Off Topic - Fridge is taking a Puke

[OffRoad Rage]

Anyone local been down this road? Fridge compressor is taking a dump. Repair guy cost $ 720 installed. Parts direct $291 for new compressor plus install, plus recharge.

Anyone know "a guy" that does this work cheap, reasonable? Worth it? Last thing I need in this economy is to buy a new fridge. Comments/input welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Norm

 

[Short Bus 80]

I say toss it and get one on Craigs list. We just got a full SST kitchen (Fridge, Stove, Dish Washer, Microwave/Hood) for $1200. They are 1 year old and still have the factory warranty. You can get a really nice fridge for the $700 bucks it would take to fix the old one. As men it's in our DNA to fix or modify everything but it's ok to replace it too

 

[-Spike-]

I say toss it and get one on Craigs list.

x2. Appliances are cheap.

 

[Brian Macgyver]

I go with Short Bus. I keep two of them for this reason. A fridge can be had cheap if you are not in a hurry, and have time to shop. Jill and I have always kept a minimum of two on hand. If one goes down, we put our meat and butter in the other one. Then we fix or replace the broken one. If the replacement doesn't match your kitchen, they are easy to repaint.
If you have only one fridge, and it dies, a lot of food can start to stink real quick! Replacing your only unit in a hurry can cost $1200-$2000 or more. That hurts!
I buy the units for about $100 to $400 each, used. I run them hard and put them away wet. We have been married for 16 years, and we have had at least 20 refrigerators. Sometimes we have had as many as four, all full of frozen steaks. I like steak, and Jill likes to feed people!
Many of the internal shelves and parts in refers are interchangeable. We just put our favorite things in the new box, and send the dead one to the recycler.
Our current "spare" is a great old unit that we have had for about ten years. Someone gave it to us because the red color wasn't saleable. I repainted it. I have replaced the fan unit that vents the cooling coils twice. I have repainted it once. I may change the color again. I like that old cooler! It's a good old machine. But still, it is just a machine. If it gives me too much trouble, it's out of here!
We have had two reefers for so many years that we don't know how to behave otherwise. As you shop to repair or replace yours, I would suggest having an extra in case of trouble. Just an idea.... Refers are cheap if you know where to shop. Buy two!

 

[puulboy]

Anyone local been down this road? Fridge compressor is taking a dump. Repair guy cost $ 720 installed. Parts direct $291 for new compressor plus install, plus recharge.

Anyone know "a guy" that does this work cheap, reasonable? Worth it? Last thing I need in this economy is to buy a new fridge. Comments/input welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Norm

Not sure what kinda frig you want, but I may have one for ya
Call me if ya want
pm sent
Don

 

[murf]

I just did the CL thing in repacing my Whirlpool washer and dryer. The last set I bought 8 years ago that were also used - about 2 years old at the time.

One thing I found out is that appliances go very, very fast. Sometimes an ad would come up, we would email, and by the time they responded, the item was sold.

Example: Since our washing machine went out and the set was 10 years old, we decided to get another set. As I was sitting watching the CL, an ad came up and I called immediately. We rushed over and bought a one year old nice set (Another Whirlpool) from a family who had to downsize their home and now needed a top over bottom setup due to space constraints. He held the set for us but took several more calls before we arrived.

When we got home I thought that I might as well sell my old dryer that was still working great and throw in the non-spinning washer. I was hoping not to have to drag them somewhere to donate/dispose of, etc. As I watched my post come up, a guy called me within 60 seconds! He showed up as I was wheeling the old set into the garage, loaded them up and gave me $100 bucks. It was too easy!

Everything is going on-line. I see Auto Trader doesnt even have printed publications anymore as an option - electronic only. As a side note, I hear electronic classifieds are really hurting the newpapers because they dont have classified print ad income coming in anymore.

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.

 

[Living in the Past]

Here's my .02

I bought a new fridge in 2000. I spent the money and got a good one. In 2000 it was rated at $44 energy use for a year. Far better than the older smaller fridge I had bought in 1974. Probably paid for itself a couple of times over that old energy dog I had. I bought a second one just a little smaller for our cabin in 2002.

While a second fridge is nice it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for most of AZ. Unless you have room to keep it in the house it's going to end up in the garage or back patio. With higher temps outside the fridge's refrigerant pressures are higher. Higher pressures the compressor works harder (shorter life) and draws more power. Another problem with a outside fride is when it does get cold outside the freezer doesn't work very well. Since most fridges only have one thermostat in the fridge compartment the stuff in the freezer will defrost since the heat gain is very little when it's in the 40s outside the fridge. Without the comressor running the freezer warms up. The main reason I bought the type I did was it has two thermostats. The one controlling the compressor is in the freezer. The one in the fridge controls a fan that moves air from the freezer compartment to the fridge. I leave the heat set at 45 degrees in the cabin when I gone. With this fridge my food stays frozen in the freezer.

All my kids are grown so the washer and dryer are not as big a deal to me as the fridge which runs 24/7 365 days year. If you buy a energy dog your going to pay for it in your power bills.

 

[OffRoad Rage]

Great feed back guys. It is definitely my tendency to want to fix things. Especially when the Fridge matches all the other appliances and is in good shape (other than the compressor).

Fortunately I do have a garage fridge as a back. Good point about the energy cost but I probably saved some of that in food I didn't have to re-purchase as the other one was dying.
It's 18 yrs. old and has been in garages here and in FLA and is still going. Couldn't dare to part with it but certainly not something I can bring in the house at this point. The engineer in me likes the safety factor/redundancy of having a back up.

So if I junk this one is there a place you go (on-line) to part it out. Can't put this one to curb in good condition.

Don - PM'd and left you a message.

Thanks again.

 

[FJ40LVR]

Check this out:

Fridgerator F/S - TTORA Forum

 

[OffRoad Rage]

Don saved the day.

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner but I wanted to send out HUGE Kudos to Don for hooking me and my family up with a Fridge.
He ended up with a spare one in his recent move and passed along the good Cruiser karma by giving it to us. We'll be moving soon so we didn't want to have buy one when our new place should have one. Perfect temporary solution. He even lent me his trailer to transport it. Thanks to everyone that posted up too.

Don can't thank you enough. Cheers man!

Just another testimonial of the caliber of folks that choose to associate with CSC. Who knows, if things work out this might end up on the CSC things to borrow thread in the coming months.

-Norm

 

[murf]

Very cool of Don to help you out!





Hey....






What happened to our Cards?

 

[puulboy]

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner but I wanted to send out HUGE Kudos to Don for hooking me and my family up with a Fridge.
He ended up with a spare one in his recent move and passed along the good Cruiser karma by giving it to us. We'll be moving soon so we didn't want to have buy one when our new place should have one. Perfect temporary solution. He even lent me his trailer to transport it. Thanks to everyone that posted up too.

Don can't thank you enough. Cheers man!

Just another testimonial of the caliber of folks that choose to associate with CSC. Who knows, if things work out this might end up on the CSC things to borrow thread in the coming months.

-Norm

Hold on a minute bucko I was asking 100 bucks for that frig
Note: Hopefully he hasn't plugged it in yet