PCF23RGWW General Electric Refrigerator - Instructions

Actually this was a two part repair of which I purchased both parts. The micro switch Pt # PS296176 and also a double outlet water valve Pt # PS304374 from Parts Select as well.

The difficult part was accessing the area to get to the micro switch.

The trim had to be removed, then the cover.

Then one unplugs the board and removed the face plate which also contains the micro switch.

Once removed the two electrical terminals had to be disconnected, the micro switch installed and terminal reconnected.

Then reverse the removal procedure.

Then on to the double outlet replacement.

Suggest watching the installation video for the replacement although it was really a straight forward repair.

Two things to remember.

1. Unplug the fridge

2. Shut off the water to the dispenser

Overall it was not bad at all.

This was my first attempt at refrigerator repair and it went well.

Good luck on yours.

John

Replacing the heater is very easy. Remove the wire racks and the two lower rack bracket screws. Remove the two screws to the back panel, unclip the ground wire and remove the panel. Two screws hold he heater on and two wires for the connection.
However, this did not solve my problem. The story is this. The fridge was getting warm because the coils were freezing over. I called the local repair guys "poncho and lefty" and they came out and replace the themostat and charged me $150. It still froze over a week later. They came back and said it must be the circuit board and charged me just for the $125 part. Nope, it still froze over in a week. So I thought I would take things into my own hands and tell poncho and left to hit the trail. I then ordered a new heater because the old one looked bad even though it checked out okay with an ohm meter. Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem either. The last thing is to replace are the temp sensors. But before I ordered anything I submitted my problem to a "fix it" forum and someone suggested to check the part number of the themostat that was put in. This turned out to be a brilliant observation. It seems poncho and lefty replace the thermostate with one that is used with a timer. This fridge has the timer built into the circuit board and has a very different temp range than the one they replace it with. Their first clue should have been that the wires were a different color than the one they were replacing and that the part number was totally different than the one they took out. So I ordered a new thermostat and the three temp sensors and replace all of this and the unit works as good as new. The forum also told me that the bullet shaped temp sensor were faulty and should all be replaced, which I did.
Now I have all new parts, so it should be good to go until the compressor takes a nose dive. Hopefully, that will not be for 5 or 6 more years.

The repair is easy, just pop the grill off around the ice and water door, then there are 4 screwws to take out so the touch pad can be moved out of the way to unsnap the old door assm. and snap in the new one and wait about a year and a hald to order another one!!!!!

Of course, the first thing I did was remove the ice cube container from the freezer, and dump the ice cubes. (Conservation note: If you're in a place with water conservation rules, dump the cubes in a big pot and save them. If they melt, use the water for your house plants.) Following the advice from another DIYer, I let the container warm up before doing anything further.
Turned the container (I'll call it the "tray" from now on) over, removed the two screws holding the front cover with the Phillips screwdriver, gently pulled the cover out to disengage it from the rest of the machine.
Getting the next part out was tricky because it didn't want to release just by pushing in on the tabs on either side of the front assembly. That's where the two table knives came in, courtesy another reviewer. Be careful here not to jam or twist too energetically because the plastic housing is still quite breakable.
Just to be safe, I unscrewed one more screw that held the little bracket holding the rod with the spring on it and disengaged it. Then I discovered that I had to unclip the part that holds the auger in the front part of the assembly and slide the auger out of the way so I could pull the broken part out.
Having done all that, putting the new part in and reassembling the whole thing was pretty easy.
Slide the new part in, carefully rotate the auger back into its place, slide that assembly back into place, replace the clip holding the end of the auger, be sure the long rod engages the ice crusher gizmo, replace the screw that holds the rod in place, hook the front of the drawer back into the proper slots, rotate the cover back into position and replace and tighten the two screws.
You're done! The ice cubes you took out will probably still be frozen, so you can dump them back into the tray and slide the tray back into the freezer.
If you're cleverer than I am, maybe you won't need to do all the little things I did, but even so the whole exercise took less than 15 minutes--the ice cubes didn't even melt!

I lifted the old switch with a flat screwdriver, attached wires, and popped into place. Saved 80 bucks for a repair call.

