GE french-door refigerator not cooling - How to replace evaporator fan 

Appliance repairman just told me this repair would be $480. I just ordered the $35 fan from Amazon and will replace it tomorrow. Thanks for the video and most important, you gotta love individuals that still reply to a post after 5 years. Satisfaction well deserved.

Sir, 7 years later you saved us hundreds of dollars. Did not need an update, but your demo was great. Thank you.

7 years later your video came in clutch!! Had watched dozens of videos before finding this one. The "professionals" suggested I replace the heating element, thermostat, and thermostat timer so that's what I planned to do. You mentioned "Ice under the crisper drawer" at the beginning (mine was doing the same) and after seeing how your coils looked (mine looked the exact same) I decided taking the easier route and replace the fan before starting the other higher level replacements. Ordered the exact replacement from Amazon and VIOLA!! After install, the frost began to melt within minutes and the blocks of ice were gone in a couple hours. You saved me big bucks. THANK YOU!!

Thank you!! We were already shopping for a new fridge online, when I found your video and decided to follow your steps to see if it I could figure it out. Your steps were very comprehensive and easy to follow. The condenser, coils and fan were all pretty dirty. Everything checked out, so I followed your steps for the freezer evap fan and checked the Fresh Food evaporator fan and that's what was bad. I ordered a new one on Amazon for $32 and replaced it today. Fridge is working!! You saved us at least $1,600 for now, although we will still be replacing this fridge down the line.

Thank you so much. Your video saved us on so many levels. Our fridge works great and it only cost us 43.00 for the part. I hope you know how many people you have helped. Thanks again..

Thank you so so much! In 2022, I was experiencing the same issue, ordered the suggested parts and followed your video to replace the evaporator fan. Upon completion refrigerator immediately starting cooling down from 66 to 37 within several hours. The cool thing is, I did it myself! Your video is thorough, explicit and easy to follow from disassemble to reassemble. I'm grateful for the savings of $$$.

Great video. Was told by technician that fan was no longer being produce to fridge being old, would need a new fridge. Went on Amazon and got a replacement for 30, and now know how to replace. Thank you and God bless you.

A big thank you for putting together this video. Probably saved me $250+ between parts and labor. Did a deep clean of the fridge and replaced the fan. We’re back at a cool 35 degrees.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. This fixed my GE Profile fridge. My freezer was running normal (0 deg) but my fridge was staying at 58 degrees. Pulled out my deli drawer, had a 3/4" thick sheet of ice below it. Pulled out the fan and it wasn't spinning, and my coils were frosty. Thanks so much!

Years later you are still saving asses with this video. Thanks!

Wow! i just did this today and it worked! When I opened up my fridge to replace the fan, there was ice at the bottom. I poured hot water to melt the ice and opened the back of the fridge up to watch for drainage. (I adjusted the drain tubes in the back so that it would drain into a pan. I used a hair dryer on medium heat, as high heat was actually melting the fridge paneling. Oops!) It took a while to get it to drain, but it finally did. So far the new fan works and the temperature has gone back to its settings (it's been 9 hours so far). Thank you again!

I had the same exact problem. The evaporator fan was not spinning. I removed it and turned it by hand and noticed that it wasn’t spinning smoothly. I sprayed it with WD-40 and then plugged it back in. It started spinning! The temperature is now down to 38° and dropping steadily. Thank you very much for this video. It saved me lots of time and money and headaches.

Thanks for this video!! You saved me at least a couple grand! Unfortunately, i called a repair company out to my house first. The technician used a laser thermometer to measure the freezer temps (was supposedly reading 16F) so they told me that I definitely had a “pinhole Freon leak” and that basically nothing could be done and I needed a new fridge. While shopping for new fridges online, I decided to double check the freezer temp myself with my thermometer and it read -4F. Realized it wasn’t low on Freon and started doing some research. After finding your vid, I bought the replacement fan and did the work - Very simple and exactly the problem. I limped on the fridge for a while before calling out a repairman so I had quite a bit of ice buildup under the evaporator. Had to thaw everything out, but after fan was installed, it took about 6 hours before the fridge reached safe temps again. Thanks again so much for making this!!

