How to fix your noisy refrigerator

Task: GE refrigerator evaporator fan motor replacement.

My refrigerator was very noisy. It sounded like wind howling, or a high-pitched whirring sound. The sound was coming from the freezer compartment. I was able to fix the problem. Hopefully you can fix yours too. Here's how I did it.

My GE refrigerator:
Model #: GSS20IEPDWW

My old evap fan motor:
UDQT26GE4 Panasonic
9.75V DC 3.25W nom.
WR60x10154


This is what I did to fix my noisy refrigerator. It won't make sense unless you physically remove the back panels of your freezer and see how the evap motor is connected. Dive in and check it out.

1. Annoying whining sound heard from fridge off and on for about a year. Sound was coming from freezer compartment. Contacted GE and they wanted $75 for a repairman to make only an assessment of the repair needed. I decided to pass and investigate other options.
2. Searched Internet to see if other people had the same problem.
3. Found a parts website that had stories of people experiencing the same problem along with their fixes.
4. Removed ice bin and plastic panels of my freezer compartment to retrieve part number of my evap fan motor. Wrote down part number and reassembled.
5. Searched ebay for replacement evap fan motor. Purchased new motor from ebay for $31.95 which included shipping.
6. Gathered tools (screwdriver with 1/4" hex bit, soldering iron, solder, shrink wrap, marker, wire stripper, wrench, flashlight, video/still camera, clamp).
7. Removed food in freezer and put it in a cooler with ice. You'll need to keep it cold for an hour or so while you work in the freezer. Food in fridge compartment will be fine as long as the door is closed and you finish the job quickly (~1-2 hrs). Unplugged refrigerator.
8. Removed ice bin, ice maker churner assembly, plastic panels, light bulb, wiring harnesses (you might want to take a picture or video and label each harness so you remember which wiring harness goes where).
9. Removed existing evap fan motor.
10. Replaced with new evap fan motor. This step is tricky because you have to cut the 4 wires (red, blue, white, yellow) of your old motor and splice in the new motor with solder and shrink wrap.
11. Tie wrapped the wires to avoid interference with fan blades.
12. Reassemble evap assembly, plastic panels, light bulb, and ice bin and churner. Plug fridge back in.
13. $32 and 2 hours later, you can smile while listening to a quiet fridge and thinking about the $100+ you just saved!
Final Advice: Be sure to post your story on the Internet so others can benefit just like I did. Consumers have the power to beat the manufacturers who nickel-and-dime us with costs to repair their faulty parts!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• ge
• refrigerator
• noisy
• evaporator
• fan
• dc
• motor
• whining
• whirring
• sound
• high
• pitched
• howling

[cheoamira]

Hi - 2 questions:

1. you did this 18 months ago. Has the noise come back, or was your repair permanent.

2. Was the noise intermittent, seeming to happen only maybe half the time (I think when the fan is asked to run more slowly).?

[brenmac03]

Repair was permanent. Yes, noise was heard half the time.

[jbdevet]

worthless video quit polluting youtube



[doubleyooteeF]

This is happening to my fridge... like howling wind, intermittently. I'm not handy nor do I know how to solder, wish you lived near me. :)

[Algonkin1964]

Mine knocks something awful....like someone throwing a stone on its side. It wakes us up from time to time

[Garselo]

GE must have gone downhill in quality. My refrigerator is a GE which is over 25 years old and has only had the defrost timer replaced. It works very well even now.

[cluppins]

You will probably have to replace the mother board too. An broken evaporator fan motor almost always cause the main circuit board to fail. Main circuit board is easy to replace, just order part on-line. Go to appliances forum for help, Never buy another GE product.

[cluppins]

Don't buy GE refrigerators. They are a fire hazard. After 3 years, the sealed system of my refrigerators overheated and melted the insultation. GE will not replace the defective product.

[Joirerson]

I just bought this part on ebay, I have checked the part number on my fridge and it matches yours. I had the exact same problem but the part number has changed according to GE. The new part info is:

WR60X10185 GE Evaporator Freezer Fan Motor OEM New Part

380205457666 - Price: US $28.35

[10dindin]

Thank you for sharing!!!

I had an extremely noisy refrigerator.. I almost threw it away... But.. I saw your helpful video.. I opened my refridgerator and found the motor.. It took me less then a minute to take it out. I bought the exact part. I came home it took me another minute to put the new motor back in place. And my refrigerator works quietly like a new one.... I am very happy : ) Thank you.

[nlsonchlkbrd]

hey cheoamira......well, it was great info, but unfortunately my husband has yet to fix it. It's still making that crazy noise. Trust me, I bitch about it everyday. I did some more research, and it's a bad bearing in the fan. So far nothing has gone wrong with the freezer....it's just annoying as heck. I'll post you if we ever fix it. It'll probably blow up by then...lol!!

[cheoamira]

Nlsonchlkbrd: it has been five months. Can you tell me what happened? We bought a house with an otherwise very nice GE fridge, but that horrible howling evaporator fan is driving us bats. I'm probably going to do the repair that brenmac03 did, but I'm worried: a lot of reports on the web of the fan replacement working for a month or two, or even not at all.