My refrigerator died

[masteff 64]

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations go to the Arm & Hammer Home for Wayward Vegetables, striving since 1893 to prove that not all vegetables must go bad. When will people realize that not every tomato is rotten to the core?!?

 

But seriously... the problem is that my refrigerator's in a custom built space made for its dimensions. But those dimensions are not entirely standard. I can't find the exact combination of height, width and depth (and the maker of the current one no longer does fridges). So I'll have to settle for a replacement that is narrower than the cabinet opening. I'll just ignore the inch gap on each side.

 

</complaining>

[gogoblender 3,072]

I totally know what you're going through!... well almost. The fridge my parents got me years ago is getting old, and I can hear it wheezing... I sometimes feel up the supposedly frozen meats up in the freezer and they're soft then go hard, then soft, then hard... I know there's supposed to be some kind of defrosting going on, but I worry about meats actually festering in there, and am a little distraught lately about having to look at new fridges.

 

The apartment building we're in comes with fridges and stoves supplied, but the fridge my parents gave me a while back is so huge, and has electronic sensoring or something.

 

There's a good merchant down the street from us though, he is an AMAZING liquidator, and I love going in just to hang and talk, he gets the coolest things at the most amazing prices, and he loves his place, great guarantees, it's where I got my super cheap but powerful air conditioner from at 50 bux!

 

I'm thinking of seeing whether he can hunt down something for me reasonably priced...fridges are kind of expensive brand new,

 

Masteff, hope your getting gets works out, and your drinks come back chilled!

 

 

gogo

[cider_steve 26]

Sorry to hear that mate.

 

What about sticking a fridge in your garage ? Just a thought, but I guess you'll tell me that you don't have a garage, or your garage is too small, or the garage is too far from your kitchen, or..............I get it already, it was a dumb idea. Geez, I was trying to help !

 

Seriously, I hope you get sorted quickly. No one likes a warm beer !

 

Steve.

[chattius 2,535]

Guess you have a compressor one. If it is only the thermostat which fails you can replace it easily. But damage to the compressor part, very expensive.

 

 

What is a refridgerator:) Is it for freezing (like an ice box, Gefriertruhe, Gefrierschrank), for cooling (Kühlschrank), both (Kühl-Gefrierkombination)...

 

We have the big luck of a ramped clay cellar deep in earth which has 4-8C whole year without doing anything. So what we have extra is a room for 3 ice boxes. which is in the shadow of the house half dug into the hill. We suffered from bad power supply- often breaking away for days- so our ice boxes (need them to freeze boars and deers) are using absorbing technology. It is actually older than the compressor technic used in modern ones. But absorber technic has two big advantages: it is silent, no noisy compressor, and it can run with any heat source. So just use a gas burner to drive the ice box if no electric power. The boxes were designed to be able to switch from electrical to external heating. Two total losses of the ice box contains would actually equal the extra costs already. But allowing the box to be driven with wood gas cuts energy costs. Wood is free and gasing it doesn't cost much. So after 5 years the extra costs are balanced by the reduced energy costs and now we start to save money.

 

Absorber fridges are found in hotel mini bars, campers, small yachts, ... In hotel for no noise, in campers and yachts to use gas and not electric power.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

 

It is really nice if you have no compressor noises. I dislike background noise, so computer has passive cooling too. I need my ears at work to detect not normal noise and I kinda panic if pumps start to work when I am not exspecting it.

[Knuckles 904]

I feel your pain Masteff....I got an old house here and nothing is standard....and I mean nothing...

 

I thought about remodeling my bathroom but the tub is non-standard...I take showers anyways so it wouldn't bother me to put in a shower only, but the kiddo likes her bubble baths. To put in a newer tub I would have had to break out a wall and push it back a foot to put a new one in. And that is a little beyond my capabilities. All the quotes I got to do it were outrageous so I still got a 1910 era tub in there. The one wall I can push back is load bearing

 

One thing I thought is, are your cabinets solid wood? Could you take down one of the cabinets that abuts the fridge and bring it to a woodshop to trim down an inch or two? Shouldn't be that expensive and you would then get the fridge you really wanted. If a counter also abuts it, it probably would be too much of a hassle unless you're real good with wood working. Just a thought

[masteff 64]

Possible good news: a guy I know does commercial refrigeration, he says it may be the relay, which is a $25 part.

