Scott wrote:
We have a G.E. 2-door refrigerator that's about 15 years old. It's never
had any problems. Recently, I noticed that the contents were warming up,
and the ice began melting. When I turned the main temperature control
wheel to "off" and then "on", the compressor started up, and it worked fine
for a few days. Today, it warmed up again. I turned it "off" and "on", and
it started working.

Any idea on what's going on?

Thanks!
Scott and Bo

It's hard to say without being there,
however, the symptom does point to
the defrost cycle. I had a similar
problem. The "cold" coil is usually behind
the back panel in the freezer. It has a
heater that turns on at some prescribed
interval to melt the ice. There is
usually a timer and a temperature sensor.
Check out for icing. If there is a lot
of ice on the coil, that is probably your
problem. BTW, I had to replace the
timer unit on mine. It happened to be
located above the unit, but this was a
built-in, so all of the mechanical stuff
was above.