HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Just before I went on my mini book tour earlier this month, our refrigerator broke. It just…broke. I came home from an event, and opened the door, and the light was off. Oh, no. The light was off.
But, sometimes that happens, (or it has to us, at least,) and all we have to do is go to the basement and flip the breaker thing. So we flipped the breaker thing. But nothing happened
And you know how it is in old houses, and with old refrigerators, sometimes you have to flip the breaker thing a couple of times. Since the breaker thing is probably old, too.
Which we did, but that didn’t matter. At all. It didn’t work. And it wasn’t gonna.
Luckily, we have another refrigerator, and I scooped up all of the super perishables and frozen things and lugged them upstairs (MY BOOK WAS DUE!!) and crammed them into the other fridge willy-nilly, knowing that as I did it, I would never be able to find anything again, not ever ever ever, but at least nothing nothing would spoil.
Then I called the repair guy. He came, really fast! And took stuff apart, and put it back, and shook his head.
Your fridge, he said, is 30 years old. It is dead.
Then I called my guy at the appliance place, he’s a real gem, and said, Jimmy! We need a fridge! It has to be a certain size, and it has to fit into a certain place. Too long to describe to you, but you know what I mean.
What color do you want? he asked. White, I said.
Of course afterward, I thought do I really want white? But yes, I do. Our kitchen is white. The refrigerator should be white. Luckily for me, because that’s the only color they had.
Anyway, the fridge arrives, and the old one is taken away.
So I thanked it, as it was carted away, it had done so much for us, and I felt kind of sad about it.
I also had to take off all of the things from the front of it, as we have discussed here, previously, and I took a picture to ensure that I could put things up exactly the same way on the new fridge.
But I couldn’t do it. The clean white of the new fridge was so pretty. I just couldn’t invade that space with clippings and pictures and magnets and folderol. So I just magneted everything to the sides of the refrigerator so you don’t see it from the front :-)
Much of the food I took out of the old fridge is still up in the second fridge, and someday,. I will bring it down again. But it was really fun to have a snazzy new fridge with perfectly pristine shelves, where I could absolutely start over.
Thank you, dear fridge. We had been through a lot together, and I appreciated you every day.
Anybody have any appliance stories?
I've had to replace my fridge. I don't have a backup, either, since I live in a condo. So when it goes, I'm out of luck.
ReplyDeleteYou were lucky, Hank . . . it sounds as if everything just sort of fell into place when your old refrigerator quit working . . . Almost all of our appliances [except the microwave oven] are about twenty years old and I'm hoping they don't all decide to quit working at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe microwave is new because the old one [which we had for some thirty-five years] just quit working one day, leaving us with no options other than to head over to the store and get a new one . . . .
Hank, that's the same fridge my mom had. I have the side-by-side version, also Kitchen Aid. Mine is probably the same age as yours, so now I'm worried. Did you replace it with another Kitchen Aid? (I'm now taking notes and doing fridge research. )
ReplyDeleteHow lucky you are to have both a prompt repair guy and a good appliance guy!
ReplyDeleteOur Bosch dishwasher is eleven years old. It still washes the dishes fine, but dozens of the spoke thingies on the top and bottom racks have rusted and broken, so dishes clank against each other and list forward or to the side. To get new racks would cost almost as much as a new dishwasher. Sigh.
Edith, you can get dishwasher rack tine prong cover caps, a whole bag of them, for under $10. You just slip them over the ends of the prongs, but you can also glue them with a heatproof glue, as well.
DeleteKaren, I never knew you could do that! Is that something you get from the manufacturer or Amazon or where? Thanks for the info! — Pat S
DeleteCool, thanks. Many of ours have broken clear off, alas. (Also, thanks for the term. Tine prongs. Perfect. I knew spoke was wrong, but better than spike, which was what I first thought of...)
DeleteFrom a lot of places, Pat, but of course the first source that comes up on Google is Amazon.
DeleteI have not had to deal with replacing dead appliances.
ReplyDeleteThirty years is a long time for a fridge.
I am a renter, so if my fridge goes blooey the landlord has to replace it.
Our building laundry machine stopped working, and it took 2 weeks to get a replacement. We only have one washer & dryer for a building with 13 apartments, so that was a bit awkward.
