Update to howling noise from GE Profile Refrigerator

[klewis]

Model: GSL25JFPDBS
Serial: HG214805

I am experiencing the droning hum that so many have described in this thread coming from the freezer. I called the customer relations number and they said my model/serial numbers did not fall into the faulty board program and that it only affected older models than mine. They offered me a new board at $75 if I wanted to replace it myself.

My plan is to go ahead and buy the part to replace it myself. However I am just having a hard time believing that they shouldn't be paying for my board as well considering this is a known problem with many models of their fridges and mine is a very close model number to those that are affected.

Any advice anyone has on pushing for a free board before I just buy it and be done?

Thanks

[FredinFlorida]

A big thanks to all

Posted on June 25, 2010. Thanks to everyone here - You saved me a bunch of $$$. Our GE side-by-side refrigerator, which is now 4 years old and out of warranty, started howling. After reading the comments here I called GE Customer Service and explained the problem I "was" having and mentioned this discussion board. They responded immediately by sending one of their techs out (no charge for the service call) and charged me only $100 for the new board. Problem FIXED!! Thanks for taking time to share your experiences and recommendations. I hope many others read this board and save hundreds as I have.

Fred

[fleish]

Consumer relations number

Just wanted to add another testimony to the list & provide the number you need to call to get something done about it. The regular GE support representative I spoke to (Phillip) was rude & dismissive about the problem. He kept telling me the same thing over and over, that they'd have to send a technician out to verify what the problem is. I kept trying to get him to verify what I'd read on this thread, that the model number had a known issue and he repeatedly refused, citing that the only way to know this was to have a technician come out and verify. After hearing his soapbox speech many times over I asked to speak to his manager and got transferred to consumer relations @ 800.386.1215, where Edith promptly & politely looked up my model/serial number and confirmed the issue and gave me 3 options for repair:

1) Send me the part to self-install. Free of charge
2) Send me the part and have a technician come out to install. Charge for labor
3) Let me repair it myself, they would then reimburse up to $220 (this was based on the age of the unit, model # GSH25JSRFSS)

Going with option #1. And never calling GE's main support before trying consumer relations again.

[howlinghotpoint]

I just moved into a rental home. The house had the Hotpoint HSS25GFPJWW side by side fridge / freezer. We had the howling going on the day we moved in.

Thanks to this forum, I was able to find the solution. I talked to my landlord and we initially tried to get a local repairman to come by. Of course the freezer wasn't doing it's typical howling at the time and they basically said, "No noise, no fix."

I talked things over with my landlord and I decided to buy the WR55X10942 control board part. I got it off ebay from a supply store for $99.55 shipped to my house. My landlord is going to reimburse me for the part, and this seemed like a fairly good way to do it.

I just put the new board in and the fridge is now perfectly silent.

If you decide to do this, here are a few things I picked up on.


1. The assembly screws are 1/4" socket type.
2. The new control board had a couple extra slots to put in cables that did not exist on my fridge. I just left them open.
3. The board is secured to the fridge by this translucent retaining clips. Just squeeze them with a needle nose plier to compress the clip to allow the board to slide out. There are 4 of them.
4. On the bottom of the board is this blue plug with wires. It slides down rather than out like the other plugs do. This probably doesn't make much sense until you try changing out the board.
5. Replacing the plugs is fairly straightforward.
6. The new ground plug doesn't have the same connector as the old one did. So, you're supposed to just put it along the hole where the top left backplate screw goes.

Otherwise, it didn't take me all that long to do. I futzed around for awhile trying to figure out what to do with the groundwire until I reread the instructions and realized where they wanted it to go. If you have ever changed out a motherboard on a computer this is pretty much the same level of complexity. If you haven't done that, this still isn't all that complex of a job to do.

[keito]

hi everyone, i have the same problem. Does anyone know the right contact in Oz to have Howl corrected, or get the replacement part?

I also have a problem with one of my water hoses underneath. It just broke in two. The top part of it disappears into the bottom of the fridge. Does anyone know where it goes, what it does, and how to repair it?

