Broken Refrigerator!!!

Last post 04-13-2004 11:20 AM by Mattie_KS. 13 replies.
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  • 04-10-2004 3:03 PM

    Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Oh my.

    Well last Monday we had friends over for dinner. We used up a lot of the ice in the ice machine that evening.

    The next day no ice. Hmmmm. Ice maker broken? Flip the little 'thingy' and life went on.

    Wednesday. No ice. Must really be broken! Water works fine. I'll worry about it later.

    Thursday was busy. Is the fridge a little warmer than normal? No problem, flip the temperature switches for the freezer and fridge farther to the right (colder).

    Friday. What the heck? Why isn't it really cold??? It's "cold" but not really cold. Check the freezer. No ice. Ice cream is MELTED. Popcicles are melted. Check the veggies... semi thawed state. Fridge feels ok... can't really tell but it's 'cold'. Unplugged it - wait - plug back in. Move switches, wiggle a few things. Move ALL freezer items to the chest freezer in the garage.

    Saturday, check fridge; Not cold enough and it's been on the COLDEST SETTING all night long to test.

    Strawberries are moldy, green onions brown and celery yelloy and wilted. Boo hoo.

    Cleaned out the fridge... unplugged it. Door are open and the repair man has been called.

    Today would be $50-$100 extra since it's Saturday. Will wait until Monday for normal fees. Repair man says; most likely heat coil (? I think that is what he said... dh talked to him) and it's NOT covered by the warranty... even the fridge is only 4 years old.

    So...

    What's for dinner!???? How strange it is to plan meals for 2-3 days with no refrigerator!!!!

  • 04-10-2004 3:10 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    PS:

    NEVER EVER EVER will buy GE again. LOL.


    New Construction home - all GE appliances (not by my choice, the person that built the home did this and then we bought it new).

    1) Dishwasher leaked 60% of the time from a corner. 2 different repair men could not find the cause. Both made numerous calls to GE and everything was discussed but nothing ever done. Never DID get it fixed.

    2) Oven. First time using self cleaner, it cleans 1 hour and overheats the number panel flashes an error and the oven alarm beeps beeps beeps... NON STOP until it cools down 2 hours later. Have to turn off the breaker every time until it cools. Again: GE never came through with the new panel that was "on backorder" for months and months.

    3) Microwave: Things started sparking that should NOT spark. First noticed while softening butter. Was scared there were metal pieces in my butter! More testing found even flour tortillas sparked. Repair man finds flaw in metal plate on the side of it. Calls GE and orders new plate. 8 months later we were still waiting.....

    We were transferred to a new town. We need a refrigerator in the new house so we took the fridge with us.

    Now it too broke.

    That means out of 4 BRAND NEW GE APPLIANCES, ALL FOUR BROKE! LOL. 3 of them within 1 year and the last within 4.

    Will NEVER buy GE again. ;)
  • 04-10-2004 3:19 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Oh, what an awful story! I'm so sorry to hear this! I know how upsetting it is to have an appliance that doesn't work, but all of them? I'd go nuts!

    Hope it gets better soon!
  • 04-10-2004 3:44 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Glad to hear you have a chest freezer at least. Make lots of ice. Hopefully you have an ice chest. For additional items you need to keep cold take a large cardboard boxline the bottm and the sides with several layers of newspaper. place your food in there along with ice. cover with seveal layers of newspaper.

    We did this when we moved. It took us about a week before we were able to get our food in a refrigeator. The newspaper lined box actually kept the food cold longer than the newly purchased ice chest!
    Connie

    Visit my blog at: Boondock Babble
  • 04-10-2004 4:03 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Ahhhhhh i know the feeling..mine was doing the same thing for last couple of weeks ( i have extra refreg and small freezer downstairs) dh and I found a wire loose from the bi-metal defrost (this is what defrost the coils) after taking it apart in the freeser section. Got a replacement one for 15.00! Hopefully it will be something small and not expensive.
  • 04-10-2004 4:55 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Catrinka...

    Will tell dh about the loose wire... admittedly he isn't the handyman (I am) but I am just not in the mood to deal with it so I will mention it to him and see if he can check something like that out.

    The repair man he talked to on the phone said from the sound of it it is the heating coil thing and would cost $50 for the part.

    (Unfortunately I've found that repair 'up' their price when they see our house..... Grrrrr. ) But - I'm giong to HOPE for a cheap repair. We do NOT have the extra funds right now for anything. :(
  • 04-10-2004 10:27 PM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Meritt have you gone to the GE site and checked around to see if any problems due to the manufacturer applies to your Refrigerator? Check all your GE Appliances on this site and call and COMPLAIN..they get off scott free...For what you pay they should last alot longer than 4 years.
    Ours is a Kenmore we went to their site and we could pull up all kinds of information that helped us look at things to find where the problem was.We didnt need to spend money on a new one, I am so thankful! Hope you see this before Monday and have a chance to check out the site. Oh by the way have a Happy Easter!:)
  • 04-12-2004 9:22 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!


    I just have to add a tiny update... (for anyone who has nothing better to read this morning... LOL).


    Yesterday it started to work perfectly... which I knew it would after the coils had air circulating!

    Anyway...

    Dh had to call to cancel... but the repairman called me this morning ANYWAY to tell me he was on his way.

    I told him the refrigerator was working perfectly this morning and so we didn't need him to replace anything.

