vacuum your fridge! [General]

2012 Aug 25
Our refrigerator stopped being cold on Tuesday and I had to take a day off work for a repair dude to show up and tell me if it was worth saving. I figured that with a 10 year old fridge, if the condenser was blown then we'd just get a new fridge.

Luckily (and I do mean 'luckily') it was just a relay and he was in and out in under 20 minutes. He said that in these cases it is the condenser 99% of the time. He had a relay in his truck. It was the last one he had and to get more would take weeks on backorder.

Now, I'm not saying that the fridge overheated and caused the relay to burn out, but I'm not saying that it didn't, either. Who can say? I will tell you that when I started to diagnose the problem, I took the kick plate off and vacuumed at least 2 entire cats out from underneath. The coils were just coated with the stuff. I pretty well guarantee that there was a restricted air flow over the radiator coils underneath which would cause overwork of the relay turning it off and on all the time.

I guess I'll have to add this activity to our annual cleaning ritual.

Another thing that bugs me about this is that I'm distressed by my attitude. We used to be able to depend on things running for 30 years, but now our society has taught us that if it doesn't work, throw it away. I've always tried to buy smart and repair when I can, but was willing to just spend $1,500 if an easily replaceable part wasn't working.

2012 Aug 25
When I first moved out on my own I had a manual defrost fridge. I mentioned to my Dad at one point that despite the repeated cleanings the fridge and freezer didn't seem to be as cold as they used to be. My Dad told me to pull the fridge away from the wall to see if there was dust build up on the coils. He mentioned that it acts like insulation so the dust warms up the very unit that is cooling the fridge/freezer down. When I pulled the fridge away from the wall there was quite a bit of dust build up which was easy solved by a little vacuuming. Even though I now have an automatic defrost I still vacuum the coils off just as an extra precaution.

2012 Aug 25
"We used to be able to depend on things running for 30 years, but now our society has taught us that if it doesn't work, throw it away."

FWIW Rizak, I too despise this aspect of our so-called modern world.
I called a repair technician for our washer and was told the same thing, it was built 1000% times better than the new models, but parts are no longer available so I'll just have to buy a new washer if it breaks down again.

An even sadder statement is throwing away perfectly useable consumer goods: I drove around forever last month trying to get rid of my Mom's perfectly serviceable TV when I bought her a flat-screen-built-in-antenna-digital-tuner thingy for her birthday. (Can you tell I don't have a TV myself?)

No one wants them, not even St Vincent or Sally Ann, but I eventually found a City of Ottawa recycling depot that takes them. Not sure how it will be recycled and how much ends up in a landfill but another reason for me not to have a TV, it would hurt too much having to get a new one every few years.