When Tom and I got back to Ohio, our GE refrigerator wasn’t working right.  We replaced the refrigerator in 2021, so it is practically new.  When we opened the door, no light came on and the water wasn’t working.  Fortunately, the cooling part worked just fine, and the light in the freezer was working.

We thought a bulb might be burned out.  Turns out there are four bulbs in the refrigerator section, so all four being burned out at once is unlikely.  Instead, the switch that should turn on when the door opens seemed to be stuck.  We tried lubing it and pressing it a bunch of times but sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.  We unplugged the refrigerator so it would reset:  “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”  Nothing changed.

We read online that the water reservoir might be frozen from being left alone so long.  I turned up the fridge temperature and we waited several days.  Still no water coming out the water dispenser.  We changed the water filter and cleaned the refrigerator filter.  Nothing.

Fortunately when we bought the GE refrigerator, we also bought an extended warranty.  I called up Home Appliances Solutions, where we bought the refrigerator.  They gave me the number of the warranty company.  When I called them, however, they said they did not have an extended warranty for us.  They blamed Home Appliances Solutions.  I called Home Appliances Solutions back, and they said they had changed warranty companies the month we bought our refrigerator.  This time they gave me a different company name and my extended warranty number.  When I called this company, they found the warranty right away and said they would send out a service person.

The GE refrigerator repair guy showed up about a week later, at a time convenient for us.  When he arrived, Tom explained the problem and the repair guy plugged his laptop computer into the refrigerator.  I know they plug in cars to diagnose problems, but didn’t know you could do that with refrigerators.  He said the refrigerator needed a software update, which he downloaded.  My refrigerator has software?  Then his computer was able to diagnose the problem.  The fridge needed a new switch.

The GE tech replaced the switch in a couple of minutes, at which point the water started working as well.  Turns out, if the switch for the lights isn’t working, the water doesn’t work.  Huh.  While he was there, the service man also gave us a few helpful hints about our other GE appliances.  Like cleaning the dishwasher filter.

The service man was here about 20 minutes and competently fixed the problem.  The extended warranty paid for the repairs.

I am glad the lights and the water work again on our GE refrigerator.  It is nice to open the door and be able to see what is in the refrigerator.  Having ice and cold water again feels like a luxury.  I appreciated the timely repair, once we found the right warranty company.  Tom and I don’t usually buy extended warranties, but, with appliances getting “smarter,” it seems more things can go wrong.  In this case we were glad we had it.