GE Profile Side by Side Refrigerator has mild temperature fluctuations

[backer36]

I bought a used GE Profile Refrigerator Side by Side from an appliance store last week. I hooked it up and it took probably a good 24hrs before it got down to temp (maybe a little longer). But, since then, it has continued to fluctuate up and down, never consistently holding a temperature. My settings are -1 and 35 degrees F for the freezer and refrigerator respectively. My freezer will go from -1 all the way up to 7 at some points (usually will hold around 4 for the longest I've noticed) and the refrigerator will go from 36 to 42 (usually will hold around 40-41 for the longest). Not sure what the heck these are symptoms of. My food seems ok and I haven't been able to see how ice handles in the freezer yet because the geniuses at GE decided to make their water line hookup 5/16 which isn't exactly a standard size. ANY help on what it might be or personal testimonies of what people have done will help. Refrigerator troubleshooting is not my strong suit. Thank you in advance!!!

[darren412]

Sounds like a bad mother board issue.  I had a ge profile one time doing the exact same thing. I changed the mother board and that took care of the fluctuating temperatures. I did not change the thermistors because thermistors can rarely be an issue but thermistors are such an inexpensive part that you may also want to change them first and see how the refrigerator reacts . changing the thermistors first would be the least expensive cost to you. You can check them but its easier to just replace them and observe the fridge temperatures. Ge also at one point had thermistors that were faulty and they were thermistors that had a black sealant that was used to seal them and if you see that your thermistors have a black colored sealant on the bottom then I would replace them. The replacement thermistors were upgraded and are all white with no black color on them at all.  There are 3-4 thermistors in a ge refrigerator  depending on the model.   one on the evaporator coil in the freezer. one in the freezer compartment at the bottom left rear corner on the inner wall or some where else on the freezer wall somewhere,   one in the fresh food compartment wall and one possibly down by the lower vent grill by your feet for ambient temperature readings.   Change them first (WR55X10025 GE  Thermistors).  If no Change Then I would change the mother board.  That should take care of your issue

[backer36]

I have changed the motherboard, condenser fan motor, defrost heater and all 3 thermistors.  The pattern I have noticed is that the temperature will climb at night (10deg F in the freezer and 45deg F in the fridge) and then when I wake up, it starts coming back down.  I read that this specific model has an "energy saving" feature that controls the temperature in the fridge when the doors are not being opened.  Obviously the doors are not being opened during the night so I thought there might be a link, but I assumed that any communication error like that would have been taken care of by switching the motherboard.  Anything else I'm missing?

[spencertech]

refrigerators have a cut in and cut out temperature. If you are testing air temp it may be normal. Check the temp of a cup of water with a probe.

[backer36]

Will do tonight.  I do have an actual thermometer in there and it is showing the air temp in the freezer at 10deg F when I woke up and 45deg F in the refrigerator.  My fear is that me opening the door in the morning is what triggers it too start cooling down.... I don't know.  Then it makes me nervous to leave for more than 24hrs.

[backer36]

The water temp was around 43 degrees.  I can't get the fridge section to get below 41-42 degrees now, even with the "turbo-cool" feature on.

[darren412]

you mentioned you changed the condenser fan already not sure if you meant the evaporator fan ??   Not sure why you changed the condenser fan but the evaporator fan if its working intermittently can cause fluctuating temps also.

[johntech]

Have you looked at the frost pattern on the evaporator? It should have an even frost pattern from top to bottom. Now the refrigerator will go into a defrost mode which I would expect the freezer temp to go up to around 10 degrees and refrigerator temp to raise as well. You did not provide a model number so that makes it very difficult to determine what components you refrigerator has. Thermistors if your unit has them are easy to test with a multi meter set to resistance. A quick google search for "Ge refrigerator thermistor chart" will get the spec data you need. If you are using a metal refrigerator thermometer to measure the temps then that could be the problem. I often receive calls that were generated by cheap thermometers not reading correctly. Also where you measure temps is important too.  My biggest question is why are you not calling the appliance store that sold you the unit?  If it is new or used  it should be under some kind of warranty since you bought it last week. I sure would not be replacing fans and computers on a refrigerator under warranty. It could possibly void the warranty. 

[backer36]

The thermistors have already been replaced. I bought it from a guy which as you can guess, does not come with a warranty.  He claimed to have gotten from an appliance store and never used it..... but that's besides the point.  I'm where I'm at now and trying to get it running.  The model number is PCF25NGWA, I thought I had it in the description.  My apologies.  After doing searches online, the first thing that everyone seemed to be saying was replaced the mother board and condenser fan motor.  That is the only reason I did; it was based on my symptoms and others recommendations.  Would the evaporator motor cause this as well?

[backer36]

On 9/26/2017 at 1:28 PM, johntech said:

Have you looked at the frost pattern on the evaporator? It should have an even frost pattern from top to bottom. Now the refrigerator will go into a defrost mode which I would expect the freezer temp to go up to around 10 degrees and refrigerator temp to raise as well. You did not provide a model number so that makes it very difficult to determine what components you refrigerator has. Thermistors if your unit has them are easy to test with a multi meter set to resistance. A quick google search for "Ge refrigerator thermistor chart" will get the spec data you need. If you are using a metal refrigerator thermometer to measure the temps then that could be the problem. I often receive calls that were generated by cheap thermometers not reading correctly. Also where you measure temps is important too.  My biggest question is why are you not calling the appliance store that sold you the unit?  If it is new or used  it should be under some kind of warranty since you bought it last week. I sure would not be replacing fans and computers on a refrigerator under warranty. It could possibly void the warranty. 

The thermistors have already been replaced. I bought it from a guy which as you can guess, does not come with a warranty.  He claimed to have gotten from an appliance store and never used it..... but that's besides the point.  I'm where I'm at now and trying to get it running.  The model number is PCF25NGWA, I thought I had it in the description.  My apologies.  After doing searches online, the first thing that everyone seemed to be saying was replaced the mother board and condenser fan motor.  That is the only reason I did; it was based on my symptoms and others recommendations.  Would the evaporator motor cause this as well?

[johntech]

I would start by checking the basics. Are all 3 fans running when it's cooling? Is the compressor running? Are the doors sealing? Can you feel air flow from the fans?  If everything is running, doors are sealing and there are no doors bstructions to air flow I would pop the evaporator covers and check the frost patterns on the evaporators. They should be evenly frosted from top to bottom. If it has been stored for a while with the doors closed they can develop refrigerant leaks. You would be able to confirm this by examining an evaporator and finding it only partially frosted. There are 2 evaporators on this model. One in the freezer and one in the fresh food side. The freezer is the first place the refrigerant goes so I would start by checking the fresh food evaporator because this would be where the frost pattern would be effected the most. If it is a refrigerant leak will probably be cheaper to replace the unit then have it fixed. I see there is no heater on the refrigerator evaporator. That tells me that it uses forced air defrost which means it turns on the refrigerator evaporator fan to perform defrosting on the fresh food side. You need to make sure it is not defrosting while you are checking the fans or you may only see that fan spinning.