I have a GE side-by-side refridgerator with a ice maker and water dispenser. In the last 3-4 months the water dispenser shuts off intermittently, but comes back to life on its own. I have changed the water filter as well as cleaned the water line, but haven't been able to identify the problem. The ice maker works fine.
Any thoughts?
Thanks

NoviceFixer

I'm surprised that the velcro on the edges don't allow moisture to seep in-between the insulation and eventually cause freezing. Would have thought that foil tape would have been necessary.

Thanks for posting your fix. Please do post again in a month or two and let us know if your fix is still effective.

NoviceFixer

The Mickster

I ordered the wrong kit from GE. I ordered Kit# WR51X10101. This is a Defrost Heater Kit. They sent me the kit free of charge so I called them and tried to return it. They told me to keep it.

I explained that I really needed Kit WR49X10173 which is the Dispenser Water Tube Heater Kit. They sent it Next Day by Fed Ex also free of charge.

I installed the kit this morning at 10:00 and it took about 15 minutes to do. Just follow the instructions provided by kenw00d in a previous post. GE included the instructions with the kit:

1. Pry off plastic frame.
2. Lift control board out.
3. Disconnect the 3 wire harnesses from circuit board.
4. Unscrew the dispenser unit. (4 Phillip Screws).
5. Peel and stick the heater in the recessed area. See instructions from heater kit for picture on where the heater should go.
6. Splice wires according to instructions that came with the heater kit. Splices are provided. Very easy to do. Just follow the directions. Splice one heater wire to the harness red wire (position 2) and the other heater wire to the (black&white) harness wire (position 6).
7. Plug in the just the one harness to the control board and in 60 seconds you will start to feel the heater area getting warm. That's how you know it's working.
8. Put everything back together and you are in business.

My water dispenser has not frozen up since I installed the heater kit this morning. Previously it would freeze in about an hour.

I must commend GE for sending me the parts (FREE OF CHARGE) but, it is a shame you have to go through all of these hoops to fix a problem that should have been the subject of a recall to begin with.

ngwst

I suspect the problem has to do with the control board at the rear of the refridgerator.Before supplying the model number check the rear of the refridgerator and see if you can identify a small rectangular panel with no vent holes that is maybe 4 to 8 inches wide and 12 or so inches tall. It looks like a simple cover plate held on by three screws. remove and see if there is a printed circuit board inside. If it has a board inside thats the problem. Still think I'm guessing. Pull the Ac cord for about 10 minutes then plug cord back. Leave overnight as if you never unplugged it. Quite likely the relays will start chattering and the symtoms will get worse. If all this happens replace the board and the problem will be resolved. If you understand and can use a soldering iron and have a volt/ohm meter check the two 470ufd 25 volt caps and replace.. Let me know how you make out. This is the first time that I"m using this site,just joined so I'll include my email for your reply. It might be duplicated I'm not sure Its good luck

jhopkins

I'm new to this forum. I thoght i'd offer the following sugestion. I've experienced the same problems. No water from the dispenser but ice is OK. I'm an aquarium enthusiast and I found a plastic bottle in my aquarium supplies that works perfectly in spraying hot water into the dispenser tube whenever it freezes. It has a very narrow spout that fits perfectly in the tube that dispenses the water. After about 5 minutes of squirting hot water into the tube (with a towel in hand) I'm able to melt the ice tube that is cloging the systsem. I know this is a temporty fix, but I thought I may help

vonal

It's been two months now, no freeze up's in the line.

Hokie-Dave

I just had the freezing water line on my GE side by side stainless fridge. The fridge is 6 years old. I didn't notice anybody mentioning it, but has anybody noticed that maybe this is due to frost buildup right behind the water/ice dispenser? It seems that our round ice door doesn't shut all of the way which is letting air come into the freezer and frost up around the ice dispenser on the door. I'm wondering if this could be causing a freeze up problem.

dave

dj560

I read mostof this forum.....with my wifes hairdryer, I freed the ice inthe dispenser then inserted the trimmer line....working great. I then called G.E. to ask about any recall pertaining to the heater. Their reply was that I had the new doors installed in 2006 and the upgraded version would have included the heater. If so, mine has failed. Would anyone know it it was included in the new doors? Thanks, dj

Cheezums2

For the past 2 years, I have been having the same problem as everyone else on this thread. The water would just stop dispensing one day, but the ice would still work fine. We tried various tricks, but ultimately we found that the hair dryer solution worked best. We'd open the freezer door and blow the hair dryer at the back of the water dispenser unit for a few minutes, then leave the freezer door open for awhile. If that didn't solve it, we'd repeat as necessary. Sometimes it worked after 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. And once it was working again, it often lasted for several months. But during the most recent incident, it would freeze back up with 24 hours. So after about a week of this, I decided to look for a more permanent solution, which is what lead me to this thread.