Thank you for the video!!! Completed the repair and fridge update with no issues. Took longer to clean the shelves than it did to complete the repair!

Our 5 year old GE Profile fridge died over the holiday weekend. Watched your video several times, ordered the part on Amazon for $39 Monday. It arrived today and I installed it on my lunch hour. Fridge immediately started cooling. Thanks for such a detailed video! Happy to do this myself and save another service call. Our Frigidaire in the garage is 20 years old and has never needed a service call.

THANK YOU. Your directions were perfect, and my $1500 fridge is running fine once again, without the service call (which was $100 to show up and then parts/labor afterwards, and they couldn't get to me for two weeks. Got the fan for $58 as a local store (he said it's a popular item for GE fridges 5-10 years old). When I took the rear cover off and saw the coils looked EXACTLY like you showed in the video I said "I think I've got this!" (hoping it wasn't the sensor). Followed your instructions and powered it up - SHAZAM. An hour later the fridge temp was 50 and dropping. You are great.

Another satisfied customer here. Thank you. BTW Be advised this model bottom freezer GE has two (2) evaporator fans; one for the refrigerator section and a second for the freezer compartment. They are not interchangeable. The freezer fan is located on the back wall of the freezer behind a pop off plastic cover. Access is made by emptying the freezer and removing the large bin. There is no need to remove the sliding door/compartment as you can get your torso into the space and perform the work. Again.. Thanks for the video.

This video allowed me to successfully fix my mom's refrigerator that was having the same problem. This was my first time doing any sort of kitchen appliance work and this video helped me to feel confident in getting the job done right. Plus it helped to save money in the long run and who doesn't love that! 😁

Thank goodness you uploaded this video on RU-vid! Easily saved me a $900 repair bill, or $2,500 for a new fridge after only 9 years of operation. Easy to follow steps. A $35 fan from Amazon is way better! I stumbled upon your video when I was searching online for how to replace the thermostat, thinking that might be the problem. Thanks again!

Just want to thank you for this video. It saved my mom thousands from not having to get a new fridge. Took longer to de-ice the fridge then to actually fix it. Again thank you for this excellent video. Replaced the fan and is working perfectly.

Thank you so much. I ordered the fan on Amazon $35 and followed the video. I was going to be charged over $500 from a repair shop and $3k for a new refrigerator. It was plain and as easy as the video just needed a 1/4 socket head.

My name is Francisco. This is one of the best videos with a clear explanation, to correct a problem in a very short time. I had the same situation on my refrigerator, part ordered and delivered next day. I did follow all your instructions and problem solved. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

After researching I found your video. Ordered the part and just replaced it. Took about 10min from start to finish. Now I’m just waiting to see if my fridge starts cooling down. I had all of the same issue. Fridge not cooling, crisper working REALLY well, freezer working like it should. Fingers crossed this is the issue and it’s fixed. Thanks for posting the video!!!!

I'm so glad I found your video and the description of the symptoms when the evaporator fan is not working. I ordered the fan yesterday (one that doesn't need the software update) and tonight I will be attempting to replace it. Thank you for the detailed instructions on the video.

PERFECT video - I had the exact same fridge, with the exact same problem. Your video allowed me to save $150 on service guy coming to my house. THANK YOU SOO MUCH!! Its guys like you that make RU-vid a wonderful resource.

Your very instructional video allowed my wife to fix our GE refrigerator while I was at work. Thank you!

Thanks for sharing this video. My husband was able to replace the evaporator fan of our refrigerator. Our refrigerator is now cooling. The GE repairman wanted to charge $99.95 just to diagnosis, plus parts. Our local store wanted $90 for the part, and we order the part off E-bay for $52.00! We are SUPER excited because of this video, we fixed our appliance and never left the house.

Thank you! My fridge was making a horrible whining noise, some temp fluctuations but still working as expected for the most part. I took it apart to get the part number off the fan and when I pulled it out I noticed it had a lot of ice buildup. I plugged the fan in and realized the whining noise was the fins of the fan hitting the ice. I removed the ice from the fan and fan housing. Put it back together and it’s working perfectly. I did take a picture with my phone of the part number incase it starts up again I’ll just order the fan.

