Brian and I have a routine where we will quickly touch base about dinner plans in the morning, then take out whatever meat is necessary for dinner from the freezer. (Assuming meat is required for the recipe of course….) Well, when we did that the other day, guess what we found? A bunch of thaw and semi-thaw meat. Melted ice cubes. Some very, very, smelly fish. Crap – is the fridge broken already?
We bought our current condo back in October. The fridge came with the condo, but according to the receipt, it is only 1 and half years old. It’s a stainless steel LG fridge. It has a bottom freezer and various temperature settings. I love the design. But, I expect fridges to last 5-10 years, so I was feeling pretty choked.
First thing’s first – is the fridge actually broken? It wasn’t making any weird noises, there were no leaks (aside from things thawing and leaking), and the lights and menus all seemed to work. According to the manual, when the fridge is malfunctioning, the indicator lights would blink or not work at all. So I was cautiously optimistic. There have been times where a certain someone has left the freezer door open, causing everything inside to thaw and spoil. Ahem. So, I decided to gamble – rather than cooking all the thawing meat, I only took out enough meat for dinners and lunches and set the fridge to it’s Quick Freeze option (and hoped for the best).
Initially, it seemed like things would improve. The meat started getting colder and more frozen. The ice packs were becoming solid again. I felt really relieved. It was only Brian – er… I mean *someone* – leaving the freezer door open again.
But when I got home in the evening, reality kicked me in the butt. EVERYTHING was thaw. AHHHHHHHH. 🙁
Panic mode set in – I embarked on a massive cooking endeavour to try to save the meat. I made a stir fry, a giant batch of teriyaki chicken, and many, many pork chops. And still, the freezer stayed thaw and things were starting to spoil. I had to start throwing things out – the fish, the ice cream, the soup bones… *tear* All of my beautiful savings! This was meat that I’ve accumulated over several shopping trips and sales. I was very sad.
Worse – the fridge part was starting to feel warm too. So maybe it wasn’t all Brian’s fault again?
We called LG Customer Support and they basically told us to restart the fridge. So we performed the equivalent of CTRL-ALT-DEL on our refrigerator, went to bed and hoped for the best. When we woke up…. nothing. The fridge was warm and smelled funny. Bah. Brian called to schedule a service call and we settled in to wait for the repairman to call.
But later that night, I opened the fridge and what… it was cold! WTF. So maybe it wasn’t broken? So I put in a tray of water for ice cubes and hoped for the best.
The next day… warm. Then cool… Then warm… And still the repairman has not called.
So is my refrigerator broken? I’m going to say yes… I have no idea what would cause the fridge to warm up and cool down sporadically, but I’m going to guess something is faulty with the controller. Damn computers! We still have no idea when the repairman is going to call and we may have to phone LG again to harass them for service. In the mean time, my grocery budget is going through the roof! 🙁
Has anyone ever dealt with a broken appliance? When do I give up and just buy a new fridge? This is my first time!!!!
