I recently had to take quite a bit of ice out of the bottom of my freezer, which was causing a small pool of water to build up regularly in the fridge. I have thought this was related to possibly a leaking ice maker, but have found no leak as of yet. I have also noticed that the fridge seems to cut in frequently (evaporator fan and compressor kicks in), or at least I believe its frequent. What would be a normal frequency for the fridge to cut in? I actually wrote down the times when the fridge cuts on and off one night while watching TV, and its happening approximately every 30 minutes.

I had to replace the evaporator fan around six months ago, and from what I've learned from searching online this may be related to dirty coils and/or a faulty defrost timer. Does this sound reasonable to you?

It's a GE Model: TBX16SIYCLWH if that helps

Thanks so much for your time.

It's the defrost switch gone bad. Frequent part failure rate on this in most refrigs. Replace the switch and you'll be good to go.

Thanks for all the help, Twink. I notice my unit has two Defrost components listed (other than the heater itself), one is the Defrost Thermostat and the other the Defrost Control. I would guess the switch would be the thermostat? Or do you think they should both be replaced? Thanks so much, very helpful answer.

Did you ever get this issue fixed and if so what fixed it. I'm getting the same issue with my fridge/freezer and was wondering what may be the cause. I've already replaced the evaporator fan and defrost thermostat but seem to still have the issue though not as pronounced as before. Please inform at your earliest convenience.

Thanks,

J

The drain, located in the inside back of freezer, the water from defroster gets clogged and then freezes. Happened on both my GE fridgeraters. Defrost the entire freezer then stick something flexible through the drain to clear it, not an easy task B T W. Make sure water drains freely before tou turn the freezer back on. Seems to have been designed to fail. The drain is TINY and hard to get to.

There are several problems you could have: first you could have a stopped up drain from freezer to pan under refrigerator, a bad defrost timer, or defrost heater and terminator t-stat. When it goes into the defrost cycle it melts the ice on coils in freezer and the water goes to a drain pan under unit. Find the timer and turn it with screwdriver-it has a one-way screw- and when unit clicks off wait and see if the ice melts and it starts up again. If so it is okay. Look under there and make sure the coils under unit are very clean by washing them off. You will need to unplug it and remove back panel on bottom and the front kick plate. Let it sit a while and pour hot water in freezer which should drain to pan under unit. It must be thawed out to do this. If defrost heater is suspect do the following:Remove cover to freezer coils by removing screws on front and sliding out cover, but make sure it is well thawed out. When you remove this cover you may see a Styrofoam cover which you need to carefully remove-make sure all ice has been melted. You will see the defrost heater which is a heating element with a wire attached to each end. On side-by-side units it is a glass tube with the element inside and easy to see if it is burned out; on other units it is an aluminum-covered heater attached to the evaporator coils in freezer. The wires plug into power on one end and on other end the wire plugs onto the defrost terminator and from the terminator to the wire going to defrost timer under unit. Test the heater with an ohm meter-if open it is bad. Take out terminator-a round t-stat clipped on coils- and put in a freezer. At about 32° it will close-if not replace; but if heater is bad it is good practice to replace it also since they both go bad at about the same time. Let me know what you find. Make sure to have a good meter which you can get at Radio Shack or other store very cheap. DrTom4444