BIS42CKB General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

I applied some tips learned by reading other reviews. So before I started I grabbed my trusty vise grip pliers and a small screw driver. I locked onto the switch actuator, the part that the refrigerator door pushes in, with the vise grips and pulled on it just hard enough to get the screw driver inserted in the right side to push in the catch clip so the switch could be pulled out further each time the catch clip was depressed to the next detent. Then I used the screw driver on the left site to encourage the switch past the detents on the left and very quickly the switch was out of the mount. The wires from the refrigerator pulled out with the old switch. I unplugged the old switch from the wires and plugged in the new switch and shoved the new switch back into the mount, wiggled it a couple of times to make sure it was secure and the job was done. Once I applied the vise gripes at first, the whole job took less than a minute.

My husband put on the defrost timer. At first I thought the part was not going to fix the problem. After about 5 hours my refrigerator was still warm. I went to work and when I got home that evening my refrigerator was cooling and down to 28 degrees. So if you replace this part wait at least 12-24 hours. Give it time to stablize. My husband says it has to go through its cycle. It works on a 24 hour timer. My refrigerator is working fine and this has saved me alot of money. My husband says, once you put on the timer you may have to use a flat screwdriver and turn the small dial clockwise one click to start it. He removed the kick grill and replaced the part. Dont forget to shut breaker off to replace this part. Turn power back on and start the timer. We are so happy that we now have a working refrigerator.

popped off front grille, removed 2 screws for bracket, then had to remove one screw for timer. unplugged old timer, reversed procedure, all works.

when the ice maker runs through its cycle, you should be able to hear the solinoid valve open, letting water into the ice maker. this was not happening for me. you can dissconnect the plug on the valve and put the two probes from a multimeter in the plug and set for AC volts. when the ice maker runs its cycle, at the end you should see the meter jump as power is applied to the valve then turns off. this means you do have power to the valve so the valve is defective. turn off water supply to the valve, disconnect the water supply tube to the valve, remove the screw holding the valve, disconnect supply tube to icemaker then hook up supply tube to bottom of valve, screw braket back to refrig, install suppy back to valve, turn water back on and check for leaks and your ice maker should be working properly again.
these guys were really fast on delivery too!

Unplugged refrigerator, removed three screws to take out part, disconnected the wires and removed bad unit. Removed fan blade from old unit and attached to the new unit. Attached wires, placed the new motor back in. Plugged it back in, within 20 minutes panel between freezer and refrigerator was cool to touch.

Unplugged the refrigerator and turned off the water to the ice maker valve. Removed the water line at both ends (small crescent wrench). Removed the cover from the water valve area (two Phillips head screws). Removed the valve (two screws - small nut driver) and pulled off the two electrical connections.

Installed the new valve with the reverse procedure though the holding screws didn't line up with the existing holes in the refrigerator metal frame. I let it go with one screw holding ... didn't have a drill with me to make a second screw hole.

Replaced the old water line (from the wall to the valve) with a steel-reinforced hose.

Cut the female metal connector from the old water line up to the freezer and it fit nicely into the push-in outlet from the new valve. Turned everything back on and waited for the ice maker to cycle.
To my dismay, the leak had been coming from the plastic line that goes from the valve up to the ice maker. It had split, spraying water. Replaced that and everything works fine.

Lesson learned: Don't assume water near the icemaker valve actually is from the valve or its water connections. Watch the whole system cycle a couple of times to see what's really happening. Glad to have a new valve but the basic problem was the icemaker tubing.

First I removed the ice maker. Second I removed the back panel and overhead panel above ice maker. Third I pulled down the drip trough it had a styrofoam base under it. The trough heater had to be unplugged to remove the trough as well as the drain hose. Forth I seperated the styrofoam from the trough and peeled off the old heater which had burn marks on the foil. Fifth I applied the new heater plugged it in and attached the drain hose to the trough. Last I reassembled the unit. Refridgerator works great now and it only cost $45.00 for the heater. The GE repair service quoted over $950.00 and did not list the trough heater as the problem so I would be spending more and would have required several repair visits.

Look were timer was located, in my refigerator is next to the dial to ajust the temperature. used a screwdriver to get panel off. replaced timer then used a straight screwdriver to advance timer to turn on compessor . monitor temperature . checked out.

The valve is not a direct replacement,seems they
are not available,had to bend mtg. brkt. so valve
would mount in same position and cut off screw
type pressure fitting so could slide discharge
tube into new type connection, no instructions
come with replacement valve,asked several
places for info wanted to be sure before cutting
off end of discharge tube. Now valve shuts off
but water still in base of refrigerator must be a
leak in inlet tube behind freezer compartment.

Poped out with screwdriver the old swithch and unplugged the two wires. Plugged in the wires to the new swithch and pushed it back in the hole where the old switch was before.

Condensor Fan not turning. I thought it would be an easy fix. I thought I could pull off the shroud and fan assy - no joy. Too many copper pipes and lots of tubing in the way. It took 90 minutes to remove and 30 minutes to install. The BIG hint here is to loosen the shoud, pull it back as far as you can and then remove the nut that holds the fan blade in place. THEN you can remove the motor. Get the new motor back into the shroud, get the blade back on and then tighten the shroud back up.

While the switch did last for 9 years, the design is poor due to the failure mode. The failure should be to fail off or not able to turn on the lights which would be inconvenient but would not warm the refrigerator contents. Arcing at the contacts eventually caused the switch to "weld" closed. It is not obvious that this is occurring so it took some time to recognize why the temp inside the ref was high while the freezer was OK. Replacing the switch was easy once it was recognized as the problem. All that was required to replace the switch was to remove the screws holding a fiber cover and then pulling off the aluminum cap which covered the switches. Unplug the switch an squeeze the keeper on the switch to release it and pull down. Pop the replacement switch in place and plug the wires harness back in. All in all it took much less time to replace than it has to write this up. T Pope

Turned off the refridgerator. Took everything out of the freezer compartment & put into ice chest with pleanty of ice on top. Removed 2 screws holding the ice maker in place & placed ice maker aside. Removed shelf. Removed one screw on back plate, pushed up on the holding tabs at the top of the back plate & removed the back plate. Removed 3 screws holding the motor bracket in place along with the 3 wires. Installed new motor & used the wire extensions provided due to the electrical connections on the new motor being on the opposite side. Had to bend one wire tab down to clear the motor bracket. Turned refridgerator back on to ensure correct rotation on the fan. Reinstalled back plate & ice maker & shelf. Waited 30 minutes before putting food items back in freezer compartment.

I discovered the ice bucket missing from my rental unit at the beach. I was able to go online with my Blackberry, easily navigate your website using the model number to look up the part information , order it, and have it in place for the next renter.
Without access to a friendly user website, I would have faced considerable delay in getting this part.

I removed one screw to loosen the cardboard panel that covered the old valve and one screw to remove the valve assembly. I disconnected the two wiring connections and unscrewed the two water line connections. Replacement was really easy since the bracket was the same as the old valve. The down stream water connection was different for the new (push in) than the old (threaded) but I cut the old threaded connector off and figured out that the new push in connection was solid (directions would have really helped here) Reconnected the inlet tubing and electrical wires and replace the panel and it was done.