Got into an interesting / potentially serious issue recently.
You know how fridges nowadays often have an electronic panel, ice dispenser etc on a front door?
Well, I never stopped to consider how those are wired. It turns out that in many cases there are wires and hoses that come out near or from the hinge at the bottom of the door. Of course, they try to hide those and it can be very tight down there. Now these wires are just that, plain wires, nothing fancy like rotating contacts etc. So everytime you open and close the door, some wires and hoses may be bending back and forth. After a few years, they can break with a resulting loss of use of the front panel, icemaker etc. That's what happened to me. My icemaker stopped working and when checking I saw that 1 wire was broken and others were damaged. Not too hard to fix. All is well now.
But it was clear that this may happen again given how the wires were positioned so I had to rearrange that to alleviate the problem somewhat. It's all a bit sketchy.
So, if you experience issues with the front panel, check there.
Having said all that, it wasn't too bad. BUT there are also the hoses down there that go to the icemaker and water dispenser. Those can also be bending and chafing against various bits (although in my case, they located them better than the wires). And that could be much more serious. If one of those hoses is damaged with time, you could have a flood in your kitchen. Not great. Mine looked OK but I still added some protection to the hoses where they are bent for some additional peace of mind.
So, next time you're bored, you may want to remove the trim on your fridge and have a quick look to make sure all is well down there (so to speak).
You know how fridges nowadays often have an electronic panel, ice dispenser etc on a front door?
Well, I never stopped to consider how those are wired. It turns out that in many cases there are wires and hoses that come out near or from the hinge at the bottom of the door. Of course, they try to hide those and it can be very tight down there. Now these wires are just that, plain wires, nothing fancy like rotating contacts etc. So everytime you open and close the door, some wires and hoses may be bending back and forth. After a few years, they can break with a resulting loss of use of the front panel, icemaker etc. That's what happened to me. My icemaker stopped working and when checking I saw that 1 wire was broken and others were damaged. Not too hard to fix. All is well now.
But it was clear that this may happen again given how the wires were positioned so I had to rearrange that to alleviate the problem somewhat. It's all a bit sketchy.
So, if you experience issues with the front panel, check there.
Having said all that, it wasn't too bad. BUT there are also the hoses down there that go to the icemaker and water dispenser. Those can also be bending and chafing against various bits (although in my case, they located them better than the wires). And that could be much more serious. If one of those hoses is damaged with time, you could have a flood in your kitchen. Not great. Mine looked OK but I still added some protection to the hoses where they are bent for some additional peace of mind.
So, next time you're bored, you may want to remove the trim on your fridge and have a quick look to make sure all is well down there (so to speak).
