PSDS5YGXAFSS General Electric Refrigerator - Overview

First I removed the shelving from the refrigerator side I then removed the cover to the refrigerator condenser which consisted of a plastic cover and a styrofoam inner chamber cover. The Condenser is held in place with two stainless phillips head screws. I removed the screws and gently pulled the condenser forward so that the Drain pan could be easily removed. The drain pan is made out of thin sheet metal with a galvanized coating that will not hold up it will start rusting in a short time. I inspected the drain pan cleaned it up with a little Muretic acid and it had too many rust holes so I couldn't repair it. I ordered a new Drain pan on Part Select and when it came in I washed it and dried it completely then I sprayed it with Cold Galvanizing compound with zinc particles. You can get this from Home Depot on the spray paint isle. Hopefully the spray Galvanizing will keep it from rusting in the future and leaking inside the refrigerator. The Trough Drain Pan should have been made of Stainless sheet metal or plastic I don't really know why they used the galvanized coated pan. Everything went back together in reverse with no problems. Hopefully this drain pan will last longer than the first drain pan because it was only 4 years old. I remember when the older refrigerators would run for decades.

This story starts with a GE side-by-side refrigerator that has always had wide temperature swings and a temperamental water dispenser. The ice maker was not making ice, and the built in digital thermometer showed it was running warm. I suspected that the heat exchanger was full of dust and so looked there. What I found was that the condenser tank was hot to the touch and the fan wasn’t running. As an experiment, I aimed a fan at the it for a while I saw that the freezer temperature dropped back to normal.
.The fan is marked as 11.2 DC so I checked for voltage at the fan and found some. With three wires and no wiring diagram I wasn’t sure this answered all the questions, but hooking the fan to a 12 volt power supply didn’t get it to spin.
I priced parts at a couple websites before using partselect.com . They also have a good diagram to look at (Sears diagrams are really poor). I ordered the part with 2-day shipping; it arrived on time, was correct and fixed the problem.

I first shut off water flow to the fridge. Examination of the package (which was not exact in appearance to the original) demonstrated that the electrical connectors were well-insulated so I arrogantly and successfully proceded without disconnecting the power. My fridge is old enough that the model doesn't appear exactly on anyone's list so I wasn't alarmed that it took an extra 10 minutes or so to noodle out how to adapt the slightly different inlet cowling and electrical cord with extension, but the device is pretty simple.
Soon I loosened the two mounting screws with a nut driver, used a screwdriver to pry away the plastic snap-in housing over the electrical socket on the fridge inner wall and pulled away the electrical plug. The original water fill tube remained in its cavity, ready for re-use.
The new unit's mounting points matched the original screw locations perfectly, as did the fill cowling - which on the replacement icemaker has two possible attachment points. The new unit's electrical connector required an extension pigtail to adapt to my socket, but it was included in the package. The extra cable posed a minor cosmetic issue because it hangs in the collection basket a bit, but that will soon be remedied with a tie wrap.
After the water was restored and an anxious wait of a few hours, we had well-formed ice cubes that weren't all stuck together and the stalactites haven't reappeared.