PSS25SGNABS General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

1st symptom, water dispenser not working.
2nd symptom, carrots freezing in fridge lower drawer.
3rd symptom, 3 days later, freezer getting warmer and warmer, fan always running, back of inside wall of freezer building up with ice.
Originally changed water valve for dispenser thinking it was the only problem.
After noticing the freezer getting warmer and doing some reading, I decided the best guesstimate would be the defrost thermostat or heater behind the inside freezer wall. Defrosting all that ice to get behind the wall is the time consuming part of this job. Not wishing to defrost and troubleshoot to determine which component failed, they are cheap enough to just buy both the heater and t-stat and replace both and be done with it. It turned out to be the heater, an element encased in glass, the glass turns black on the ends when it is toasted. This is a very easy fix. If you do not have crimpers for the butt connectors for the 2 wires for the t-stat, you can use a wire nut to twist them together and seal it with silicone/rtv. The heater just plugs in on both ends. Remember it is glass and very delicate, take your time. Start to finish this could be a 3 hour job, but most of that time is melting the ice, cleaning up and putting everything back in the freezer.

I removed the old temperature sensor by cutting the wires. I attached the wires of the new sensor with wire nuts and mounted it in the same bracket.

First of all, the larger white plastic tubes in this thing are 5/16" OD, which no plumbing store seems to stock. At the lower left rear end there are 2 tubes, one for water and one for ice, that are doomed to fail being in proximity of a heat source - they essentially get cooked to the point of becoming brittle and cracking. The smaller tube and union can be easily found, but do yourself a favor if the larger one cracks and order the plastic tube and water tube union here, and just cut off the brittle part and amend the old tube using the union.

I followed the video instructions for replacing the Flapper Valve and solenoid that Part Select suggested. It was one of the best DIY Reapair Sites I've used. Thank you

I had to remove all of the shelves.....part of the ice maker.....the rear cover over the freezer coils.....There were two wires that came from the back of the freezer that were also incorporated with the fan motor plug from the factory....This caused me to cut all of the wires from the new motor and soider them to the existing plug and shrink wrap the connections. If GE would have supplied two new ends I could have cut only those wires added the ends and inserted them into the new motor plug thus eliminating an extra hour and a soildering iron,,,,In my case not a big deal however not a project for those who have trouble with repairs using these type of tools.

1) Removed the ice bin and emptied the ice.
2) Removed 5 screws total
3) (hardest part) JImmied a flat blade screwdriver into the left top side of the housing and pried gently to disengage the plastic holding clip. This only allows the left side of the housing to move up about a half-inch. Did the same on the right side and 'walked' the assembly out of the bin.
4) Removed the C clip and washer that holds the auger. and removed the auger assembly.
5) Before removing the screw at the end of the assembly, it is a good idea to take pictures of the ice crushing part of the assembly so that it goes back on correctly.
6) Removed the screw and carefully stacked the ice crush blades and washers.
7) Installed the ice crush blades on the new auger, re-installed the screw, washer and C clip.
8) Re-assembly is easy, you just need to set the end of the auger in the back of the ice bin and slowly re-install the housing portion.

The ice dispenser would not dispense cubes. It only dispensed crushed ice. Also the plastic auger was partially broken and it took forever for ice to be dispensed. The auger was easy to figure out that it was broken. The dispenser issue took some time. I removed the ice bin and removed the panel behind it. There was a solenoid that burnt and melted and this did not allow the dispenser door to be controlled. I ordered the parts on a Thursday and they arrived on a Friday. Pretty simple to fix once I knew what the problem was. I could have gotten the parts cheaper from Searsparts.com but their description of parts and their pictures did not match and I wanted to make sure I got the right parts the first time. To be on the safe side I ordered a couple of pins and used one of them. The pin was a little hard to remove from the existing assemble so I put it in a vice and used a small pick and hammered out the old pin.

First unplug then remove all food and the ice cubes from the freezer only..Then removed the traysand then the 2 panel screws. Defrosted the coils with a hair dryer,removed the 2 screws holding the heater and then unplugged the wires from each side.Installed the new heater and now has been fine for 12 days now..The sensor- I just spliced it in the exact way the old sensor was wired.All seems fine so far. Was alot cheaper to buy the parts and install myself than to pay for 1 service call..

one repair man said I needed freon. sears repair man said my evaporators leaked. and should buy a new fridge. I installed the parts for less than $30.
dried the freezer compartment removed back panel and asst parts. removed screws from evaporator assy and replaced def therm. soldered leads/wing nuts. removed cover from sensor temp and again connected leads. working fine.

The main board is easy to get to behind the access plate. You will find seven different wire harness plugs, six which are white, that are impossible to remove without breaking the retaining clips which hold them in place....but that's OK.....you are throwing away the old board anyway, so nothing lost. The plugs will snap back into each of their respective terminal locations without a problem. Be sure to treat the four white, plastic pins that hold the board in place delicately....you will not want to mess those little dudes up!

