Stupid Refridgerator

[crokett]

It isn't working. This morning the ice/water dispenser wasn't. For lack of anything better I unplugged it then plugged it back in this evening and that started working. That was when I noticed the ice was wet. Fridge is not cooling. Cleaned off the evap coil and tried a few more tricks. From internet research I think it might be the control board or the defrost t-stat but the repair guy is coming tomorrow. I don't have time to guess at what part it might be.

[Norm in Fujino]

Better start eating fast . . .

[thestinker]

Norm in Fujino Better start eating fast . . .

Thats wrong....funny, but wrong

[crokett]

400 bucks later it is fixed. I just checked and could have ordered the same part for 200ish + 50 bucks shipping to get it here by Wednesday. OTOH, he had the part, I didn't order the wrong 150 part last night and I don't have to live out of coolers and schlep food over to my parents' spare freezer. Getting a problem fixed this fast is priceless in my book.

[Norm in Fujino]

Glad you got it fixed, especially if you had a lot of food in it. It's bad enough to have the refer or freezer go, but when it ruins a bunch of food in the process, it adds insult to injury.

[cabinetman]

There are times that it's worthwhile just to pay for a repair. We're waiting for our clothes washer to die. It's 10 years old...making noise, but still working. Repairing a unit that old is probably not good logic. Not an item needing a fast decision like a fridge.
.

[cgallery]

There are times that it's worthwhile just to pay for a repair.

Agreed 100%. No problem w/ people making a reasonable profit for their labors. Pay the man and drink a cold beer.

[radhak]

I agree with getting such a problem resolved with minimum fuss.

Just wondering - does your location have maintenance companies offering 'annual contracts'? Locally, we have two that I know of : Service America and East-Coast Mechanical. The contract costs around $300 a year, and covers all appliances in the house, and all basic electricals and plumbings. Once subscribed, I don't pay anything for any incident : no visiting fee, no parts or labor charges.

Each year I have had at least one appliance fail seriously enough to justify the cost, sometimes many times over. Two years ago my 'fridge problems would have cost me around $1000 otherwise, and last year my garbage disposal failed and they replaced it with a new piece within hours, and I never had to be home for it. LOML loves it for the peace-of-mind (particularly for when I am out of town).

I ask because my brother (in Phoenix) did not find anything as good. They take more money, and then charge a $129 each visit, and something more I don't remember.

This year I switched from SA to ECM because SA bumped their price by $80, and have seen similarly good service.

[crokett]

I don't know. I wouldn't get it for plumbing/electrical problems. I can easily fix those myself, unless it is something like a well pump that needs to be replaced. To date I haven't enough appliance problems to make it worth it. My sister is in my area and had a similar service on her house. I am fuzzy on the details except to say the few times she filed a claim she had problems.

[Kristofor]

Crokett where's your beer fridge? Seriously, having an extra beverages/turkey day/whatver fridge is great in this case as you can always demote the beverages to room temp and keep the perishables cold.

I'm not sure about 3rd party service contracts, but both the local electric and gas companies offer some sort of service plan at a fixed cost per month. However those have lists of covered (and implied, unlisted, uncovered) parts. I'm not a subscriber or expert on their plans but it seems like it ends up not covering needed parts fairly frequently (at least I hear about people who needed to buy a replacement XYZ despite having coverage)

That said, having some reliable, relatively inexpensive service would be highly desirable. I can and do frequently do my own repairs, but I also travel a lot for work and not having to worry about that while I'm gone would be great.

We had the capacitor go out on our AC condensor this summer (yeah, I know, one of the 5 days or so it was worth turning on). A few years ago the relay/contactor went bad and needed to be replaced. These were both <$20 parts and 15 minute repair kind of deals, but it's not something my wife would be comfortable doing with me talking her through it on the phone. Same deal with a fridge, dryer, dishwasher, and water-heater issue(s) over the last 5 years. Easy enough to DIY, but there's a peace of mind factor I'd pay for if Nikki just needed to have one number to call for any of those types of issues when I'm gone.