GE has this same problem for over 13 years. You would think they could get it fixed, but no. As far as I know there is no solution to your problem if you have a plastic liner. Leave the light on.
I hope GE fridge buyers would consider this when purchasing..
I got a quote from GE to replace the freezer door (part number WR78X11539) has a retail price of $518.50, however GE offered this for the price of $200.00, plus shipping and handling, not including labor to install this..am going to pass on this for now....
We are having the same problem with a GE side-by-side purchased 11 years ago. The problem only manifest itself a year and a haf ago. Why the time lag? What causes it to do this? Also, moisture forms underneath the dispenser on the outside of the door in the summer bc of the humidity in the air because that area of the door stays cooler. A repairman guess that moisture (water) under the outside door is frozen causing the difference in temp. inside of the ref is plastic, so no fix right?
It's an old problem with voids in the foam shot into the door. I have a 20 year old one that had that problem early. The heater kit works unless you really load the fridge up with warm stuff. But when we do that we leave the light on and everything works fine, if it freezes up it is only for a short time. The plastic liner should not be a problem.
Thanks for your reply. I read that there is a heater kit that can be installed to help the dispenser line from freezing up, but it cannot be installed in models that do not have a metal inside. There is no way to open this door to get to the inside, so there is no way to install a heater. My main issue is that there is condensed water on the outside of the door under the dispenser area. This started about a year ago. That area stays a lot colder than the other surface area of the door. A GE repair man came to work on our dishwasher so while he was here I asked about the frozen line and the moisture on the outside. He surmised that water, for whatever reason, accumulated froze in that area. He suggested that we remove the door and set it in the hot sun for several hours and let it thaw. So we recently did just that, although I did not see a way for the water to exit from inside the door. The water line thawed and dispenses water now, but the next morning, the moisture was back. The question I am wondering now, is WHY did it start doing this a year ago. The refrigerator is 11 years old. Repair man said if the thawing trick didnt work we would need to get a new door and he didnt recommend that bc of the age of the refrigerator. (A new door would cost around $800.) Seems like this has been a problem for at least since 2013 and hasnt been corrected.
The condensation looks like what was happening in the original door on mine 20 years ago. Caused by a void in the foam that was letting cold aire get to the outer skin. A GE tech told me about the defect and I got a swap out while it was still under warranty.
Not sure about how to access to install the heater for your model, but mine has a plastic inner and stainless skin and the heater installed from the outside by pulling off the trim and then the control panel. It was a pretty easy job. It was a quite a while ago, but I may have gotten the advice from YouTube or off the Samurai Appliance Repair Forum or some such.
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