Last summer the refrigerator that came with the house died (20 years old? maybe older). The space for a new one was exceptionally tight--tight enough for the appliance sales manager to make a trip to the house. Good news: he had a fridge with side-by-side doors in stock that was only 1/4 inch too tall. Bad news: his genius installer who could have enlarged the opening with his orbital sander was no longer with them. Did I happen to own an orbital sander? Yes, left over from my furniture refinishing days. I spent two days holding the sander over my head, carefully sanding the crucial 1/4 inch off the overhead cabinet. New fridge installed, just....fit! Fridge never cooled. Pulled defective fridge out, spent another day sanding, second new fridge delivered and installed. The installer made me promise never to pull the fridge out from the wall or I would never be able to put it back.
ReplyDeleteWhen the going gets tough, a woman grabs her orbital sander and gets to work.
I love this story, Margaret!
DeleteAh! The joys of of owning an old home. It always presents you with extra challenges in addition to the problem itself. For nearly 40 years my husband and I owned a two-family house in Belmont. It was his childhood home and three generations of his family had shared the first and second floors. I can still close my eyes and see his siblings, parents and grandparents gathered in the kitchen while bowls of pasta, sauce and other treasured family recipes from Italy graced the table. (I gained 10 pounds and had to join Weight Watchers the first year I was dating Rudi.) After we married and the family had dispersed we bought that two-family and for 38 years we lived in the second floor apartment and my husband's mother lived on the first floor. Besides the challenge of only having one bathroom per flat which was not unusual when these homes were built in the 1920's there were other quirky issues that came with owning these old two-family houses. As in not very wide and winding staircases front and back that led to the second level apartment, a narrow hallway where all the rooms were designed off it like the floor of a hotel and kitchen pantries with door widths that were not conducive to accommodate the size of modern refrigerators. So when Nana's very old and small Frigidaire located in the pantry with its door handle held on with a "lick and a prayer" finally bit the dust we were faced with trying to find a modern refrigerator with ample space inside to fit through the pantry door opening. Not only did the new appliance have to clear the pantry door opening but also clear the narrow staircase leading to the second floor and the tight squeeze of negotiating the hallway leading to the kitchen. Needless to say some of those refrigerators never even made it off the delivery truck because despite prior measurements we could tell they would not fit through the door opening or make it up the "Alice in Wonderland" winding staircases. It took 3 tries before we were able to successfully find a refrigerator with ample storage inside it that would meet all three challenges and fit inside the kitchen pantry. No choice with color, brand preference or style either; it just had to eventually fit inside the pantry. :) Enjoy your new refrigerator!
ReplyDeleteMy best appliance repair story is so old that I barely remember the details. Here's the "short" of it. The clothes washer malfunctioned and my engineer husband decided to fix it himself. He bought a book on how to repair any and every household appliance. Then he took the washer apart and the pieces were neatly stacked all over the laundry room for a month while he figured it out, bought the parts and figured it out some more. Meanwhile, kind neighbors let me do loads of laundry in their washer until my sweet, resourceful hubby satisfied his need to fix the machine.
ReplyDeleteOur friends have that same situation. Stephen is a darling man, and an engineer, and his patient wife has tolerated their appliances sitting in pieces while he does the work in his spare time. Currently, he is updating the kitchen in their 1930's bungalow, which entailed tearing down one wall and going to the studs in the others.
DeleteShe is patient because she finally has a dishwasher!
Oh, Karen, I never let him repair another appliance. Ever. I can still picture myself walking across two backyards with full laundry baskets. I remember telling one of my friends about it at the time and she couldn't stop laughing.
DeleteWe came home from an out of town trip in May to find that our 23 year old white Kenmore fridge had died. I blame my husband for jinxing it as he had wondered if we should replace the white fridge and dishwasher with stainless to match the newer stove and microwave before listing our house for sale. He researched with his go-to consumer reports, went to the appliance store and ordered both fridge and dishwasher. It would be 7-10 days to get them installed. Well, there was a shipping delay and 7-10 days turned into 30 days. He picked out some mammoth thing that barely fits .No magnets or anything went back up on the new fridge because by then we had been making everything pristine to sell the house, which is still for sale if you know anyone who wants to move to Rochester, MN. Buyer with a pre- approved loan fell through when their loan ended up being denied.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I was between shipments of a medication that requires refrigeration when the fridge went out and we had a mini-fridge in the basement to put the new supply in.
