Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Refrigeration

Wow, what a pain in the ass (but necessity) refrigerators can be.

We have been having fridge problems lately....ours came with the house we bought in November last year and is about 14 years old.

We noticed a few weeks ago that the milk was just not that cold and then as you know from one of my recent posts, there were even some sour milk issues...which I was attributing to the fact that I drive a long way to do grocery shopping (thinking the milk was warming up on the trip). Nope, it was the fridge.

We put a temp gauge in there and found that both it and the freezer were running a bit warmer than they should be. So to avoid spoilage, we put a big tub inside of it with ice (which we had to change daily) and set all the dairy in the tub. Worked pretty good, but was obviously not a permanent fix.

We consulted the Internet (and I am now a refrigeration expert) and did all the troubleshooting we could do without a repairman at our side...none of it worked but we do have a dust bunny free fridge now...

Finally I broke down and called a recommended service company (after tossing the third partially full gallon of milk down the drain in 2 weeks). They came out in the afternoon, were very receptive to all the things I had already done and checked, and decided to tap the cooling system to see if it was low or leaking.

Turns out that it works fine, but because of the big ass shelves now available in fridge doors, we had too much weight (all those Thai sauces and other condiments) in it and so it was not closing correctly. Because it was not closing correctly, the little light was never going off and it was heating up our fridge inside....I did not realize that little light put out so much heat but apparently it does. So we moved some things around, he tighted up the hinges and now it closes fine and the temp is where it should be.

Only cost me 100 bucks for the service call, tap, and labor...better than buying a new fridge I guess. Ugh!!!

4 comments:

Peeved Michelle said...

I guess doing some research and making some calls pays off. We probably would have just got a new fridge.

... said...

At first I was just ready to get a new one too but then started to think that there might be a few things on refrigerators that are worth fixing...figured after the diagnosis, we would decide one way or another....thankfully we didn't have to.

Blake said...

I hate having things in my life mess up. I can handle a broken bone. Getting fired from my job. But if one of my automated machines breaks down, I can't handle it. I flip out. I know I'll have to call a dude to fix it, shell out some cash, and risk injury to foot or hand from kicking/punching said machine.

Blake

... said...

Blake, it is weird how much you depend on appliances and don't realize it until one of them breaks...I started to get where I didn't want to cook at home because I knew it meant opening and dealing with the fridge. I am glad it didn't end up being anything more than a couple of screws and some reorganization of condiments.