the last refrigerator blog entry

…for a very long time, I hope

Our story thus far…

Terry and I came back from our Southern California trip at the beginning of June to discover that the temperature in our refrigerator was rising rapidly. We had seen this before, and had to replace the compressor. We called the service contract company and they sent out the repairman. He said it was indeed the compressor. He ordered the compressor, it arrived quickly, and he returned. The compressor was damaged in transit. Useless. He ordered another one, which was backordered.

And now for the exciting conclusion:

The backordered compressor finally arrived, a week ahead of the date we were first given. The repairman came back for a third visit and spent ninety minutes working on the refrigerator, only to tell us that the line was blocked and to declare it “unrepairable.” I called the service contract company, and they offered us a very generous payout.

Terry and I went shopping at Best Buy, and after some considerable back and forth, selected a model. The sales person was very patient. There were a couple of considerations at work here. The first was the width of the refrigerator. When we did our kitchen remodel in 2007 the contractor built the space to size of the fridge we were buying, and while there was a little wiggle room vertically, there was none horizontally. That eliminated several models. Then there was the question of whether or not to get counter depth. When we did the remodel, the contractor told us that we needed to have a counter depth model. That’s why we had the refrigerator in the garage. We hadn’t owned it that long at the time, but it was deeper than counter depth, which, for reasons that in retrospect now make little sense, disqualified it for our remodeled kitchen.

As it turned out counter depth models are not as readily available as the deeper ones, and they are more expensive. The same logic as two door cars being more expensive than four door, I suppose. Standing there on the showroom floor at Best Buy we decided that there was no compelling reason that we had to have a counter depth model. We certainly had the room to accommodate the extra four inches. So we bought a Whirlpool model. The total bill was $30 less than the amount of the payout check that we are expecting.

It arrived on Friday, and I thought it was a brilliant idea to direct the installers to the French door in back, through which the new Whirlpool refrigerator would not fit. As it turned out, it fit easily through the front door, which is where we should have started. But they got it installed. It is working fine, and we have cubed and crushed ice as well as chilled water. The bluish LED lights are a tad eerie, but the side-by-side configuration makes finding and getting to things in the freezer much easier than when it was at the bottom. There is enough room in it that we might just be able to retire the refrigerator in the garage.

And that, I hope, is all I will have to say about refrigerators for a very long time.