OT side by side fridge fix

[Bryan inIowa]

samsung RS2534vq. Freezer side is fine , fridge is not . Heard fan making noise so figured something was icing up . Yep ,evap iced up . Googled it ,saw many hits on sensor or themister or defrost heater ,,but no real ways to narrow it down . Any thoughts ? Good thing it"s cold out ,got hillbilly fridge on deck , food in clothes baskets outside ,lol
 

[old]

Well if it wasn't Sunday I could go off line and call a friend to find out since he does that type of stuff
 

[Roger Tomfohrde]

A student brought one in last year with those symptoms.We found the damper between the compartments not working.It has a elec motor to open or close it. I don"t think theirs froze up but I beleive if the theromostat for the refrigerator side is calling it will keep running until it froze over. A second though is the defrost is not working( burnt out coil or termination thermostat open, timer not working etc.).You will need to ohm out the parts to see if there is a faulty part . From the description it could be a few things. Oh with the damper he did not want to spend the $ on it so we drilled a hole in the plastic damper to let air through it. You will have to check it all out.
It will probably be scrapped with all the rest of the refrigerators at the end of the school term as my position is being eliminated and they will not have time for domestic coolers and freezers.
 

[PJH]

Bryan - on ours there was a little click type thermostat that would open when the defrost element reached a certain temp. Ours was stuck open and wouldn't allow voltage to the defrost element. Cost about $15 for the part. You have to test that little thermostat while it's iced up - if you thaw it first, the thermostat will be open and you'll learn nothing by a continuity test.

Could be the element itself. Could be the defrost timer. The flap that the other guy mentioned too. And the fan, but you said it was spinning.

Good luck. Hardest part for me was figgering out how to get it apart without busting panels.
 

[504]

I just thawed out our GE an hour ago. Mine has a bad heater in it and I haven t had time to get a new one. Take the rear panel off of the freezer, if it is frosted up then you can start looking for the problem(heater element,timer,thermostat). Mine freezes up every three weeks, all of the cooling comes from the freezer side then flows to the frid side through a door.
 

[Bryan inIowa]

This 1 has to separate systems. The coil was icrd up. Defroted it put it together and its working for now. Know it will do it again.
 

[TJ in KY]

I have a GE side by side that did same thing at our place in Florida.. Defrost heater checked out ok. Repair tech said computer board controlled defrost cycle and it was defective.. He replaces it $200+ but still did same thing.. Talked to appliance repair back home in KY he said to check thermistor checked out bad , replaced it myself for $25 .... No more problems. My best guess is thermistor, mine was in freezer comp by coils, good luck.
 

[Bryan inIowa]

This 1 has to separate systems. The coil was icrd up. Defroted it put it together and its working for now. Know it will do it again.