Thank you for posting this. I watched it, ordered the fan and installed it myself! The hardest part was getting to door off because I had to nearly lie on the floor to access the bolts - But I fixed it! Feeling empowered . Thank you 🙂

Thank You I was able to get the part and install it myself, My repairman was going to charge me $250 for parts and labor to fix the evaporator heater..

Thank you!!!! Just ordered my fan! Your directions were spot on- three years later!!!!

I want to express my sincere gratitude for this truly excellent tutorial. I hired a professional repair company to fix my refrigerator. The guy came and replaced a circuit board, and that obviously didn't fix it. I found your video, ordered the part from Amazon, paid for next day delivery and had it fixed in a jiffy. The only problem I had was getting the motor wires out of the wiring harness....I still have no idea how they are treaded in it. I accidentally broke it. Your videography is excellent and the camera was always pointed where it needed to be aimed. If you have any comment on those wires in the wiring harness, you might post for the next person. My fridge was not the exact same model as yours, but close enough that all of what you did was relevant. Thank you again!!!

Your problem is identical to the one I have on a GE Cafe model. Crisper freezes up and the fridge is room temperature. I found the part number from the QR code inside the door, and now I just need to get the part. I am certain this is the problem since everything in the back panel is working correctly. Thank you so much.

Saved a few hundred dollars thanks to your video! My fridge was nearly the same but had a slightly different design than yours in the video. Mine had a button that you can press that changes the temp in the crisper and has a second smaller fan inside of a big styrofoam housing. I was worried when I found it that it might have been the cause of the problem. But after I swapped the larger center fan, by the next morning, the fridge was cold! My thanks to you!!!

We need more people like you. You help families save hundreds of dollars. Thank you very much!

Thanks you for this very easy to understand and descriptive video. I wish I had teachers like you in my college haha.No seriously, it was so much fun and accomplishment to fix it myself & ofcourse save $$, thanks to your video. And yes, cleaning the refrigerator took 2 hours, fixing like 40 mins ! :) Keep up the good work !

Awesome video that helped us to DIY - now praying that was the problem and we start to see the temperature go down!

Was exactly what I needed.....Crisper drawer was freezing....and the change out was less than 20 min....thanks to your video!

Nice video. I did follow the steps to eliminate the possibility of evaporator fan failure. However in my case this was not the reason for Fridge not cooling. It was the inverter box. This video did help me to get there.

Thanks for the video. I was able to repair the fridge and now I'm a superhero at home!

Thanks for the walkthrough! I had this fan replaced under warranty a few yrs back. It's dead again. 5yr old fridge. Third fan motor that I'll be doing myself. Just junk parts...

Thanks - this helped greatly. Fridge stopped cooling last night but the bottom drawers were still cold. Watched this video and was able to run to an appliance part store this morning to pick up the replacement part. If I had the part on me, this would have taken 10-20 minutes tops. Thanks for saving me a costly repair!

I installed the part last night and this morning the fridge is a cool 37 degrees. Can't thank you enough for the video. It was so easy to fix with your help.

Thank you so much. Directions were spot on and saved us a lot of money. Total repair took 40 minutes from start to finish!

Thank you for this video. Was flipping out when my fridge was warm on top and cold on the bottom. Replacing this fan made it as good as new.

Worked like a charm. Thank you. TLDR: Make sure you have a 1/4 nut driver because a socket set probably won't be able to get into the tight drawer glide assemblies. But you can complete the repair with just a socket set. I thought I had a 1/4 driver but only had a socket set with a 1/4 adapter. Got half way through the deconstruction only to find those screws set deep into the drawer glide assembly (around 2:05) were inaccessible with the socket--it was too big to reach into that small diameter hole. With food out on the counter and no other option, I decided to pull up on the back assembly without removing the drawer glide assemblies. It worked! I had to carefully bend the back assembly out to access the fan, but I was able to do that without any damage. Popped the old fan out, popped in the new fan, carefully pushed that back assembly in place, completed reassembly. It wasn't ideal. On the other hand, it saved a fair amount of time.

Thanks for the video. I have had the same problem with my GE Monogram. When I called a repairman he simply said to "unplug it and let it defrost" and charged me $60. That was more than two years ago. Needless to say, it is still happening. When I called GE they offered a service for over $1000. I will find an appliance parts store and get the fan. I will send an update once the refrigerator is up and running.