    He insisted that although it seemed to be running fine, he wasn't surprised, but he 'knows' that one of three parts at least should be replaced.... (he named them, I don't remember all of them, but one was a evaporator coil, etc).

    He tells me a very CONDENSENDING TONE that it may work right now... but that he really needs to replace a couple parts and that if he doesn't it will break again in about 2 weeks.

    I tell him that he MAY have to pencil me in in 2 weeks, but for now it's running and working perfectly so I do not need him to come, nor do I need him to replace anything *yet*. That if it does break again in 2 weeks, I will be happy to call him.

    He was NOT happy with me.

    To be honest: I do not have the money in the account this week to pay a repairman to come out and look at a refrigerator that is working perfectly at the moment!

    Also: I wouldn't have minded speaking to him except for the fact that *some* men seem to be VERY condesending to WOMEN and I hate hate hate being "talked down to" in the fashion he was.

    (and between you and me... if it DOES break again in 2 weeks I think I'll call another company to fix it... hee hee). Let him think he was wrong. ;)
  • 04-12-2004 9:55 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Ya know, he may be right. I had a fridge do that shortly after we moved in one time (it was our first Christmas in the huse) From the looks of things the former residents had never thought to vaccuum the coiuls. It worked for a couple days after we did that but then went kapoot. We figured it had been so overworked from being clogged up like that for so long that it reduced it's life. I can understand you wanting to wait though. You may want to make sure you have a way to keep your stuff cool if it does goes out again.
    Glad it came back to life for Easter! :0
    Connie

    Visit my blog at: Boondock Babble
  • 04-12-2004 11:13 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    25 years ago when we moved to Oregon for a year we bought a new GE refrigerator, and also a GE new washer and dryer. A year later we moved to Texas bringing all three appliances with us.

    Two years ago the fridge finally gave up the ghost. Last year the washer and dryer started giving trouble, like a cycle not working properly etc. But we figured that over 20 years was pretty good!! Also a friend gave us their old 20 year old GE fridge to put in our garage....it lasted another 8 years!!

    We replaced the fridge with a Whirlpool because they had the features we wanted at the right price. We bought Maytag to replace the washer and dryer...they were on sale at a fantastic price. A year later we had to have the selection dial on the washer replaced!!

    Because we had such good luck with GE in the past, 8 years ago we bought a new GE upright freezer. Last week the compressor packed in. To replace the compressor would cost more than a new freezer.

    This repair company only repairs appliances, not sell them. I figured as he repairs these things all the time, he should know what to, and what not to buy, so I asked him what brand he recommended for a new freezer.

    His answer was interesting...... Freezers he told me are all basically the same no matter what the brand. This fact I realized was true when I went to buy a new one......they ARE all the bloody same!

    However, he had no hesitation in recommending Whirlpool for a refrigerator.

    I apologise for this long post, but it seems to me that the days of appliances lasting for a couple of decades or so are long gone. Nowadays, 10 to 12 years is considered a normal life span. Obviously GE these days only last between 5 and 8/9 years!!

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  • 04-13-2004 6:55 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    Ok.......Ok. so i dont have much happening in my life right now so i am following your post...LOL
    Just dont fill that puppy back up right away,the reason it might be working fine again is it completly defrosted the ice that had formed around the coils....if it starts to waver again then you know for sure it has something to with the defrost in someway shape or form so pull out that booklet and look at the diagram and see if you can pin point where it might be. Mine cooled ok for about 2 days then it started getting warm again.....do you have a thermometer you can place inside and keep track of temp with. Good Luck !
  • 04-13-2004 8:06 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    we had a problem with ours to.. it would not cool.. we would unplug it and let it thaw out and it would work ok for about 2 weeks but then it did the same thing again. DH put a thermostat in it but that did not fix it. so the next time he put in a defroster heating element and that fixed it.. the part was about $60.00
    We have an Admiral side by side and it is only 5 years old
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  • 04-13-2004 8:46 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    LOL... how fun that strangers from across the world can come together in a cyber kitchen and discuss appliances. :)

    Love it!

    LOL.


    OK...

    Well the thing with our fridge is that when I vaccuumed the coils in front I would just run the attachement over the front of the grill. I didn't realize how full the coils were becoming inside! When dh told me he vaccuumed the coils for me I assumed he did... but he didn't know there were coils in front! Only in the back (the ones that didn't matter as much). *wink*

    So when I was cleaning the fridge on Sunday and took the front grill off I was shocked to see how covered the coils were! Oh my.

    Sure enough - cleaning those babies made it start working perfectly!!!!

    So...
    What I am hoping for is that by cleaning the coils well and letting it set for that time period, we 'caught' it in time and didn't do any damage to the parts. So far so good its working great, but I'll keep my eye on it for the next 2 weeks and not buy *too* much food 'just in case'.



    I just can't see paying the repairman to come out and replace the 3 parts he talked about, on a refrigerator that is working perfectly at the moment, on the 'off chance' they may need to be replaced in the future.

    This weekend is my DD's First Communion Reception at the restaurant and I was saving the money in the account for the reception! LOL.

    I told the repairman I'd take my chances, and that he may have to pencil me in in 2 weeks... but for now it was working perfectly (literally!).

    :)

    I love chatting over coffee in the morning. LOL.
  • 04-13-2004 11:20 AM In reply to

    RE: Broken Refrigerator!!!

    I sure hope yours is fixed .. but our coils were pretty bad to ..so we cleaned everything in sight but that was not the problem lol... good luck on yours
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