 

The 4" elevation is my worst pain. How do you pick up a 200 or more pound appliance and slide it in/out of a closely built box without damage? I may build a small platform to roll the fridge onto. Only about $30 in lumber (plywood and 2x4s).

You can see in this pic what the elevation looks like. And I put a red box to show where previous owner damaged it, which is why I'm so worried on how to get it out.

 

Other good news is that after looking at nearly every manufacturer's website, I found Frigidaire brand has an 18.2 cubic foot fridge that will fit my space. And best yet, it's not very expensive. So if the $25 relay doesn't work, then I can get buy that one from Sears. http://www.frigidaire.com/products/kitchen/refrigerators/fftr1817lw

 

Robb - yes, I looked at options with the cabinets. Previous owner was an interior decorator and added the box to existing kitchen layout. So wouldn't be too hard to undo it. I can actually see the same backsplash tile behind the fridge so they just built over it. But I see my kitchen as a dangerous money pit... counter tops, ugly pink backsplash tile, drawers, a new stove... where do you stop once you start?

 

Chattius - Refrigerator really means cooling, but we often use the word to mean a combination cooling/freezing unit. - My grandparents had a root cellar under their house. Great for storing extra food supplies. I remember being sent to the cellar for vegetables. And I remember helping feed the earth worms! Several years, my grandfather raised earthworms in the cellar to sell as fishing bait!

[Knuckles 904]

The only thing I can think of is to borrow/buy a furniture dolly. Would make getting the thing in and out of the house much easier too.

 

And not to steal your thread but I know what you mean about a money pit. I originally was planning on just replacing the trim on the windows in my living room. Once I had the trim off I realized the windows were never framed correctly. So next thing I know the walls came down, which meant I needed to drop half the ceiling to get to/install new studs. So far I've put up new walls, ceiling, wainscoting, new ceiling lights, all new outlets (including outside light). and of course the trim

 

Only thing left is the floor

[masteff 64]

And yet people like us make fun of people who insist on buying "new" houses. (Of course I totally don't understand buying new if you didn't design it yourself! Why buy a spec house? Not to mention that after watching "Holmes on Homes", I realize what idiots too many builders are.)

 

And I always have to count my blessings when I read what Chattius writes about his house in Germany. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 100 years is an old house. But compared to Chattius', 100 years is new!

[chattius 2,535]

I would try a small pallet jack to move the fridge. Some wooden boards to distribute equally the weight.

 

Wooden patchwork house:

I have bad and good luck with my ancestors. Good luck they knew how to work wood for centuries and the house is still very good shape. Bad luck is that it is historical property and the state doesn't allow big changes. Good luck is that most of the extra costs caused by this are paid by state. Bad luck is that my ancestors sold the 'good' straight wood and kept the bended wood with curves for their own use. Good luck is, this wooden construction is more robust, bad luck is that you have to search trunks which are grown in a similiar way if a repair is needed.

 

There are no weight carrying walls but poles. So you can move walls from vertical pole to vertical pole. Do map, mark the poles with points and then you can draw lines connecting the points in nearly any way to design your chambers. The ground are old oak boards. I lifted them 2 inches and installed a ground heating system. The central place was used to park a wagon when unloading hay and stray. We made it into a big room, with kitchen, dinner room, central TV, ... Can easily turned into a party room or used to play table tennis.

 

Some rooms have vertical poles mid in room and you have to do the layout around it.

 

 

The main layout of ours is a Dreistaenderhaus, 3 pole farm house. The right part would have the animals, below roof was hay, corn and stray, left part people rooms.

[masteff 64]

Can you tell that I'm a bachelor that I'm just finally getting my fridge replaced? (I mainly miss having milk and deli meat. I only messed up once and then had to store food in the fridge at work.)

 

So I built a small platform from 2x4's and plywood. It worked like a charm. About two weeks ago, a friend who does commecial refrigeration came and tested the compressor. It was completely locked up. This pic shows the fridge on the platform. Behind my friend's head, you can see the large opening that the fridge rolled out of.

[chattius 2,535]

Good that you managed it.

 

.

.

.

..

 

http://croatiantimes.com/news/Around_the_World/2012-04-12/26346/Chain_Reaction-newentry

 

I have mixed feelings about fridges.... At the easter weekend 2 boys around the age of our oldest died because of a carbon monoxide poisoning caused byan gasfired absorber fridge in their camper van

[wolfie2kX 528]

I totally know what you're going through!... well almost. The fridge my parents got me years ago is getting old, and I can hear it wheezing... I sometimes feel up the supposedly frozen meats up in the freezer and they're soft then go hard, then soft, then hard... I know there's supposed to be some kind of defrosting going on, but I worry about meats actually festering in there, and am a little distraught lately about having to look at new fridges.