[galchemy]

Not a permanent fix

Greetings all. I purchased a new GE side by side in November 2004. It started the howling noise a couple of years later. I called a repairman and he said that the fan was going bad. He replaced the fan and the noise went away.

The sound came back a year later. The repairman then told me that it was now a known issue and that it was in fact the control board that needed replacing. He got me the "special" labor-only repair cost (presumably under the recall). The sound went away.

Here I am now two years later and the sound is back again. Does that mean that one year of the fan running with a faulty control board has damaged it and now it has to be replaced again? Or do the control boards just go bad after two years, regardless.

When you add that I've had to have the door-water freezing problem fixed too (as mentioned by a previous poster). I am now looking forward to having spent almost the cost of the refrigerator in repairs.

What is the solution? Perhaps to never buy a GE refrigerator again. And Consumer Reports gave them a good rating too.

[CShawn]

The GE howling continues

Hello,

I'm still having a problem with this much complained-about howling after replacing the main control board as suggested on other posts. I have a GE profile refrigerator PDS20FSDLSS (note: this is a single door model w/ bottom freezer). Its just outside of the warranty and GE is useless.

The control board I needed was the WR55X10942 confirmed by GE. I purchased the board and installed it, but the noise continued. Frustrated, I returned the board and have been maintaining my sanity by constantly pushing a "Turbo Cool" button in the refrigerator. That seems to alter the speed of the fan and make the howling go away until the next cycle. At least I have that.

At this point do I suck it up and have GE send out their techs and have more of my money head to GE or is there something else I can do?

Thanks,
CShawn

[Winston]

update to GE playing dumb

I've read thru all y'alls questions & advice, thanks to all. My current experience was explaining the noise problem to GE and telling them I thought it was the main board, having them say they had to send repair guy out to make sure it wasn't a fan and didn't know about or if a recall for a main board existed. Repair guy came, opened frig once, went to his notebook and called up the main board needed. Said it wasnt under the recall and would cost me $170.00 for the part, but would "discount" it to $120.00 plus his work for $170.00 - $299.95 w tax! I called GE, after talking w/ one rep was put on hold. Called back, got another rep who "offered to sent the unit for free, with a 25% discount for repair guy - $150.00"!!! On top of what I was charged for his diagnostic charge $79.95 which I had paid. I'll be buying on line and installing myself. I'll never buy another GE produce.

[Michigan Homeowner]

Complaint: Continuous annoying “Howling” sound
Refrigerator: GE Profile side-by side
Model: PSS26LGRC CC
Built: Mexico, October 2004
Shipped: November 2004
Installed: Spring/Summer 2005

Thank you for this information thread; it was very, very helpful. Just like others, I too had the annoying GE refrigerator howl. I was able to endure the noise for many months thinking that it was just something that we would be stuck with, but the last couple of weeks were starting to drive us nuts (maybe because we’re in the house so much this winter). I was so glad to have this link pop up from my Google search to give me really good information on what the problem most likely is; the control board. I called the GE Customer Relations number listed in this thread (800-386-1215) and got a very helpful and considerate person on the line after about a 10 minute hold “due to abnormally high call volume” at GE. The GE rep took my info and looked up my unit’s model and serial number and he told me that it was not included in the service qualified range. The rep said that he was familiar with the “howling” problem and that they could send out a service tech and they would cover 50% of the parts and labor even though my unit was not on the list. I told him that I have a refrigeration guy that will do the install for me and asked whether GE could just send me the part. He said they could but it would cost me 50% of the part cost of $189.00 plus taxes and shipping (about $100.00). Well, to make a long story a little shorter, comments from others on this thread gave me the ammo to try to get the part for free. After a couple of “need to put you on hold” replies he told me that I could get the part for a total of $32.81 including taxes and shipping. I agreed with him and the part is being shipped to my house. While I am totally unhappy with all my GE appliances in general, I will comment that this GE rep that took care of my call was very helpful and pleasant to deal with. I will report back to this thread after the part is installed and whether the ghoulish “howl” is gone after the control board is replaced. Thanks again for this terrific information thread!

