2020, History, home, Uncategorized

B-17 Fridge

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We are extremely unhappy with our kitchen fridge. It is a GE brand fridge, with a top freezer and bottom refrigerator section. It is no frills, without an ice maker or water dispenser.  We have had it for about 10 years.

The  plastic edging on the glass refrigerator shelves cracked and we had to replace the shelving. That was not cheap. The fan for the freezer burned out once already, and was also replaced.  A couple of months ago it started making a horrendous noise every time the motor runs. It is so loud it is hard to hold a conversation in the kitchen, and it seems to run all the time.  It wakes me up at night. I manually defrosted the freezer the other day, and that helped for a day or two before it started with the noise again.  I refuse to throw any more money at it.

My father never liked loud noises or cramped spaces. I attribute that to his time as a gunner in a B-17 when he was stationed in England during the Second World War.  He would have found the noises from this fridge disturbing.  He also hated throwing money at appliance repair. We went to our main appliance store a couple of weeks ago and found an LG fridge that fit in our kitchen space. It has a double fridge door with the freezer section at the bottom.  I was shocked to find that it will take two months to get it. This was true for all the models and brands we looked at. I guess Covid has slowed manufacturing.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the current fridge lasts until the new one arrives.  I will think pleasant thoughts about my dad to counter the annoyance when the Flying Fortress in the kitchen roars.

What appliance or machinery woes have you had?

61 thoughts on “B-17 Fridge”

  1. We have limited options for appliances here. The store we purchased the new fridge from is the only store with reliable repair people, and they only repair appliances they sell. There is a really old guy who also sells and repairs appliances, but he may not be around in a few years when the new fridge might need some repair.

    I neglected to mention that the new fridge is described as having French doors. Ooh la la!

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        2. I once bought an entire stamp set because one of the stamps said “ooh la la”. In fact a couple of years ago when I was getting rid of some things, I got rid of that set (except I kept that one stamp).

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  2. Good morning-you had me at B 17. I’ve been in love with that airplane since I built models of it as a kid. One of the most amazing airplanes to come out of World War II. Kudos to your Dad.
    I have have heard that appliances are out of stock everywhere. All of our stuff is fairly new, but our refrigerator has had a few minor repairs. Nothing serious, water and ice quit working, lights quit working. At the moment all is well. Found a new local repair guy the last time. He was really good and much cheaper than the store repair man. One day Kelly had the refrigerator door open and I was standing across the kitchen and I saw a putty knife laying on top of the fridge. I’m pretty sure the repairman left that the last time he was here but you don’t notice it when you’re standing at the fridge. I’m saving it for him.

    You know what I miss? The plain dust masks with the elastic that went around your head. I wonder if they will ever come back or if everything will always go around your ears now. I had a few masks that I would use when farming with the two elastic straps and I am very protective of those now.

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    1. I have a few of those too. I have used those several times getting my hair cut. I let the elastic dangle down under my chin and tape the dust mask on with paper tape.

      Of course, I still use them when I chop raspberry canes, too.

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  3. RIse and Shine Baboons,

    This invitation to gripe about a refrigerator is just irresistible. We have a beautiful new fridge sitting in the garage simply awaiting the kitchen contractor. This new appliance will replace the refrigerator in the kitchen which I loathe. At the time we purchased it 23 years ago, I thought it was the latest and best option. HAH. Think again. Not only do I find this fridge just an outrage, but I own an identical one in AZ. It is not any better than this one.

    HMPH. These are Kenmore side-by-side models. What a mistake in judgement. The refrigerator part is ok, but the freezer is inaccessible, stuff falls out of it constantly, the drawer in the bottom constantly derails so I cannot use it, and the icemaker flooded the basement in 2009 ($20K in repairs). And on top of it all, it requires cleaning from time to time, a job I dislike.

    I have kept this monster for 23 years only because, for 23 years we have been wanting to remodel the kitchen. It will finally happen this year. We kept putting it off due to the expense and the inconvenience. The new fridge is like your new one, Renae—French doors and bottom freezer. I have experienced a lifetime of refrigerator-freezers in which you open the freezer door and contents fall out. I hope I like this one and I hope it comes with contents that stay put.

    End of rant.

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      1. Not a typo, however homeowners insurance paid all but the deductible. I went downstairs to let the dog out, to find water running out of the heat vents and the light fixtures, then down the walls.

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  4. Although my memories of fridges extends all the way to the time we had an ice box and a guy with a horse-drawn wagon to supply it, I don’t have a good fridge story. I cordially hated the task of defrosting refrigerators or freezers, which meant I delayed doing it and made the task just that much nastier.

    My only good appliance story is already told: the time our backyard gas grill set fire to itself. One of the firemen who rushed to our rescue said the grill could have exploded and taken out part of the house, but I thought he was maybe stretching things.

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    1. I have several stories of people defrosting their freezer with screw drivers or other sharp pointed things and poking a hole in the tubing and ruining the appliance. Don’t do that.