Perfectly described and shot video. Even validated my assessment from reading forums. I ordered my unit from Appliance Parts Company. Came in about a week. Following your instructions I was back up and running in 10 minutes. Temp is on the way down quickly.

I'm glad I ran into this video, my fan went out on my GE profile refrigerator and the part cost me $89 instead of paying $400 for the service tech to replace it.

Absolutely wonderful demonstration on the replacement of the refrig compartment's glorified "computer fan" - I used this video to save $175 over the cost of a service call visit - One caveat, however - you might want to either let the refrigerator sit for a few hours or use a hair dryer to melt accumulated ice on the evaporator coil before attempting to pull the cover off - I pulled off some adhesive sealing tape (and broke off a piece of styrofoam) in the process of pulling the cover, not a big deal in the greater scheme of things but did double the repair time

Thank you for this video! Was so relieved to find out while watching the video, it was for the exact same issue I was experiencing (fridge temp not working, bottom tray cold, etc). Saved me a lot of $$$ with this simple DIY fix!

I’m glad I found this video. I’m having the same issue so I hope this will solve it. I’ll let you know if this was the right fix! (Praying it is so I can do it myself. Can’t afford a repairman)

It is nice to see what you are getting into before you get into it!!! Thank you and God bless you. You are awesome...

THANK YOU SO MUCH! You saved me thousands of dollars! A GE technician failed to find the problem and I was told to replace the entire fridge. Your solution fixed all its problems! Thanks again.

Great video making a DIY repair easy. Worth mentioning that the fan may work and still not cool sufficiently due to speed of fan rotation.

Too bad I didn’t find this video sooner. I’ve been searching for videos on this same issue but these never came up in the results. I just paid a GE repair man $356.00 for this repair. It wasn’t until I googled the part number (off the fan that he replaced) that it populated this result. He was in and out of my house in 30 minutes... 😕 Well, so be it. Great video!

Thank you for posting this video! I bought the part for $50 and replaced it in less than 20 minutes following your instructions. You've saved me time and money. Much appreciated!

I watched this video to see the basic layout of a bottom freezer. Was able to wd-40 the fan and get it going until the new one arrives. Thank you for showing how easy these are to work on.

Thank you so very much! Job was very easy-the hardest part was making sure I was ordering the correct part as the unit has so many different fan modules. ours was noisy from the first day and only got worse as time went on. got to the point it was keeping us awake! I am a long way from a major city so service calls are extremely expensive.

I think you just save my life 3 years later! 💪🏻👍🏻👌🏼😂

Thank you very much. We had this problem and were glad to find your video. We picked up a replacement fan and installed it in under an hour. Refrigerator was a cool 37 degrees this morning. Your video and comments were very helpful.

Thank you much for this video and instructions. I have a GE Cafe and saw the exact symptoms. I was able to order the part from repairclinic and replace it in an hour. The fridge is nice and cool now. Repairclinic should pay you guys for promoting their product !

Wow what a great video on this repair, I followed this video and ordered the fan off of amazon and installed the fan and sure enough it works great. within one hour the temp was down to 43 degrees from 60 degrees so software update needed so they sent me the updated fan. this saved me literally $300 and could not be happier to know this worked (Thank You)

Great video, really helped. Did it took 20min. Mine is a newer model 2 yrs old. Made loud flutter noises, then screeched on and off. Cooling was working but noise was telling me it would break down sooner than later. You can get the fan (GE repl fan) for about $50 on Amazon, did not come with update cable. There are knock off fans for about $30. My unit did not have the mechanical connection to the deli drawer. Had an electronic link. You don't have to disconnect it, just leave it sitting at bottom of fridge. Nice and quiet now. Thanks

Thank you!! You have my fridge nice, mine at 61 degrees and freezer was ok, getting part on Amazon for $30 and taking 2 days since ordered late Saturday, haha. Better than having to pay $200 or so for a repairman

This dude is SPOT ON!!!!! It was an easy fix and it WORKED

Thanks for the video! $50 fan and 25 minutes to take out and install. Problem solved, which was freezer working but upper fridge only reaching 52F. Still under 5 yr warranty but as usual it was so exclusive so anything not in the "sealed system" was not included. Did have to wait few minutes for the last back piece to unfreeze before pulling away to get at fan. Thank you!

this video helped me fix my frig 2 years ago and now it's helping me again, thanks a lot!!!!