I first tried calling GE. As many others have found, they were less than helpful. They said I could pay $99 to have a technician come out to diagnose the problem, and then I could "possibly" get the part sent to me for free. Or, they would sell me the Dispenser water tube heater kit at a "discount" for $60 plus shipping.

Instead, I decided to take kenw00d's advice (see post #83) and purchased the kit directly from repairclinic.com (item #1381601). I paid $42.50 plus $6.46 shipping, and I had the kit 7 days later. Installing the kit was just about as easy as kenw00d said, although I have to admit it took me longer than 15 minutes, mostly because I wasn't quite sure I was doing things right, so I double-checked the instructions every step. But once I was done it was obvious that there really aren't two ways to do it, and I'm sure I could do it again in 15 minutes.

The one piece of advice I would have is that when the instructions say "pry off plastic frame", they're talking about the control panel on the front of the freezer, with the water/ice/light buttons on it. I had pictured that you would access the water line from inside/behind the freezer door, but in fact you get at it from the front/outside, without ever opening the freezer door. To get the control panel off, you have to look up from underneath, and you will find two little holes with plastic tabs. Using a small screwdriver or similar tool, you need to push up on each of these tabs until it releases the panel. From that point on, the instructions are fairly self-explanatory.

Another piece of advice: they recommend that before you put everything back together, you test the heater to make sure it's getting power (it will feel warm to the touch). It turns out you can also reach the heater with your finger from the outside once everything is reassembled. So this allows you to reassure yourself that it's still working correctly after putting it all back together.

This comes in handy, as with my case, the line doesn't thaw right away. The instructions suggest that it may take up to 24 hours to thaw the line, but in fact, mine still wasn't working after 5 days. At that point I gave up waiting and manually defrosted it with the hair dryer again. This does give me some concern that the heater is not in fact working well enough to keep the line from freezing again. But it was encouraging that the line defrosted much quicker than usual. And the water is still working 2 1/2 days later, whereas before it was refreezing within 24 hours. I'll post some updates as to our progress going forward.

It seems that this kit is designed to solve this exact problem (the shape of the heater is clearly designed to match the location where you install it), so if this doesn't do the trick, I don't know what else would. So if anyone else wants to try this, please don't hesitate to ask questions.

rrufast

After Googling and finding this thread... I'm happy to say that the frozen line problem was causing my water dispenser issue. Used a hair dryer on the back of the dispenser assembly... no real luck. Used trimmer line and immediately felt the dispenser line blockage about 4-5" in.

The first thing I did.. just to check, was to disconnect the quick coupler at the left lower corner of the freezer door. Pressed dispenser.. water flow. Ran trimmer line up the dispenser line and hit the blockage... kept poking at it until it broke loose.

For now, problem solved. I also turned down the freezer temp (from 5 to 3) in hopes to prevent this from happening again.

PS-
My model number is GE GSS25PGMF WW. Purchased new at Home Depot in 2002.

was perplexed

My icemaker worked fine but the water dispenser just suddenly quit about two months ago. I didn't want to pay for a technician to come out so... I've been drinking bottled water! Decided today is the day to figure this out and read everyone's answers. We tried hair dryer, etc. Still didn't work. Called GE and they tried to send a technician. I said I didn't want to pay so she directed me to GE Appliances Home, kitchen appliances, refrigerator, water filter, dishwasher, top rated and said to look at service and troubleshooting. When I did this, I found a video about the GE side by side refrigerators with water dispensing problems. They showed that the water line is in the cold storage side and not the freezer side. When I pulled out my vegetable drawers we could see that the water line was kinked. It is a plastic line so undoing the kink is probably not going to stay but... it works perfectly now. At least we know that we have a kinking problem and not a freezing line problem.