Ask Me Help Desk - GE refrigerator water dispenser

Yes, I too have the water freezing problem in my GE refrigerator. The technician charged me over $200. $40 for parts ( a new heater) and over $200 for the labor including the $80 service call.

Unfortunately, the problem didn't stop there. The (new heater element) that GE developed to "fix the problem" for their defective door, stopped working in about 6 months. I contacted GE again, they sent out another technician. He knew about the heater, and thought since it was fairly new, it must be a warped rubber flapper door that holds the crushed ice. I suggested we shine a flashlight from the inside of the dispenser and see if any light shined through. It didn't. So that wasn't it.

Then he suggested to take a hair dryer and move it up and down on the inside of the freezer door where the hinges are for about 20-30 minutes. That didn't work, so then he suggested to take everything out of the freezer and leave it open for a couple of days to let it thaw out. Where am I going to put all the frozen food?

After buying bottled water for a while, and thinking what I could to do to avoid not to spend several hundred dollars paying GE for trying to diagnose "THEIR DEFECTIVE DOOR" and using me as a trial and error customer. I had to contract a different GE technician. He was an older guy who seemed to sympathize with me and explained he has the same refrigerator as I do and he eventually put in his garage. He explained about how he has tried doing about everything he knows including replacing the heater element and it's gone bad 2 times. (he's been a technician for over 25 yrs). Now that is saying something when a technician can't even fix their own GE refrigerator.

ABSOLUTELY GE should recall these refrigerators. Like many other company's they have to recall their defective products. I guess since they feel it's not killing anyone like the Toyota Camry's, that it's not going to make any headlines for bad press! So they aren't going to do anything. I won't buy another one!! Unless you get a class action lawsuit petitioned together with many other organizers, we don't have much of a chance. The other method is keep calling them about how upset you are and if enough of us call and write and give them bad publicity, maybe they will reconsider...

If anyone files a lawsuit, please keep us informed and we can try to minimize expenses and get this resolved.

Not sure about the costs/hassle of suing, but here's the solution that worked for me based on all of the previous posts:

1) Turn on the dispenser light. It gets warm pretty quickly, and within an hour it will unfreeze your water dispenser tube. I would avoid the hair dryier solution... sounds like a few people may have melted or compromised other functions.

2) Fish about 10-12" of weed trimmer line up the water dispenser tube as a fail-safe. Leave about 1/2" of line hanging out of the dispenser tube... you can't even see it unless someone is looking very closely.

3) Buy some outdoor two-sided tape and a rectangular piece of dense foam material (approx. 8" x 5"), and tape it to the inside of the freezer door, directly below the ice chute area, and directly behind the water dispenser tube. This will keep the tube from freezing.

My water if flowing better than ever now, and all for less than $10. Good luck everyone!

Hello,
GE had a massive recall of their refrigerators and a class action suit because they failed to seal the edges of the freezer doors with GE Silicone. They were too cheap to use their own product. They have done the same thing again. The way I made a lot of money on discarded GE refrigerators was to take off the door and lay it flat on a table. Then I removed all the screws on the inside panel of the door and removed that panel and left it open to dry in the sun for a day. I then did any repairs that were needed, sealed any gaps with canned foam sealant, then put Clear GE Silicone caulk on all surfaces of inside panel that made contact with the door to make sure it was absolutely air tight. Even a pinhole will cause a failure. Once it was well-sealed I remounted the door and I never had a failure from a repair and was able to sell these units with my own warranty. I never had a failure, just make doubly sure to clean the coils under the refrigerator every six months or less (I wash out the coils with spray soap and a water hose nozzle.). You can insulate the tube with a bit of small Arma-Flex that you can get at an HVAC supply store. There could be an air leak in these doors that freezes the tube just inside the door, too. Once ice forms from an air leak it will freeze the tube.

Wayne: Thank you very much for the suggestions. I purchased my GE from Lowe's and visited them this evening to see if they could help me troubleshoot the problem of the water dispenser tube freezing up. Even the appliance manager didn't know diddly squat or maybe he just wasn't pretending to know nothing. All he did was lecture me on being foolish to not have purchased a warranty. My unit is 4 years and this is the first problem. Their warranty, by the way, is only food for 5 years. I'm reporting these workers at Lowe's to the Lowe's administration because I think that they are bound to know about this problem or they at least SHOULD know as they are in the business. I'll also be in touch with GE. I will not be buying another one of their products. I don't at all like the sneakiness on their part and I will be sure to tell everybody I know how shoddy their products are and how sleezy their company is. It's easy to make big money when you deceive and steal from people. Typical U. S. corporation!

Quote:

Originally Posted by twofromjmu

Not sure about the costs/hassle of suing, but here's the solution that worked for me based on all of the previous posts:

1) Turn on the dispenser light. It gets warm pretty quickly, and within an hour it will unfreeze your water dispenser tube. I would avoid the hair dryier solution...sounds like a few people may have melted or compromised other functions.

2) Fish about 10-12" of weed trimmer line up the water dispenser tube as a fail-safe. Leave about 1/2" of line hanging out of the dispenser tube...you can't even see it unless someone is looking very closely.

3) Buy some outdoor two-sided tape and a rectangular piece of dense foam material (approx. 8" x 5"), and tape it to the inside of the freezer door, directly below the ice chute area, and directly behind the water dispenser tube. This will keep the tube from freezing.

My water if flowing better than ever now, and all for less than $10. Good luck everyone!

Great advice. I will try all of them. Thank you so much!

Just imagine the money the manufacturer's repairmen are making off these substandard appliances. Thank goodness for blogs such as this. I thank each of you for taking the time to offer advice.