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!! You saved my dad time & money. & I love the fact that you left a link where to get the replacement as well. 💕 I appreciate you for taking the time to record & post this video. Thank you!

Thanks.. followed your instructions and after letting the ice melt around the cover was pleasantly surprised to find a loose connection to the fan, so i didnt even have to buy a fan!

Thanks for the video. READ IF YOU HAVE TEMPERATRURE ISSUE IN YOUR GE REFRIGERATOR. I wanted to share my experience with my GE French Door temperature issue, part number GFE29HSDDSS. I bought all GE appliances for my brand new home I personally built in 2014, so only 6 years old. My GE french door fridge would not stay cold enough, range from 42-46F on the display. The freezer was great and held at zero consistently. My issue started back in April 2020 and finally fixed in October 2020. Yes, almost 6 months of hell and spoiled food. I researched diligently, triing to figure out what could be the cause. I viewed videos such as this one and changed out my evaporator fan hoping this would correct. It did not fix the issue. I then called GE hoping they would be able to shed some light on why or what could be wrong. BIG mistake!! GE customer support might be the worst I've ever dealt with. I called several times and normally waited at least an hour for a representative for them to basically say they are only there to provide basic support and order parts, would NOT help in any way. I asked for higher support and they said it didn't exist. After continuing to learn more possibly about my issue, I replaced the evaporator temperature sensor and evaporator coil defrost thermostat. No luck, still continued to have high temperatures. I ordered a new main electric board thinking there was some bad capacitors, no luck. Then, I hired a qualified repairman, he was great. He called GE and after looking into codes on the phone with GE, they said it was a low freon issue. Repairman checked it out and was holding exactly as it should. The he did a little more research and told me that my refrigerator model had a RECALL on the evaporator fan plus rear air flow tower. It would have been great if GE would have told me this having spending hours on the phone waiting to speak with a representative, they wanted nothing more than to get off the phone with me as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this new tower helped a little but the temperatures would not surpass 40-42F, set point at 35F. Final resolution was a $18 temperature sensor at the very top of the refrigerator under the plastic grill cover. We only figured this out after my repairman ran a week long temperature study with a digital termperatrure recorder. The problem was worst than we though and at times the termperature was reaching 50F. I bought the termperature sensor and put it in within a few hours, I could tell it was better. SO...if you are considering a GE, think twice, I won't purhcase GE ever again. If you are having temperature issues with your GE French door unit, change out the evaporator fan plus the TWO temperature sensors, one at the evaporator coil and the other on the inside top under the plastic grill cover. Should fix the problem.....case in point, I'm sure GE knows about these problems and fixes, why not help your customers with easy fixes such as this one. Went through nearly 6 months of HELL. Get it toghether GE, just terrible.

I can't thank you enough for posting this video and the link to the replacement fan. Great description on symptoms as well as exact steps to repair.

Thanks for the help! Walked me right through fixing mine. Saved me about $300.

Thanks for the video. It helped me diagnose and fix my fridge. How ever, my experience was a little different. My fridge is a GNE29GSKSS (bought is Feb 2018), top double door fridge/bottom freezer, no water and ice in the door, "Twin Chill" cooling. The fridge was warm at 65F and the freezer was normal at 0F. There was no air flow in the top of the fridge at the vent where the cold air should be blowing via the evap fan. The evap coil was not frozen with ice, but it was frosty. The evap fan was running. And the evap fan was the "upgraded" fan according to two or three of the sellers on Amazon, Nidec brand, WR60X26866. These factors placed doubt that it was an evap fan problem. After a day or two of trial and error, I did finally determine that the evap fan was not running and the fridge was warm, again, even though the freezer was running at normal temperature. After ordering and installing the new fan, but the same brand and model, Nidec WR60X26866, and testing for another two days, the fridge and freezer ran perfectly. Conclusion: 1) The evap fan can fail intermittently for several days. 2) The "upgraded" evap fan may not really be upgraded in terms of having a longer life, since the factory evap fan in my fridge that failed was the same fan as the evap fan that Amazon is selling as the "upgraded evap fan.

