Darned Refrigerator looks like it is cooked...

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

We lost electric Thursday night into Friday morning and it was a strange outage as the power would surge then die off, surge and die off, surge and die off... When it happened we went around and unplugged the computers (god knows I can't live without my PCs)...

Well, we have noticed the past couple days that the refrigerator was not cold so I have spent the better part of the afternoon trying to figure it out... It seems the fans all working and the coils are "almost clean" (impossible to clean with the 1/5 inch space they give you) and the refrigerator will not cool lower then about 45-degrees.

I was given the advise to empty the frig and let it defrost for 24-hrs and see is that helps but if not I guess I need to have the repair man in. It is a tough call as we would like a bigger Frig but I really don't want to spend the money on a new one at this time.... The logic was that perhaps the frig iced over somehow while it was off and it did not that enough to allow to thaw completely... We will see?

So, I didn't get a lot done on the new database today and I have some work I need to get done for my day job so looks like I won't get anything done tonight either... fun stuff....

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

How old is it and what brand is it. If it was bought at a Sears store not to long so you might still be able to get an extended warranty.
If you need one now, I have a medium sized one that is at my other house. The tenant had there own and wrapped mine and left it outside. You are welcome to it if you want it. But you do have to come and get sorry I don't deliver.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

It is a Kenmore (Sears) and it is about 6-yrs old... We have an extra "beer frig" in the basement and it took most of the food stuffs plus we have a small Dorm sized frig that the normally just have unplugged for parties and the like so it has what we couldn't get in the small frig so we got it covered for now.

We got it all cleaned out and turned off so we can try to figure out what is wrong with it and we will turn it on tomorrow night. We are hoping that it is a thermometer or switch as opposed to the compressor but we will see.

If not, we will need to just buy a new frig as this frig pre-dates two of the three kids so we could use a larger frig anyways but still a pain and we had to toss quite a bit of food. It took us a full day before we realized we had a problem

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

If it is cooked, I would suggest contacting the power company about the surge that did it. I have heard of some pay outs where appliances got cooked by surge spikes.

[urple2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close urple2]

We have Sears "scratch and dents stores" around here. One small dent on the side you don't see knocks hundreds off the price. Maybe you have those too ?

Good luck !


___

Bill

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Actually, I think that is where this one came from... With small kids there is no sence in a fancy appliance so I do prefer the predented variety... same goes with cars

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

If you need to buy a new one contact Shaggy, She works for Sears selling you guessed it Appliances. She might be able to take the order for you and have it delivered.

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

Ken, I second the advice given about contacting your power company ASAP and filing a claim. The power companies don't want it to be common knowledge that they have insurance to cover such problems. But they do have a claims department.

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

We just bought a Maytag Ice2O French door Bottom drawer freezer from Sears Outlet (Scatch and Dent). The retail was $2200, we paid $1500. This is our first Ice and water in the door refrigerator and we are very happy with it. It has a water filter that is a snap to change without having to turn off the water and the filter is in the refrigerator compartment, so it is easy to get access.

[Oracle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Oracle]

What you need in the future:

Is a surge protector, rated for motors, that stays off for a predetermined length of time after the power has been restored, say 5 minutes. The danger to refrigeration compressors is that if the motor attempts to restart right after the compressor has been interrupted, the motor does not have enough torque at low speed to overcome the high pressure of the refrigerant.

It's funny, but my in-laws have an old refrigerator in the basement that has been chugging away for over 50 years. I guess they just built them tougher back then.

Your plight has got me to thinking to look for something like that for our new refrigerator.