No self defrost. Measured heater coil with ohm meter which was OK (not open). Ordered 2 temp sensors (there are 2 in freezer, 2 in fresh food sections). The original and the new all meaured ~150 ohms. Replaced one by one. This did not fix problem. Ordered defrost thermostat. Original measured ~150 ohms - new one was ~100 ohms. Unpluged refridgerator. Removed coil panel (4 nut screws) in freezer and light cover (1 small phillips screw). Locate defrost thermostat clipped to top of coils (orange / pink wires). Cut wires and unclipped thermostat. Stripped insulation off of wires and reconnect using wire nuts. Clipped thermostat back to coils. Ran refridgerator without panel on coils to see if coils frosted up again and listend for fans/compressor to stop ( took hours). Opened freezer and viewed glow of defrost heater. Problem resolved.

Moved refrigerator out from wall. On the back of the refrigerator at the bottom there is a metal plate. Removed this plate with a socket wrench to expose where the end of the tube pluged in. The grommet securing the tube, white on my unit, had to be pushed up to release the old tube. I pushed the new tube into where the old one was and it self secured the tube. The other end of the grommet I pushed through the hole feeding the ice maker,first pushing out the broked part with a screwdriver,and securing that end with the attached sticky tape already attached to the grommet. I cleaned the area around the hole with alcohol before attaching the grommet.Replaced metal plate and done. No leaks.

I followed the instructions found on this website. I removed the control panel by inserting a small Phillips screwdriver in the three holes at its bottom. I used the same screwdriver to pull the dispenser assembly down but could have used a larger one. The microswitch could be seen in the assembly at that point and was easily removed by opening the "fingers" that held it in place. I attempted to pull one of the terminals off without using a pair of needle-nosed pliers and ripped the wires right out of the terminal(I was able to find a replacement at Radio Shack). Low and behold after reinstalling the new part, it did not take care of the problem.

My problem is the water dispenser does work intermittently. When we place the glass in position and hit the lever, the lights in the control panel go off and no water is dispensed. My next guess may be the water valve or the control panel. The icemaker makes ice but I have had problems with it dispensing for nearly a year now.

After thawing out freezer pushed water supply tube out from inside freezer diconneted the supply line from the valve assembly by pushing in the bushing with my finger and inserting the new line. Sadly that wasn't the problem!For anyone with the same symptoms of ice building up on your ice maker, to the point where it clogged the water supply line and started leaking from the grommet assembly. The problem is the valve not closing when the ice maker does not need any water. so I ordered a new valve and hopefully that will fix my problem.

There's a plastic cup part in the very rear of the ice bucket, that fits around the corkscrew thing that moves the ice toward the front of the bucket, where it can either get chopped up for crushed ice or just drop down as whole cubes as the case may be.

Well, that cheap plastic thing busted on our ice maker shortly after we bought it. Why GE chooses such thin, flimsy plastic for this important part is beyond me. I decided to replace the entire bucket assembly, for $105 rather than just the plastic part that was broken for $30. I never did figure how to take the thing apart to remove and replace that one part anyway. GE direct was expensive, so I finally found Part Select and was pleased to see that the bucket assembly was available for significantly less. When it arrived, I simply slid out the old ice bucket and slid in the new one. Voila! It's great to be able to have crushed, let alone any ice, automatically generated, again.

I did it the way you recommended except rather than removing the existing tube from the water valve at the bottom of the fridge I cut the existing and new tubes and then spliced the new tube to the old tube. I already had the splicer nut so it was quicker and easier. By the way, shipping was very quick and you prices and your website are excellent!

Followed previous instructions from a previous post. Inserted small screwdriver in the 2 outer holes up under the face plate to remove it then removed 4 screws holding the inner assembly which allowed access to the flapper assembly. Replaced it and reassembled everything. Problem solved

Unplug refrigerator,remove the freezer bulb, trays and rear cover to expose coils and heating element/defroster, The telltale sign its bad was it looked like an old flashbulb/burned, the old one was open, melt enough ice to remove and replace the defrost element(2 screws 2 wires) and reinstall components, reconnect power, thats it.

-Unplugged the refrigerator
-Removed panel on the back of the refrigerator, bottom right.
-Took pictures of existing main board so I would know where everything plugs in.
-Unplugged and removed main control board
-Installed new main control board
-Plugged everything in.

I removed the screws for the inner door and removed inner lining. Then took out the ice dispenser in the door. Took off control panel on the front of the ice panel. Removed the rusted parts and put in new parts. Put all parts back the way it came apart. In retrospect.... I could have possibly replaced the parts from the front panel but by taking apart the door...I had to thaw out the inner panel and insulation with in the door.