We isolated a burning smell in our kitchen to our refrigerator, GE Profile PSS23MGTCCC which we purchased in November of 2006. This occurred at 3AM on 29 January 2015 and I am thankful that my wife got me up to investigate this odor. I unplugged the refrigerator.
I plugged the refrigerator back in at 6AM thinking it had time to cool. The burning smell happened immediately and I unplugged the refrigerator again right away.
My son in-law looked up some possible issues that could have happened based on other individual experiences from write-ups on the AppliancePartsPros website. I actually ordered a Main Control Board, Run Capacitor, Motor DC Cond Fan and 5SP Overload/ptc knowing that we could return what we didn't use. I'm keeping them all in case something else happens and parts become unavailable to order.
My son in-law came over at 5PM after his work day. We pulled the cover off the main board and also the long cover over the rest of the components so that we could hopefully see from where this smell was coming. After plugging in the cord, we immediately saw a 1" Flame shooting downward from the 5SP Overload/ptc. We pulled the plug and the flame stopped. We then pulled the 5SP Overload/ptc along with the run Capacitor (both are attached to each other) from the pins on the Compressor. We checked the pin voltage on the Compressor as well as the Run Capacitor and both of these items appeared fine.
I already had ordered a new 5SP Overload/ptc along with another Run Capacitor. I did view videos available on AppliancePartsPros.com which were outstanding and helped understand the installation process which was simple.
We received the parts in one day and had our refrigerator back and operational quickly. Even though the original Run Capacitor was fine, I decided to replace it as well since it was attached to the burned 5SP Overload/ptc.
In addition, yesterday, Monday, 2 February, I decided to call GE Support and ask about any recalls that might be pertinent to our refrigerator. I was told that there weren't any and that because we didn't have a GE Certified Engineer / Field Technician isolate the problem and suggest repairs, that GE would not be able to offset any parts costs we incurred.
We fixed the issue less expensively than having a GE Certified Technician come to our home but we weren't able to get GE assistance because of our decision to repair it ourselves. This is something we all should consider the next time there is a problem. This doesn't mean that GE would cover the cost of the service charge, parts and labor if they were there for the repair. They would make that decision based on the Technician's findings.