PWE23KSKKSS GE French door Bottom Freezer Iced up

[bubba153]

Greetings from the Turks & Caicos Islands

    I have a approx 3 y/o GE unit that I noticed that on Monday morning it was running very loud . Noise was coming from the freezer section. The source of the noise appeared to be the evap fan was making the noise. seemed like the blade was hitting something(probably ice) then the noise subsided but I noticed that there was some ice & frost build up on the back wall.

   The temperature stated to rise in the freezer section and the frozen food started to defrost.36F set to 0  I unplugged the unit and this morning I removed the back panel and of course it was a solid brick of ice even after 12 hours of being unplugged.   I was able to lightly dig out the thermostat and was getting continuity  while keeping the thermostat buried in snow

   I disconnected the wires to the heater and tested the heater in place and I was getting 31 to 32 Ohm. 

Is 32 ohm too low for the heater?   anyone know the spec I should be looking for?   The compressor was humming along warm but not hot . Compressor fan was also running . not noises coming from the back area

Any thing else should I check out?  Thinking maybe drain got clogged and caused the buildup ?  

Any ideas always appreciated

Bubba

 

 

   

[16345Ed]

Either drain clogged and defrost water not draining or you have a defrost system failure need to test evap thermistor. Could be bad thermistor or board isn’t initiating defrost. 

[bubba153]

Thank you      I completely defrosted the coils and started back up and its been about a week and so far so good. I do realize that the next week or 2 will be telling since it takes about that time for the coils f=to ice over if the defrost heater isn't working. I did get the wiring diagram from GE so I can check the board

I did order another defrost heater because when I checked the fresh foods section the heater was 82 OHM vs the 31 OHM in the freezer section.  When I get the new heater I can check the OHM is see what a new one will be

I'll keep you inform of the fix

 

Thanks