My wife is trying to discover what makes her happy. It is an ongoing project, but the latest hypothesis was that working appliances make her happy. Thankfully we got a new laundry machine a few weeks ago, so that has made both of us happier; we no longer have to trek to the in-laws to do laundry. But let me tell you about the refrigerator.
At the end of last year, we purchased a new refrigerator. The tenants stole the last one. I’m honestly wondering how they lived here without it because it was missing for at least a month before they got kicked out.
We looked on Costco and picked the simplest one we could; our needs our pretty basic and we did not need fancy accessories. So there is no ice/water dispenser or glass doors. It keeps the food cold or frozen. Fairly basic. Less things that can break.
The delivery went very well. The guys were nice and professional and did a good setup for us. They made sure the door was aligned and everything.
But earlier this month, we noticed that the fridge part wasn’t actually that cold. Food was starting to go bad. We called Costco, which has a fairly good concierge system. They were able to get a repairman out, but not for a few days.
In the meantime we went to a grocery store and filled my small cooler with ice. We did an express trip out to the house in Sugarland to take back a mini-fridge that my wife had there still. By the way, refrigerators are not supposed to be on their side, and certainly not for a long time. We tried to fit it upright in the car, but it was not going to happen. So we put it on its side and drove as fast as possible; about half an hour on its side. Then we let the mini-fridge sit upright for 24 hours to get itself together again.
The repairman was not able to fix it, because it was working too well. Let me explain: the freezer was still doing great, but it was not defrosting. So there was a massive buildup of ice at the bottom, that prevented him from accessing the place where it might be broken. The ice was also blocking the circulation, which is why the fridge part wasn’t working. So for him to fix it, we would need to defrost the fridge and freezer for 24 hours. That would probably get it working again, temporarily. We would probably have to do it again when the parts that he thought we would need come in.
This presented a problem, because we did not have a way to keep the stuff in our freezer frozen outside it. The solution we came up with was to buy a chest freezer. We had been thinking about it for awhile, but never seriously. A spare freezer would allow us to not be dependant on one appliance. Costco again was where we went. Oddly, there were two chest freezers of sufficient size that were the same price; we purchased the bigger one and had it delivered.
When the chest freezer arrived, it looked big enough to easily store a dead body. Possibly two. It was probably targeted towards big game hunters.
However, by this time, we decided, on the advice of friends and family, to just return the old refrigerator and buy a new one; the exact same model, but it had been discounted in price. Since we had the chest freezer, we just emptied everything out.
We were able to arrange it so that the old fridge was returned on the same day as the new one arrived. The delivery people were not as good this time. One guy kept talking about how he would give ten star service. And then asked us to rate them highly so that they could get more deliveries; the number of deliveries each team gets is dependant on how well they are rated. However, they didn’t do nearly as much setup as every other delivery we’ve had. Don’t trust people who say they give a service rated in stars.
We’ve watched the new fridge carefully. So far it is not icing up; at least not as badly as the last one. I think we might have working appliances now.