Why is the evaporator fan running but not blowing air into the fridge?

Why is the evaporator fan running but not blowing air into the fridge? I have a GE side by side refrigerator/freezer model GSH25JFXB. We noticed a few days ago that the evaporator fan is running almost continuously. Since then we have been monitoring temperatures in the refrigerator and freezer, and although the freezer is staying cold enough the refrigerator temps have been getting too warm at times. Although the evaporator fan is running, we don’t feel the cold air blowing into the refrigerator. My husband is pretty handy with fixing some kinds of appliances with the help of youtube, but is not very familiar with refrigerators. Does this sound like something we need to pay a repairman to come in and look at, or should we just replace the whole thing? (It is just over 10 years old). Or, is there something fairly simple we can do to check and see for ourselves if something simple is wrong that we could fix ourselves?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 201

Total answers/comments: 1

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mcgyver89 [Entry]

"Hi @spin551 ,

You need to check if the temperature sensor - part #242 is OK. It may be faulty and “telling” the control board that the fridge temp is OK when it is not and the damper (part #429) is being closed to prevent more cold air coming into the fridge section.

If you have a DMM (digital multimeter) and know how to use its’ Ohmmeter function you can test the sensor to check if is OK.

Here’s how to test the sensor - the information was taken from the above parts supplier’s website. They call it a thermistor but in the parts catalogue they call it a sensor ;-)

“The best way to do this is to remove the thermistor from the refrigerator so you can control the temperature of the sensor. You can let the sensor warm up to room temperature or grab a glass of ice water to test the thermistor. With the sensor warmed up to room temperature the sensor should read approximately 6.2K Ohms at 68°F. With the thermistor submerged in a glass full of ice water, the sensor should be very close to 32°F which should read approximately 16.3K Ohms. If the values that you are getting are far off from these readings, then the sensor is bad and should be replaced.”

Here’s is a link to a video that may be of some help. (scroll down the page to find the video)

If the sensor is the problem there are other suppliers online that may suit you better. Just search for GE GSH25JFXB parts

If the sensor is OK the problem may be the damper assembly or in the control board."