I better get moving as we have a house showing today. Fingers crossed that this will be the one who buys it!
I love these stories! Appliances, bringing us together… Keep them coming! I am reading everyone, though, I can’t answer them off since I am at Bouchercon and have lots of responsibilities— but I am sneak reading whenever I can!
ReplyDeleteShh, don't tell my appliances they are all five now. Steve did just have to repair the tractor at the farm, though. Our dear tenant who died used to keep it going, along with almost everything else there, and he was ingenious about it. Our other tenant played Little League with Steve when they were kids, so that makes them both 75, but... he has tools! So they together figured out how to whatever they needed to fix--it's all Greek to me! For some reason it entailed two geezers, one more decrepit than the other, fitting themselves underneath and peering up into the contraption. I wish I had photographic evidence!
ReplyDeleteI wish you had the photos, too, Karen!
DeleteAnon, I don’t have an appliance guy, but if we had your guy, we’d be in trouble since we just got all new appliances — all Samsung or LG! (They are under warranty for awhile and Best Buy covers them beyond the initial warranty so we should be good for awhile.) — Pat S
ReplyDeleteHow amazing and so happy you were able to find the perfect fridge! My story is a fridge story, too. Actually, a fridge epic and a huge kudos to Lowes. When we moved into our house it had an old side by side. Now, I know, some folks love side by sides - I've never gotten along with them. So, our first big purchase was lovely, stainless, freezer on the bottom, door in door (husband loves condiments) LG. It was perfect. We had it delivered in late May and the day before our planned Fourth of July cookout/pool party, it died. I mean dead. I mean nothing but the lights worked. We called Lowes, they couldn't schedule a repair, but they did send us a loaner fridge. Brand new in the box Frigidaire side by side. The delivery guys even helped with the food transfer. Sweet. A few days later the repairman arrived and informed us the fridge was dead and the parts were in Korea and not available for months. Okay, they offered to replace the fridge with the same model. We figured it was just a fluke so we accepted. They suggested we hold on to the loaner. Glad we did. Two months later the fridge died. As in dead, as in...well, yes, the lights worked. Loaner was still doing great. Out came the repair guy, he had no idea except replacing the entire motor. Instead, we decided to buy a new fridge. Lowes took the old one back, gave us a full refund and we bought a monster size Samsung. Seriously, this thing had French doors, drawers in the freezer and half the freezer could be used as a fridge. Love at first sight. No door in door, but the thing worked. AND it had a fizzy water dispenser which my husband absolutely loved. Naturally, two months later, the fizzy water dispenser stopped working. Out came the repair guy, who said it wasn't worth fixing, did we want a new fridge. Hubs said yes. We still had the loaner, so...new Samsung with fizzy water working fizzy water maker arrived. By this time I asked how much for the loaner- seems we needed a second fridge in our family and the kitchen was big enough to accommodate it. They gave us a great price, we still have the fridge and it works great. Two months after the new Samsung with working fizzy water dispenser arrived - guess what. The fizzy water dispenser quit working and Samsung had discontinued the refrigerator model. I convinced hubs that fizzy water wasn't required, kept the fridge and the behemoth is still living in my basement chugging away. I have to confess, it's my favorite refrigerator ever, even if I can't reach the top shelf.
ReplyDeleteI don't really want extra gadgets on my refrigerator. It's nice to have a simple one that works. A second refrigerator or a separate freezer would have been wonderful all those years when I was still entertaining a lot, and hosting holiday dinners. It is understandable to want the bells and whistles, but thinking about the tubes carrying the water, preparing the ice cubes, etc...how do you clean them? I choose less convenient.
DeleteHANK: Like Mark, I live in a condo so I do not have the option of another fridge. The appliances were 16 years old at the time I moved in. By the time I had all of the kitchen appliances replaced, they were on their last legs because the appliances were 30 years old. The new appliances are good for 30 years. I had to move all of the perishables into a big ice box and cooked some food in the microwave, which was the only new appliance that I bought and it was still usable. Just replaced it this year. The microwave worked for 10 years.