Thank you for posting this video. this instruction and the replacement part worked for GE GFD28MLCES. Fan motor positioning was different in this model. difference was very minimal.

Thanks! December 2022 this was my exact issue exact parts and exact repair.

Great step by step video. We were able to remove the fan that was bound up, get it going again until the new fan arrives. Thanks for doing the video, saved us money!!

Thank you so much. You saved me alot of time looking for the replacement parts, repair, and saved me a few hundreds. Now I need to fix the bottom ice maker 😆

THANK YOU! Exact same fridge, exact same problem. You saved us a lot of money!

I have the same exact fridge with the same exact problem and the same exact solution. Thank you for helping me easily solve this headache!👍

Thank you for putting this together. Really helpful. Glad to know I don't have to get a software update.

Thank you very much for this post! My 3 year old refrigerator turned up with the exact symptoms you described at the beginning of your video. The fan was out of stock with the supplier you mentioned, but I found the fan part on eBay. Your step by step made it a cinch to do the fan replacement and software upgrade. Thank you and DIY saves $!

Yep I just put a new fan in my GE café three door I knew what it was but this helped in the finding all the screws🙂

Thank you for this very easy informational video. My refrigerator is the same one that you’re showing there is freezing in the freezer. It did freeze the crisper drawer but the rest of the refrigerator was 65°. So I took it all apart like you showed but my evaporator fan is working so now I’m lost.

Thank you so much for making this video. It was extremely helpful. We found the replacement part locally, and it took just a short time for my husband to replace it.

Thank you for this! Because of your video I saved over $300 by doing the fan replacement myself!

I can't thank you enough... You saved us a service call for something simple.

Very helpful for me. Just replaced a GE condenser fan using primarily this video as my guide. Thanks!

Thanks. Replaced fan. Melted ice with hairdryer. Is now working!!! $53 for the part.

Thank you for the video!!! The only problem I had was I had to thaw out the coils with a blow-dryer because so much ice built up.

Thanks for the video. I noticed that you are on at least your third fan. I am on my third. GE tech put in number two and left the sticker like I see on yours. Your video definitely increased my confidence level when I did this repair. The parts place I went to here in Raleigh had sold 13 of these fans in the last 4 months. We definitely like the refrigerator but this fan is a hassle. Take care!!

Great video. Helped us diagnose and fix the exact same issue in a DIY way. Fridge was not cooling but the deli tray was freezing. Mine was a GE profile 2014 model.

Thanks as it was an easy fix. I just turned the fan and it started working again, so i used the original part until the new part arrived. It was an easy replacement and it sounds so quiet with the new part

Thank you so much. This fixed our problem and saved us a lot of money. God bless you.

Wanted to say thanks. Fixed it myself and working great.

I was told that sometimes it could be ice buildup coming in contact with the fan. This keeps the fan from spinning. You may want to check before you order a fan. Great videos.

Great video! I would like to know why these fans stop working as there are quite a few complaints with this issue. Is the wifi adapter a good investment? I wonder how to tell if an update is needed.

Thank you for the video, It turned out it was a bit of foam that fell into the fan blade and jammed the fan. Cleared it and it is running fine.

Had the same exact problem. Very loud fan at times. Not all the time. Crisper also was frozen sometimes. When it finally went today the fridge temp rises and the freezer temp is ok. I ordered the parts one year ago today. So I’ll be honest, I avoided this repair for the last year. Watched your video before I repaired mine and it was spot on. Appreciate the help! While it was defrosting I cleaned all the parts I removed. Also when coming off my coil was frozen to the styrofoam. I ended up splitting it to get it off. I used gorilla glue and then put metal shurtape to hold it all together. I’m curious if anyone had problems with the fan after the repair, for example one or two years later do we have to do this again? Would be curious to know what the software update was all about too.

Most helpful video that we have ever needed! We have a GE Cafe and used other's recommendation to WD-40 until the new part comes in. Thank you!