Ge side by side fridge

[horseplay]

when i run a fan test i get the correct voltage that means the main voltage is ok but only the freezer and  the compressor fan run, the fan in the fridge damper doesn't come on and low air is coming very low.

[ryan111]

Correct me if I am wrong. The fans will run sometimes, the fresh food is freezing at the bottom, the freezer sometimes defrosts completely, the fresh food fan doesn’t seem to be running and the turbo light stays on all the time.

I don’t think it is going to be the user interface (control with turbo cool light). But you can try disconnecting the user interface control. I believe if you unplug this control the main board is going to run on a default mode that should cool the fresh food to 37 degrees and freezer to 0.

You will not feel a lot of air coming out the duct into the fresh food section in fact it can be hard to tell if the fan is running or not. It is not going to move as much air as the other fans.

The damper could be staying closed but that wouldn’t explain the fan motor issues as well as the freezer defrosting. It could however cause the bottom of the fresh food to freeze. Never the less you can take the air duck down so that you can see the air duck inside the air duct. You do this by removing the top shelf (maybe the next one as well) and popping off the cover at the top where the light is to access screws. Once off closed the door and wait three minutes. Then open the door and look at the damper, it should be open. Then after three minutes the damper should close and if you press the door switch it should open again. This will confirm that the damper will open and close.

Are you sure the fan next to the compressor is running? I have seen them run slow and not move enough air to cool the compressor. If the fan next to the compressor isn’t running or running slow the compressor can be short cycling possibly causing all your problems (other than the turbo cool light).

The problem I see with the fan motor test you did is by the time you did the test the fans had started running. If you had did the test before they came on you would know if the board was calling for the fans to be on or not. If you were getting voltage to the motor and it wasn’t running then you would know the fan was bad (or vice versa) however if the fan were running you would expect the voltage to be correct especially if it were running fast. I can tell you that if the door is opened for more than three minutes the fan is supposed to come on and if not you need to know if the board is sending voltage or not.

There is one more thing you can do to clue us in as to what is going on is to remove the back wall of the freezer with it running and describe what you see. Is there heavy frost build up on the coils that could block airflow? Is there light frost along the entire coils?   

[ryan111]

Now that I think about it more the just forget the damper for now the fan problem you are having is causing the airflow thing you are having. I was saying this because you say you can’t feel air coming from the damper but I realized that the damper would have been closed when you where feeling for air. Right now focus on the fan problem. No matter what the fan shouldn’t have stayed off for hours especially with the door open.

[horseplay]

since yesterday the fan is working like normal and air is coming from the damper and the fridge is coming cold again the fan is working the thing is i will check to see if the food in the bottom of the fridge is frozen also im waiting to see if it will go in a deep frost this is the puzzle why would go into a 24 hour defrost mode then to start back working normal again i stopped putting food in the freezer because of the defrost problem also i turned of the ice maker i will it on now because before when it goes into defrost it will melt everything including the ice in the ice maker i will see after all of this how it turns out thanks again

[horseplay]

i know it what 24 hours because i started noticing that the defrost happened saturday morning at 6 and normally it would melt everything and come on but 3 a.m. sunday morning it was not on after 6 a.m. it was on all fans were on because i could feel the air come through since then it was perfect i did the test and everything was perfect i havent noticed anything that melted but the fan stops and goes back on some time tonight when i notice the fan is off i will try the 3 minute door thing again i already turned on the ice maker and put food in the freezer sorry i could not respond earlier i was at work one thing for sure is that the turbo cool light is still on

[JWWebster]

Lets review just how that control board works or how I understand it:
In these new fangled ice boxs is what you call adaptive defrost controls. Instead of the old tried and true defrost timer, brainiacs have decided to use artificial intelligence to determine defrost. The basic pattern of adaptive defrost is: COOLING,PRE-CHILL,DEFROST,DWELL,and POST-DWELL. Hey I ain't making this up. The ADC (adaptive defrost control) Counts the number of times the doors are opened, the total compressor run time, and the length of time the defrost heaters were on during the last defrost. This method supposedly enables the adc to work nice in all kinds of conditions, whether hot and humid or cold and frigid climates. COOLING Mode will remain for an indefinate time or until defrost is determined by the micro-processor. When all systems are go for defrost the adc makes the jump to light speed by going into PRE-CHILL, this brings down the temps in the freezer to off set the defrost operation so that the food temp does not suffer dramatic temp rises. Pretty cool ain't it? If the ice box is in pre chill and the door gets opened then a DEFROST HOLD OFF will jump in and not do a defrost for several hours. If the door is continually opened at the end of 16 hours the adc is gonna defrost that ice box anyway. The defrost varries but is a maximum time of 45 minutes including DWELL. Dwell is the length of time the ice box stays off AFTER the heater is terminated.
Then The POST DWELL will kick in. The post dwell will fire up the compressor and condenser fan but the inside fans will not run allowing the coils inside to cool down before them fans kick in and she jumps back into Cooling mode. I bet you would like to have a copy of GE's adc repair manual wouldn't you? ADC tech service Guide

[horseplay]

I can't get access to the link you provided but what you said about this fridge makes sense now, no one seems to be explaining why the turbo cool light stays on though? The fridge seems to be working well, so im waiting to see whats going to happen in the next 24hrs.

[JWWebster]

Maybe you button for turbo is stuck?

[horseplay]

an update  as of today every thing is still working ok  only the tubo cool light still on, iam not going to let that worry me now,  the frigde defrost ok the fan is working ok no more freeze in the food area.so good so far  will give it some more time to see how it go.
i just want to take the time to (thank all) who help me with this.

again THANK
                                                           horseplay

[billlrob48]

This site is great. I got the service manual to put mine into defrost mode. I have actual temperature settings, but I set freezer to 5, but can't set the frig side lower than 34. Anyway, held all four buttons, got blinking zeroes, and set 1 and 4 to go into manual defrost and hit a button to start and away it went, I hope.

Is this an older model that has the actual temp on front?

[JWWebster]

Bill it should give the temp as the temp changes.

[billlrob48]

Thanks JW,

This type with the temp was not mentioned in the manual. It did kick into defrost and if it continues I suspect that there was something in the freezer keeping the door partially open a crack that was not noticeable. I can only hope.

I already replaced the heating element in another frig I have.

Thanks again