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  5. While growing up, we had a fridge with a bottom freezer drawer. I never gave it much thought at the time, but once I was out on my own every fridge had a top freezer, which didn’t hold much and stuff was always falling out. When I had to replace my fridge a few years ago, the main requirement was a bottom freezer. I love it for many reasons and will never go back to a top freezer.

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    1. When Kelly and I got married we bought a new fridge that had a bottom freezer; we’d never seen that before and really wasn’t sure about it. But it was a game changer! Love it Love it Love it!

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  6. We have basic apartment appliances, as I have said before, well maintained and quick to replace now that they are 17 years old. They serve us just fine. Our new fridge has more freezer space, at the top of course. Now that I manage food I keep the freezer well organized so I can get more food in and track the age of things. For some reason she every so often decides to move things around, back to the mess she always kept things in.

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  7. I may have told how, when we moved here in ’16, I’d wake up in the wee hours thinking I heard chickens clucking, figured someone down the alley had a few. Nope – was our refrig… which we replaced the following year with… the same damn model, but at least this one is a tad quieter. It’s the very basic model with a top freezer, but I use plastic baskets to keep the stuff from falling out. Helps that there’s a chest freezer in the basement.

    Husband learned this year from a neighbor to change the anode tube, to keep the lining from rusting out. Anyone here ever heard of that?

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    2. I have heard of that. Even changed one on a gas water heater because the standard tube reacted with the water and it smelled like rotten eggs. But if you haven’t changed it and it’s more than about 10 years old, it may not come out. And at that point, it could be time to change the water heater anyway.

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  8. We actually had a fridge crisis this past week. About five days ago every time you opened the fridge there was a bad smell. Over the course of three or four days we actually ended up slowly but surely opening every container in the fridge, cleaning every shell and drawer. It turned out to be a container of beans and corn is that YA had been working on. I had checked That container on the first day and it didn’t seem problematic. I think maybe it was early on and the smell head dissipated away from the container by the time I picked it up. But yesterday it didn’t smell all that good when I opened it again so I dumped it into the trash on the back porch. A half an hour later when I came out on the back porch for some thing else it was clear that that’s what the smell was. But now we have an extremely clean fridge.

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  9. OT – I have a beautiful, six volume set of hardbound books (a biography of Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg) that I’m looking to find a new home for. Anyone have an interest and/or or any suggestions for someone who might appreciate having them? I suppose I could always put them on Freecycle.

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  10. I don’t know how old our washing machine is—it came with the house—but I’ve fixed it a couple of times. The clutch that engages when the machine goes into spin cycle is nylon or plastic, deliberately so, because it’s intended to protect the motor from overload. It’s so common that those clutches break the parts store keeps them up near the counter. There’s a similar clutch on the agitator. I’ve replaced that too.

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  11. When we bought our pink bungalow, we had to buy a washer and drier. In 1976 the big thing was colored appliances, and I recall the choice was between avocado or copper. The washing machine eventually bit the dust . . . or bit the Tide or whatever, and we replaced it with a white one. But when I left that place in 2014 the 39-yr-old avocado drier was going strong.

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        1. Nothing wrong with grieving a genuine loss. I know you’re not dwelling in that grief, but it’s real nevertheless.

          We’ve lost three friends to death in the past five days, and that seems overwhelming at the moment. All three to cancer, not Covid related.

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  12. OT-Today was the weirdest, most exhausting work day , and I didn’t even see a single client. There was some strange element in the air. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the presidential transition was officially approved by the GSA. What a relief!

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  13. I recall reading somewhere that during World War II it was mpossible to get a new refrigerator. Between labor shortages and lack of metal to manufacture them, they just weren’t available. Probably true of other large appliances too.

    I have to replace my water heater soon. It has a tiny gas leak, and it would cost about $600 to replace the valve that is the source of the leak. The water heater is around 15 years old, so it’s too old to repair.

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  15. OT – Tonight, at approximately this time, fifty-five years ago, I landed in NY to start my new life as the new bride of an American GI. At this moment, perhaps more than ever, I’m questioning the wisdom of that decision. There are plenty of what ifs to go around, that’s for sure.

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      1. Oh, I know that, Renee, and I don’t. But thank you for the encouragement. My life is full of wonderful people that I’ve met here, and for that I’m truly grateful.

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  16. I am hoping to have dishwasher victory this week. Our dishwasher started misbehaving a good 10 years ago. It’s on my service plus plan so I had somebody out but the guy was in the house maybe two minutes, took one look at it and said “this is too old we can’t get parts for this anymore.” So I left it until a very handy friend stayed with us about a month ago for two days. He looked at it and he said it might just be the sealer. I bet service plus doesn’t keep records far enough back to know that I’ve already called about this dishwasher before. So the guy came out And looked at it. He said he wasn’t sure if he could get the part anymore but he would try. And the part showed up on my doorstep today so hopefully on Wednesday when they come back out I’ll have a working dishwasher again.

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  17. The first year after buying a high end Samsung fridge the ice maker froze 3 times. We had to press to get Samsung to fix it right even though they new that the ice maker in that model fridge had a defect. Finally the replaced everything with the ice maker and all is working. I also know that they are still selling those fridges that way..

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