ReplyDeleteThere was a wonderful appliance store in my neighborhood and I would venture there several times. Luckily, a year before the pandemic, one of the salespeople called me to ask if there was still interest and we finally got the appliances. I searched Consumer Reports for best appliances and picked what was available at the appliance store. They put in everything and it was less expensive than expected.
Sadly, the owner of the appliance store that has been there for generations decided to retire and sell the business about a year after the pandemic lockdown. I am so glad we bought the appliances BEFORE the pandemic!
I’d never pry open my purse strings far enough to buy a Subzero, but the house we bought 16 years ago had one built in. The fridge was made in 1995 and damn if I don’t absolutely love the thing. In 2020, during lockdown, it suddenly froze all the produce. Panic! Getting a new fridge that would fit the same spot would involve a six month wait.
ReplyDeleteI bought a refrigerator thermometer to help me track the internal temperature. Since then, I glance at the display on my countertop a few times each day and reach into the fridge to adjust the temp control a wee bit up or down. Ridiculous, I know, but it’s still running… and I still haven’t found anything that I really want more than my geriatric refrigerator.
From Celia: I’m not sure which is the worst kitchen appliance to break down but moving into our Maine home it turned out that we needed to replace the stove. This was good news as I had my eye on a lovely glass topper with two 2️⃣ ovens. (had to get used to no gas). It worked very well until it didn’t. It was a cold day and Victor went out to collect something from the village while I awaited the repair person. He arrived and started tinkering with the stove computer at which point the lights went out! I turned to say, what did you do? He denied doing anything but no lights. Then the phone rang, it was a local EMT guy calling to say Victors truck had skidded on black ice and hit the pole taking out all power to the local area including us! Everything got repaired but we still laugh about my laying the wrong blame.
ReplyDeleteOh, poor Victor. What an ordeal.
DeleteWe have actually replaced the computers and or motors in more than one appliance because of the way they fit into our small kitchen. Re-doing the kitchen would be much more expensive.
Currently looking for a microwave to replace 28 yr old. Since I use it mostly for thawing and heating and many Trader Joes products made for the microwave, I’m not interested in the big new ones that offer all sorts of add ons that I don’t need and probably never use.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t think it would be that complicated.
The problem is that it is built in over the stove is small and not as wide as most of the new ones. I cannot modify the cabinets on either side so I am not sure what my replacement options will be, I don’t think I will have much choice of manufacturers.
I don’t want a countertop model but may have to settle for one.
A few years ago I replaced my side by side refrigerator. All I wanted was a basic one that had no in the door water/ice dispenser which I would never use and would take up valuable freezer space that I would use even more than the refrigerator.
I called Home Depot, described what I wanted, they had one model available and that’s what I got.
No price or brand shopping involved.
Ah, Anon. Even after the delivery guys saw that there was no way to connect my new refrigerator to water, they tried to get me to keep and install optional ice maker that I did not order. It went back to the truck! Elisabeth
DeleteLots of stories, but this one stinks! When I bought my house, it came with a brand-new refrigerator. Lucky me, because I needed to get a stove, microwave, washer, and dryer. Until the day I moved in and saw some old white fridge where the new one had been. Very cautiously opened the door and quickly slammed it shut again. Huge pile of baking soda dumped on the middle shelf, but even that could not mask the odor. Warned the delivery guys when they brought the new appliances (including a fridge), not to open the door under any circumstances. (My realtor discouraged me from pursuing the previous owners. After all, the contract didn't say which refrigerator would be left and I had no photos). (Flora)
ReplyDeleteIn most real estate transactions in Connecticut, the seller moves out, the buyer does a walk-through, the closing takes place afterwards. That type of fridge swap would be seen prior to the seller getting your money.
DeleteI have been at many closings where final dealings were negotiated on the spot, then checks were exchanged. I am retired now.
In California Real Estate Contracts there are specific lines for which fixtures are included. Your realtor should have made sure the “new” refrigerator was included in the contract. You should have been reimbursed by your realtor.
