Fridgidaire side by side freezer problem

[Raybranner]

Freezer works just fine as long as you don't open the door for more than a few seconds. Short time or frequent door opening (i'm talking short not prolonged) causes the freezer to go from 0 to 20 degrees or so pretty quickly and stay there a good while. It never used to do this. Model # glhs68egsb1
13 yrs. old
Thoughts and ideas? Works cause every morning (or usually within a few hours) it's back to zero. I can't afford a new fridge. Help!!!

 

[Doghouse Riley]

Freezer works just fine as long as you don't open the door for more than a few seconds. Short time or frequent door opening (i'm talking short not prolonged) causes the freezer to go from 0 to 20 degrees or so pretty quickly and stay there a good while. It never used to do this. Model # glhs68egsb1
13 yrs. old
Thoughts and ideas? Works cause every morning (or usually within a few hours) it's back to zero. I can't afford a new fridge. Help!!!

A common problem with freezers not working is that the condenser ices up. This can be because the auto-defrost mechanism stops working. This may or not be the cause of your problem.
The condenser is usually behind a panel at the back of the interior of a freezer. This is usually removable, possibly four screws.

You'll need to turn it off and remove the drawers and take off this panel, sometimes there's a fan in it but this will unplug.
We had this problem with a similar aged Bosch fridge/ freezer. It would stop working every three or four months, usually about midnight just before we went to bed the alarm would go and it would be showing anything between 12+ and 20+, so I had to defrost the element with a hairdryer. You need a few towels handy to soak up the water, It only took about half an hour or so. But it took several hours to get back down to temperature once I'd done it and put the panel back, before turning it back on again. We put all the food in insulated bags whilst I did this and then put the bags back in the freezer. Took them out once it had come down to temperature by the morning, then put the drawers back and the food back in them. We kept the fridge part door closed all the time and the contents were no worse for the experience.

In the end I got sick of it and we we settled for a new Miele fridge/freezer last year.

 

[carogator]

I have the same unit and the same problem occasionally. The problem is--the bottom drawer in the freezer gets overfull and pushed back to far. That blocks the airflow and causes things to warm up and thaw. Hope this helps.
no big deal once you knows what is happening.

 

[Todz]

Doghouse Riley's quite right. It's almost certain to be the defroster unit. Either the stat or the heater's gone. I have a 6' 5" tall Hoover frost free that does the same thing. It's 17/18 years old and every 6 months or so I have to defrost it manually. I have now worked out the quick way of doing it. Empty the fridge completely of shelves and contents and stack the freezer drawers inside the fridge. Unscrew the back panel of the freezer - looks like you have to undo screws numbered 45

- and direct a fan heater, or if it's warm an ordinary fan, right at the ice. I can get the whole thing done in about 45 minutes now. I do the defrost when the temp rises to -15C. Today it's -21.7C and it's taken 3 months to rise there from -24.9.

I have the part to fix it but I'm reluctant to do so. What the advertising blurb doesn't tell you is that in a frost free you normally (well in mine) have a bottom shelf which is not a four star freezer as the warm air that's used to defrost compartment ice emerges from just around there. With a defroster which still works, but accumulates the ice around the defroster, then there's no warm air wafting around the bottom shelf and it's a full freezer.

The only things that's gone wrong with it are control unit capacitors (once) and control unit relay failure (continual clicking) twice. I changed them myself and other than that it's been fine.

 

[PatagualFixer]

I have yet to come across a so-called "Auto-Defrost" refrigerator/freezer that works efficiently.
Most use a small fan to circulate the cooling air, a drop of moisture on the blades is enough to freeze & stop the fan.
When the unit goes into defrost mode the fan stops and theoretically ALL the ice is removed from the Evaporator plates.
(The condenser is the cooling coil mounted externally to cool the compressed gas & liquify it..."condense")
(Not always visible these days.)
The defrost mode ends at a preset temp & cooling starts again..but with the fan in a "paused state"....this is the period when any moisture droplet on a fan blade gets frozen.....thus preventing rapid cooling down of the storage area on restart. (The motor is a synchronous type..... uses very little current, generates very little heat....but is very weak!)

In my personal view, it is better to remove covers, remove ice, wipe down any moisture remaining on the evaporator and surrounding areas...including the fan blades...... I know it negates the whole point of having auto-defrost, but I think you will find your fridge/freezer operates much more efficiently if done at intervals. And it needn't take long...20 minutes tops. All models are different of course & indeed, not all use a fan motor. But the principles are the same ....air ducts get blocked with ice and the auto defrost fails to remove it all.... when the fridge restarts, the remaining ice quickly attracts the moisture in the air (Nice, moist warm air...entering when you open the door!) and reforms..... and the vicious cycle is repeated.
Hope that helps. Kind regards.