Thanks for the reminder. I vacuum the vent and coils periodically, but I am overdue now. Glad you dodged that bullet!

What are you going to do with all the money you saved? Ha!

Glad to hear things worked out the best for you.

I cleaned under and behind the 'fridge a couple weeks ago. My MIL gave me a long, skinny brush which goes under from the front and loosens the dirt from the coils. Then I vacuum up all the loose stuff, pull it out and vacuum behind.

I just put it on our weekend list. We all need to stick that long brush into our clothes dryer lint vent, too.

Thanks for the reminder!

This post was edited by rhizo_1 on Fri, Oct 4, 13 at 10:33

Thanks for the reminder. On our to do list too for the weekend.
Mary

I'm on the same page as socks. My first reaction was, well now, what are you going to do with that $3500? I guess you'd better save it since the average life expectancy for a fridge these days is 7 years. That blows my mind.

I hate to say it but I would be saving for a new fridge. Our GE had serious problems at 8.5 years (surprise) and despite our Eskie dog I did vacuum regularly and clean the coils. Year 10 it died. If you do a search you will see that other people were not successful in getting an extra 1.5 years life out of their fridges. The replacement - started having problems at 1.5 years - same problems as everyone else with the same brand. I remember when fridges lasted 40 plus years. Washers/dryers have the same problem and I hardly use the dryer.

So good to hear good news like this. Must be the week for it. DD called me the other night in a tizzy because her dishwasher wouldn't work. She started researching replacements, and a bit later tried it again and it worked just fine! Then she told me originally she'd had a big soup pot in it, but took it out before she tried the second time. Well, DUH--it was probably too tall and blocking something, but still always nice to avoid having to drop $$ for a new appliance. Oh, and you would have saved a few $$$ on that fridge--have you heard? Stainless is finally out!!! and WHITE is back in--which is generally cheaper. Suits me--I long ago decided to avoid appliance trends and stick to white--always looks good, and everything always matches, no matter when you buy.

While you are making to do lists, call the chimney sweep. The weather is cooling off and the chimney needs to be cleaned before you use it.

Thank you all for your replies!

The $$ will be set aside for a new fridge in the future. I'm not holding out much hope that this fix will last too long.

Like eccentric, I remember when appliances lasted 20+ years. No more, thanks to computers!

Seventy years ago, folks in cities had little one-horse-drawn covered wagons delivering bread, milk ... and ice. The operator knocked a chunk of ice off of the big block, carried it with a pair of tongs into the houses, and put it into a wooden box with wooden doors that looked much like a modern-day fridge, which was called an "ice box" in many people's kitchens.

We folks on the farm had a pan of cool water in the basement to delay the perishing of perishables.

Sixty years ago ... they started building fridges.

Of the fridges built fifty years ago, many lasted for forty years ... did you hear that - 40 YEARS!

The ones that they build now ... last for about ten years.

I've told this yarn many times in the past few years (including here), and at about this point in the story, many people make a contribution, and with about half of them, it's the same three words ...

... "IF YOU'RE LUCKY!!"!!

I think that we should write to the manufacturers and commiserate with them for having so much stupider engineers these days than they had in days gone by ... one would think that with the wonderful advances that have been made in various parts of the mechanical products system, they have been able by now to have developed some fridges that'd last for many more years.

ole joyfuelled

Ed, I totally agree with you! I got a used 30 yr. old fridge in the 70's that I passed on to someone else and that sucker was still running at 40 yrs. old! Our fridge is 11 -- guess I should expecting it to die tomorrow?

Hi drewsmaga,

Hope you outlast it.

o j

Olejoyful,
I remember those days well.We had the icebox on the back porch,and my dad was the iceman for many years.We lived in N.Y. state in the country and he delivered in our area and the closest towns in N.J.

Kathi

I recently had my Kenmore go on the fritz, completely. While the ice maker had quit a couple years before, the repairman at that time estimated over $700 to repair it, Uh no thank you I can buy a lot of ice for $700. So when the fridge actually quit, I called them out again and for about $650 they fixed it, and offered an as new warranty for three years for another $250 or so. I wouldn't normally buy ANY warranty for a new product, but for one ten years old this is awesome. And the ice maker, which wasn't touched started working again! If anything goes wrong for the next few years I am covered!