[kagattis]

Well thank goodness for these boards. My folks are on a fixed income and have a GE Model #pss26sgpa. It is doing all kinds of weird things. I called the Customer Relations number, gave her the model info and she referred me to another 888 number that would give me my options (my husband can put it in). The agent at that number said that our serial number showed that the fridge was made 2 months prior the the "known issue" guidelines. I told her that the girl at customer relations told me to call this number for my replacement options. She asked me to hold and came back to verify my address and stated that they are shipping a new control board out fed ex for no charge. Hooray for the wonderful posters to this thread!

Kim

[mrcaptainbob]

GE appliances...

Sure sounds like GE's appliances leave a lot to be desired. But their customer attention is certainly first rate from these replies! Thanks for the updates....

[fbtjr]

Free repair of 6 yr old GE refr still available as of 1/31/2011

GE side-by-side model GSS25WGPJBB manufactured January 2005 started moaning like an unhappy ghost about 3 months ago

After getting the "never heard of it", "know nothing" runaround from GE service and offers for them to send out a tech at my expense ($80 plus parts), I called the GE Customer Relations number listed in this thread (800-386-1215). After a reasonably short wait I got a very pleasant and very helpful young lady on the line. She already knew the model, s/n, and our address from our phone number since we had sent in the registration cards. She asked a few questions about when the problem started, when the noise happens, etc. Then she informed me that GE could have a tech at our house the next day and that GE would cover the entire repair!! I almost fell off my chair! She gave me a case number and her direct phone number in case I had any problems! She also promised to call the day after the repair to see if everything had gone OK!!

The tech arrived within the appointment time window with a new board in hand. He was out the door in less than 15 minutes, part of which was spent explaining the problem.

On the failed boards, a voltage regulator has failed. As the controller tries to change the fan speed the voltage changes, making it impossible for the controller to hold any constant fan speed. One of the results is the ghoulish varying woooooOOOOOooooo wooooOOOOoooo moaning sound.

And yes, the young lady called the day after the repair as promised.

The new Main Control Board is GE part number WR55X10942. We could not find any identifiable GE part number on the failed board. While researching this problem I did find several references to other part numbers being replaced by this part.

If you can't get GE or whoever's label is on your fridge to cover the repair....

Just before finding this discussion thread, I found an outfit that repairs the controller boards and gives a 2 year warranty. I think their end price after "core" refund was $80 including shipping. They are at triple w fixyourboard dot com.

They also have a fairly simple test procedure to verify whether the voltage regulator has failed. The test procedure is only for those who have the knowledge and skills to work on hot electrical circuits safely. The test procedure is under their TECH link at the top right of their page.

Thanks to everyone for the VERY HELPFUL posts! Especially whoever found the Customer Relations phone number!!!!!

Casper's unhappy friends have left the building!

[GypsyAssassin]

GE Select Side by Side

Just ordered a new main board for my GE Select Side by Side that is making these cyclical howling sounds. I'll let you know if it fixes the problem for my model.

[labear]

Dan O or Soxfan, what is the 800#

Dan O or Soxfan........ PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH THE GE LAWSUIT phone number # so I can call them.
I dont see it anywhere "above" as you mentioned.

Does anyone know if any of the Monogram models (such as ZFSB23 or 25) are included in any of these law suits, recalls of control boards or fans, or even if this can be the same cause of the howling sound.... but instead on Monograms?

HELP, its driving my wife nuts!

thanx

[kanchan]

Hi All,

I read through all of the post mentioned above. Even my GE Fridge makes howling noise sometimes. Noise goes away if the refrigerator door is all full and heavy. (2 gallons of milk + rest of the stuff generally stored in the fridge door). If I remove both the gallons of milk and wait for some time, this howling noise starts back. I am not sure, if any of you were experiencing similar issue. I am not sure if this is Control board problem.

I tried calling the GE Warranty I have about this noise, they mentioned, if there is no noise when the technician is at our place, we will have to still pay $135/- for service fee + hourly charges.
This is such an horrible warranty service provided by GE. Also the rep on the phone was so arrogant and rude.

If any of you have similar problem with the fridge and has resolved it, please let me know how to fix it.
Thank you so much!!!