CFE28TP3MJD1 General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Temp. Sensor was under an egg shaped cover on the left side wall in the refrigerator. Remove the cover, cut the two wires to the old sensor and remove it. Connect the new sensor to the two wires using butt connectors. Replace cover and done.

as per video

Connected the 2 wires and pushed in the switch until it clicked.

Unplugged the refrigerator first....then on the inside of the fridge, I popped the temp sensor cover off (upper LH side) and exposed the old sensor. I snipped off the old sensor about 3" down from the end and connected the new sensor (which I trimmed down to about 3" long) with some heat shrink wire nuts/connectors. Let the fridge run for a day or so and confirmed the problem was solved! Oh yeah, there was no way to tell the 2 wires apart (power vs. ground) on the sensor. However there was a manufacturer's stamp on the wires. So note the orientation of the text and mark one of the wires with a sharpie on both the old and new sensor before trimming. This will give you a reference for which wires to connect when adding the new sensor to the old wires.

removed the inside fridge electrical panel and swapped switches

My brother-in-law is a 15 year refrigeration technician who I called and described the problem to. He told me to put an "amp clamp" on the line side of the wires (black) that go to the starting controls on the side of the compressor. The motor has a label that has a number on it (LRA) that he used to determine the max amps it would pull. In this case, if the motor pulled 10 amps, then the motor was bad and I'd have to buy a new refrigerator. It was pulling less then 9 amps so he thought to buy a new overload, since the capacitor checked out (measured by multi-meter). As soon as the part came, I removed the back panel (4 screws removed by nut driver), removed the clip that holds the overload/capacitor assembly, detached the two wires from it, and removed the capacitor from the overload. I swapped in the new overload and repeated the above process in reverse. The only difficulty was that the new part was different in that the plug-in locations for the two wires were in different locations, and not marked. I had to disassemble the old part to figure out how it worked so I could deduce how the new one plugged in. Once that was solved, it was a quick fix. This was not a repair that just anyone could do; it required someone with a lot of experience to help me, and I am an engineer.

Followed the repair video, was spot on!!

luckly i have a bit of experience in refrigeration im an hvac technician by trade. this repair was a bit tricky in that i did not know at first if it was a Temperature Sensor issue or the main control board. I had tested the defrost termination thermostat and the defrost heater and as i suspected they were ok. Next i wanted to test the thermistors (temp sensors) it is hard to find technical data on these fridges. I needed to test the thermistors resistance @ a certian temperature to ensure they were working properly but where do u get such data? I also wanted to know some information about the logic programmed into the board (i.e when do you initiate defrost etc. . .). I had no such luck so i figured since i tested the defrost heater and thermostat and they were ok and all of the evap fans and such were working i'd order a circuit board and new thermistors. Got the CORRECT PARTS from this site in 2 business days and my fridge is working great! changing the parts was really easy, figuring out which parts to change was the only difficult thing about this job.

followed part select video instructions

Condenser fan motor was running slow. This was not a problem included in your list of possible problems. I thought that maybe the capacitor was bad but have no way to check it. So I ordered one. when I received it, I installed it. That was not the problem. So I ordered a fan motor and installed it. That was not the problem. So finally I ordered a control board and installed it. That solved the problem. So maybe you should put "cond.fan motor runs slow" in your list of possible faults and what causes that problem. Capacitor was easy to install, simply remove the cover plate, flip off retaining wire, unplug the capacitor and replace. Fan motor was a bit more difficult. It must be removed from mount after fan scroll is removed. Remove one screw that holds scroll, bend the top down and remove. Then pull hard on fan blade to remove it. It must be installed on new motor. Two screws in frame mount can be removed with some effort if you have a 1/4" drive ratchet with a Phillips screwdriver bit. Then pull frame open and install new motor. Push fan blade on new motor shaft hard. Replacing control board was easy. I used a pair of long nose pliers with 90 degree bend to get mounting pins closed to pull board off.

I have a GE Profile French door refrig. It's only about 4 yrs old and the defroster stopped working. I read the other repair stories and was able to narrow it down to either the temp sensor, defrost timer, or main board. The refrig section was up to about 47 degrees and freezer was around 25. I could tell it was trying to cool but couldn't. So I tried the temp sensor first. I cut and spliced the new sensor on the outlet of the Evap. Coil and it took about 15 mins. Turned refrig back on and waited. The coil started to ice over after about 5 hrs I left the back panel off so I could see if and when then heater kicked on. After about 8 hrs I looked in and saw a faint glow and water trickling down and running out the drain. Turned out the sensor was bad and wasn't telling the main board it needed to defrost. I would try the sensor if you are having the same issues before spending a lot of money on the main board, defrost heater and or timer.

Replaced all the sensors in both the feezer and refrigerator.Even though it colder now it still is not cold enough.Freezer won't freeze items but is cold and refrigerator still not real cold

What an awesome site! After putting in my model number and finding the problem I was having, I simply picked the 2 parts that were most likely to solve the problem. I bought a defrost thermostat, and defrost heater. To a high certainty, they would solve my problem. They didn't however! I ended up having to buy a temperature sensor on another order a few weeks later when the problem resurfaced! My own fault. I should have bought it the first time. As others have written: the longest part of the job is defrosting the ice from the coil. One thing I did that I didn't see suggested: plug the drain hole below the coil. I put a couple towels in the bottom of the freezer and ran the hair dryer. Didn't take long. I read that the amount of water created will overflow the pan under the refrigerator, so I plugged the drain hole. Once you clean that mess up, the repair is pretty straight forward. Great site. Even through I had to make two separate purchases, I still saved a lot of money. Thanks!

1. Removed and tested defrost heater, tests good. 2. Reinstalled defrost heater. 3. Removed and tested defrost over-temperature sensor, tests good. 4. Reinstalled over-temperature sensor using soldering iron, dielectric silicone grease, and heat-shrink tubing. 5. Removed the control printed circuit board and checked for blown fuse's, fuse's are all good. 6. Removed the defrost relay from the printed circuit board using soldering iron, bench tested the relay, it is good. 7. Soldered defrost relay back onto the circuit board, and reinstalled control board. 8. Removed and bench tested evaporator thermistor, the resistance is out of specification, ordered new thermister. 9. Installed new thermistor using soldering iron, dielectric silicone grease, and heat-shrink tubing. 10. Re-assembled refrigerator. 11. Installed temperature monitoring and recording instrumentation for 72 hour test. The defrost cycle is running correctly with a defrost termination temperature of around 90 deg-f. The defrost cycle ran twice while running the 72 hour test. 11. Removed test instrumentation and Put the unit back into service, The thermistor was the culprit. I bought the right part on the first shot, nice.

Had to remove all the covers and fans to expose the condenser, which was difficult as the parts were frozen to it. The styrofoam covering the condenser made it almost impossible to defrost it. Therefore, I ripped the styrofoam off to expose the condenser. Was not really difficult to fix the styrofoam cover using metal tape. Replaced temperature sensor in aluminum block, and used butyl sealant to secure. Had to also re-install parts of ice-ball kit that were not well covered. Lots of parts to keep track of, but anyone could do it.