freezer section, using reading it receives from the thermistor. If the thermistor is bad, the temperature will be off, either too cold or too warm. If the freezer section isn’t freezing and you have confirmed that the fan is running and there isn’t a defrost problem go ahead and replaced the thermistor.
However if you want you can check the thermistor. See this page for more info
Checking Thermistors on GE refrigerators
Main Board
If you have check all of the components above and determine them to be in working order replace the main board.