The Fridge that Died too Young

A week ago, Megan got home from a week’s travel and she needed to reawaken some taste buds with a couple of radishes from her refrigerator. While at it, she noticed that her self-cleaning, remote controlled fridge that she just bought not so long ago was sweating like a mofo. The gasket had drops of water. She also noticed that this 3-years convenience appliance was shrieking like tormented spirits; the sound wasn’t the normal tic-tac sounds fridge produce when in operation. But Megan just wanted to eat, so she ignored the sounds and reached for the fridge door. On swinging it open, what hit her was a stench of spoiled food, and there’s nothing worse than food gone in the fridge because even after you remove it, the smell lingers. Anyway, making this long story short, Megan called her technician who gave her a dark prophecy. ‟You will soon need to replace your refrigerator.”

Megan’s refrigerator was only 3 years old. What even pained her more was that this fridge was the speed chilling, trickle-down efficiency refrigerator, with convertible compartments; the appliance was modern in style and innovation and a replacement of her good old faithful refrigerator. What Megan failed to have in mind as she purchased her chilling box, is that the more complex, the more ways in which it can break. This is not meant to discourage anyone from buying modern appliances but the truth is that they need more care and maintenance. This, after all, is a fair price to pay for an appliance that reminds you what ingredients to buy on your way home among many other smart features. To simplify everything, if you want your smart appliance to take of your needs, you need to take care of its needs too – and regularly. So, these are some things that may have gone wrong in Megan’s case.

Sure, we all want to save time spent shopping for groceries by buying as much as possible in a single shopping, but refrigerators are built to bear specified quantities. Overstuffing a fridge places extra load on the compressor causing it to malfunction. Yet, the compressor is one of the most important features of a fridge. Without it, there would be no component that condensed the refrigerant. To know how much should go in the fridge, always refer to the user manual.

Your hardworking fridge also needs routine attention. Part of this is defrosting Your cold box should definitely be cold but not so cold that it ends up resembling Elsa’s ice palace. Although most modern models have a self-defrosting mode which automatically melts any frost, if the frost is thicker than half an inch, you will need to defrost it manually rather than melt it way. Defrosting ensures that the freezer runs efficiently. The other best maintenance practice is inspecting the door gasket. Your fridge doors should close tightly, but not when the gasket is dirty and flimsy. Regularly clean grimy gaskets with warm soapy water then dry them using a dry cloth. Cleaning the coils underneath the fridge is another important care practice. Coils play a major role in the internal cooling of the fridge. When they accumulate excess dust, they fail to operate in the way they should and down the line, your appliance pays the price by breaking down.

Your fridge is not ‟use it until it is broken” type of apparatus. If you want it to last to its full life, then fall into the habit of getting an outstanding appliance repair services from the well-trained professionals.