All you have to do is replace the circuit board which is really easy. Still kinda mad because the fridge is less than 2 years old. If you hear the clicking noise its coming from the circuit board.

To do this repair, I shut off the water supply first. After removing the back panel, I disconnected the first water tank (PS291933) tube from the valve near the back of the refrigerator by pushing the white ringclamp towards the valve which released the tubing (once disconnected I could clearly see the hairline crack in the tube responsible for the water). I then disconnected the other water tank tube from the connector located in the bottom left front of the refrigerator. Then, after removing the bottom shelves and compartments, I unscrewed the two screws securing the water tank to the inside back wall. Then I carefully pulled the water tank and the tubing out from inside the refrigerator. The installation of the new water tank was essentially the reverse of the above, with the exception that I had to use a 2x4 to prop up the refrigerator and my 7-year old daughter's hand to help guide the tube to the front of the fridge. One of the lines did leak initially, but stopped after I removed and reconnected the tube more securely. My only unfinished business with this part of the repair (which I'm not losing sleep over) is I'm not sure where to find the 'insulation wrap' that was around the water tank tubes inside the fridge.

During my investigation of the water tank, I also noticed the tube on the outside back of the fridge going to the icemaker was leaking, so I bought a new grommet & tube (PS292253). Installation was easier than the water tank, but was more of a mystery until the part showed up and I saw that only adhesive tape was used to secure the grommet to the hole in the outside back of the freezer near the icemaker. Again, only had to disconnect the tube from the valve at the bottom of the fridge and pull out the grommet from the top outside. (I did remove the ice cube tray from the inside to avoid contaminating it during the work). Then I connected the new tubing and secured the grommet to the back of the fridge using the adhesive tape. So far no leaks!


I also will likely need to add that WR49X10173 part to hopefully avoid my water dispensor from freezing in the future.

This story starts with a GE side-by-side refrigerator that has always had wide temperature swings and a temperamental water dispenser. The ice maker was not making ice, and the built in digital thermometer showed it was running warm. I suspected that the heat exchanger was full of dust and so looked there. What I found was that the condenser tank was hot to the touch and the fan wasn’t running. As an experiment, I aimed a fan at the it for a while I saw that the freezer temperature dropped back to normal.
.The fan is marked as 11.2 DC so I checked for voltage at the fan and found some. With three wires and no wiring diagram I wasn’t sure this answered all the questions, but hooking the fan to a 12 volt power supply didn’t get it to spin.
I priced parts at a couple websites before using partselect.com . They also have a good diagram to look at (Sears diagrams are really poor). I ordered the part with 2-day shipping; it arrived on time, was correct and fixed the problem.

Well, I first had a local service guy look at the frige. only to find out his opinion was to replace the entire unit, because the Mother board cost more than the unit was worth. Me not accepting that answer, decided to look on line for a part and availability as well as price. Surprise, Part Select had what I wanted. Now, on the back of the unit in the upper left hand corner is the access door for the mother board.Find it, but before proceeding disconnect the power supply from the wall receptacle. Remove the surrounding screws on the access door with a nut driver and the correct size METRIC socket. Disconnect the wiring connectors on both sides of the board. Now there are 4 plastic type (mine were white) retaining studs holding the board in place. BE CAREFUL not to break these as you gently pull the board off studs. Replace board with new one, and restore wire connectors in their perspective places. Each connector has a different amount of pins inside so connecting them is easy. I know nothing about refrigeration, and this was a piece of cake. Less than 15 min. Unit cools like never before!!!

I first shut off water flow to the fridge. Examination of the package (which was not exact in appearance to the original) demonstrated that the electrical connectors were well-insulated so I arrogantly and successfully proceded without disconnecting the power. My fridge is old enough that the model doesn't appear exactly on anyone's list so I wasn't alarmed that it took an extra 10 minutes or so to noodle out how to adapt the slightly different inlet cowling and electrical cord with extension, but the device is pretty simple.
Soon I loosened the two mounting screws with a nut driver, used a screwdriver to pry away the plastic snap-in housing over the electrical socket on the fridge inner wall and pulled away the electrical plug. The original water fill tube remained in its cavity, ready for re-use.
The new unit's mounting points matched the original screw locations perfectly, as did the fill cowling - which on the replacement icemaker has two possible attachment points. The new unit's electrical connector required an extension pigtail to adapt to my socket, but it was included in the package. The extra cable posed a minor cosmetic issue because it hangs in the collection basket a bit, but that will soon be remedied with a tie wrap.
After the water was restored and an anxious wait of a few hours, we had well-formed ice cubes that weren't all stuck together and the stalactites haven't reappeared.