DeleteHank, I did the same thing when I replaced my last old fridge with a shiny stainless steel one. I know, for the rest of the world, stainless steel is old hat, but I have a very restricted space for my refrigerator, and can only get the most basic model - 33" wide, single door, freezer on top, etc. It took a long time to be able to find one of those in anything except white.
ReplyDeleteSo when I did "upgrade," I didn't put ANYTHING on it. Until I had a few items I needed, which went on the side - my recycling stickers, the town schedule, stuff like that.
Then came the graduation announcements and save the dates from young family and friends, and those look so nice you have to put them up, right? And then you might as well have the electrician's and the fuel oil guy's magnetized cards, and the calendar magnet, and the exercise sheet from the physical therapist's office
The good news is all the magnets and pictures clipped up there help disguise the fingerprints that I didn't know were going to be a thing when I bought stainless steel!
Julia, good to see you posting here and to learn you’re still posting on the refrigerator! Hope your knee and you continue to heal. Elisabeth
DeleteThis appliance story happened to my friend Nancy. Or more accurately, my friend Nancy caused this appliance incident.
ReplyDeleteIt was Thanksgiving. She was hosting dinner for her extended family. She put the turkey in the oven. She turned the oven on. Sometime while it was cooking she activated the self-cleaning feature of the oven. This means non-interruptible very high heat for an extended period. Her husband and the other engineers in the family removed the top of the stove and extracted the turkey. The family refers to that year as when the turkey was delivered by C-section.
That is hysterical!!
DeleteOMG, it IS funny!
DeleteWhen our washing machine died, the appliance repair guy I've called for years said he'd worked on in 20 years earlier (making it 40 years old) and it was not fixable. So sad. Love Pat's story about the turkey - was it edible??
ReplyDeleteEach year there are more and more things in the house that you just expect to go ON when you need them. Here I always hold my breath when it turns cold and the thermostat is supposed to automatically trigger the heat. Which it does. Sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI hope reading all these fridge stories doesn't somehow jinx our Maytag, which is going on twenty and has never had any kind of problem! Not looking forward to having to replace it with something that probably isn't as well made...
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone remembers my post a couple of months ago about Rick and dishwasher repair, he did finally fix it! It meant special ordering something-or-other motor and living with the dishwasher taken apart in the dining room for weeks during the worst of my back problems, but hey, we're all good now. (Crossing fingers...)
I live in my childhood home, and the first half of the year was bad for the house. January my 20-year old office chair got stuck in the lowest position so I got a new one. February the dryer died. My parents bought it so maybe 30 to 50 years old. March the same age range refrigerator made awful noises so I got a new one. I'd like to know why it is taller but I lost a shelf in the deal. Later I had kitchen sink and pipes and a few other things repaired.
ReplyDeleteOnce things don't work, you find yourself holding your breath to see if they will work this time. Oh, and the new dryer had to have a new switch a month later. I'll hang onto the old things as long as I can.
Every time that there was a threat of a hurricane or a big snow storm, my husband would get in a panic and start filling all of the bathtubs with water so that if we lost power, we could still be able to flush the toilets. Although we have a great local electric company and rarely lose power, yet, with all the horror stories from folks in the towns around us, he was a basket case. So, my solution was just to have a backup generator installed that was fed by our natural gas line. The panic has now subsided! Anything else that could go wrong around here is not a big deal as long as we have power, I have my books and we have plenty of food in the house!
ReplyDeleteWhen we built our house, we could not afford to purchase a fridge that fit into the space that the architect had allotted for the fridge. So, the cabinet people said that they'd just hold the design for the cabinet that went over the fridge until we could get a new fridge. My husband is one of those men that can never find anything, anywhere in the fridge unless it is in the front of the shelf. So, when we finally bought the fridge that fit the space, we went with just a refrigerator without a freezer and my husband was very happy. We still had a backup fridge in the garage that had a freezer. Eventually, we purchased a comparable freezer which we installed in our pantry. The good news is that once the new fridge arrived, we called the cabinet people and they shipped out the unit for above the fridge. We have a flat black insert on the front of the fridge that will not hold a magnet. So, I am very careful with what gets posted as tape residue is very difficult to remove!
ReplyDelete