 

The apartment building we're in comes with fridges and stoves supplied, but the fridge my parents gave me a while back is so huge, and has electronic sensoring or something.

 

There's a good merchant down the street from us though, he is an AMAZING liquidator, and I love going in just to hang and talk, he gets the coolest things at the most amazing prices, and he loves his place, great guarantees, it's where I got my super cheap but powerful air conditioner from at 50 bux!

 

I'm thinking of seeing whether he can hunt down something for me reasonably priced...fridges are kind of expensive brand new,

 

Masteff, hope your getting gets works out, and your drinks come back chilled!

 

 

gogo

 

Gogo -

 

Actually... Most modern refrigerators do that. They run and get food to a properly frozen temp, then stop. They then stop allow things to thaw slightly. In a properly running fridge, you shouldn't notice meat being thawed at all.

 

The reason for this is the magic of the Frost Free freezer. If the compressor ran 24/7, it would frost over and you would have to go at cleaning it out with an ice pick.

 

If you're freezer is allowing meat to get to the point where it's partially thawed, you a.) might want to consider dialing the freezer control to a higher setting and if that doesn't cure it, b.) call a service guy out to have him take a look. If he can't fix it, then, you'll need to get a replacement.

 

Allowing meat to thaw to the point where it feels soft - before you're planning to use it - is a BAD thing for a number of reasons. Besides the obvious opportunity for bacteria and such to grow, consider the freezing process. When you freeze anything - meat, veggies, whatever, ice crystals form in the item being frozen. Ice crystals take up a bigger space than the water in it's liquid form. Ice crystals are also sharp. They tend to pierce the meat/veg's cell walls, causing them to burst. The result of this repeated freezing/thawing is a nasty condition called FREEZER BURN... Freezer Burn is NOT good eats...

 

Most frozen veggies, btw, are flash frozen - this doesn't allow for the formation of these nasty, sharp, cell destroying ice crystals. Factory frozen meats (like burger patties) are likewise flash frozen to preserve texture. Buying frozen foods like this can be a good thing. They can be a time saver - but they shouldn't hang around the freezer for an extended stay in your freezer.

 

Ok.. /Food Safety Rant..

 

Masteff -

 

Very cool for getting over the reefer madness.. (NO. Not THAT kind of reefer!)

[cider_steve 26]

So Masteff, what's the latest on your fridge ? Are you enjoying a cool beer as we talk ?

[masteff 64]

http://croatiantimes.com/news/Around_the_World/2012-04-12/26346/Chain_Reaction-newentry

 

I have mixed feelings about fridges.... At the easter weekend 2 boys around the age of our oldest died because of a carbon monoxide poisoning caused byan gasfired absorber fridge in their camper van

How tragic! I hadn't realized how common such refrigerators are in campers until I read up on them just now. Must be the same principal behind the giant ice machine that Harrison Ford made in the jungle in the movie "The Mosquito Coast".

 

If you're freezer is allowing meat to get to the point where it's partially thawed, you a.) might want to consider dialing the freezer control to a higher setting and if that doesn't cure it, b.) call a service guy out to have him take a look. If he can't fix it, then, you'll need to get a replacement.

Good points, wolfie.

 

Another thought, Gogo, is how much content does your freezer have in it? If it's pretty empty, you might keep a couple of ice packs to help the temperature stay more stable (a little thawing on more items vs a lot of thawing on one). They actually recommend that for both compartments. A couple jugs of water can make great heat sinks.

 

So Masteff, what's the latest on your fridge ? Are you enjoying a cool beer as we talk ?

Yep, finally found a middle of the line fridge with the right dimensions. It's actually about an inch smaller on both sides and the top, but my friend who does commercial refrigeration said that's a good thing because now it has space to breathe and will hopefully last longer. And yes, the beer is properly cold!

Edited April 29, 2012 by masteff

[cider_steve 26]

Yep, finally found a middle of the line fridge with the right dimensions. It's actually about an inch smaller on both sides and the top, but my friend who does commercial refrigeration said that's a good thing because now it has space to breathe and will hopefully last longer. And yes, the beer is properly cold!

 

That's good to hear my friend. No-one likes a warm beer !

 

I hope that you and your fridge have a long and happy relationship.