The old fridge was delivered from the store where we'd bought it, along with a stove, washer & dryer, the same day we moved into this house in May 1990 -- 25 years ago. We replaced the washer & dryer six years ago. Aside from needing a new oven light inside, the stove is still chugging along -- knock wood...!
(The dishwasher is another story: the house, which was 6-7 years old at the time we bought it, already had a built-in dishwasher left by the previous owners. It lasted us another 10 years. By that time, the spokes on the rack were rusting & snapping off, and then one day, the latch you pressed to open the thing fell off in my hand! I had company coming to visit that weekend, so I went to the mall, picked out a new one & had it delivered the next day. That one lasted just two years (until just after the warranty ran out, of course...) before it began acting up. The repair guy we called in told us there was a problem with the motherboard that would cost up to $300 to fix (on top of the $75 he'd charged us just for showing up to diagnose the problem). That was almost as much as we'd PAID for the thing. So back to the store we went to look for (another) new one. That was about 13 years ago now... so far, so good...!).
About six years ago, water started dripping down the back & collecting at the bottom of the fridge, underneath the crisper bins, and occasionally running out onto the floor. I called in a service guy & it took him all of five minutes to clean out a tube at the back of the unit. (I also had him look at the washer & dryer, and that's when those got replaced.)(I still love my "new" front loader!)
About two years ago, dh (who was already off work) called me at the office in a panic, saying he didn't think the fridge was working very well, that the ice cream in the freezer was going soft. When I got home that night, everything seemed OK to me. We looked at a few new fridges but decided to hold off.
Earlier this summer, water started puddling up on the bottom of the fridge again. Then last Saturday night, we heard a "THUNK" and the motor on the fridge (never very quiet) started running very loudly. Dh & I looked at each other. "Well," he said, "this is new." It eventually quieted down.
The next day, I cleaned up a puddle of water at the bottom of the fridge before we left to go to the movies. Several hours later, we returned. I noticed there wasn't any water in the bottom of the fridge, which seemed odd. And the usual noises had been replaced by a quiet, low hum. I noticed that even though there was noise, the fan didn't seem to be running in the freezer. And dh's ice cream sandwiches felt a bit soft. I filled an ice cube tray with water, shut the door & waited a few hours to see what would happen.
A few hours later, the water in the ice cube trays was still water. And dh's ice cream sandwiches were turning to mush. The fridge wasn't DEAD, but it obviously wasn't working very well either.
We threw a bunch of food out to be safe. Of course, once we did that, we heard a click and before long, the old familiar noises had returned and the water in the ice cube tray had turned to ice. (Figures.)
We had hoped to hang onto the fridge for a little while longer, but we decided it has served us well, and better to be safe than sorry when it comes to food spoilage. The next day, we went shopping. Nothing fancy. White (to match the other kitchen appliances -- if we were replacing the stove too, I would have gotten stainless, but we're hoping to hang onto THAT for a little while longer...)(famous last words?? :p ), bottom-mount freezer compartment (new for us but I understand it's the most popular option these days). I love the double-door models, but we just couldn't justify the extra cost.
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| Ta-da! Our new fridge! |
Long may it run!
What kind of fridge do you have? How old is your oldest appliance?
Love appliance stories! All mine are four years old, same age as our house. We bought the tallest fridge we could to fit in the skinny gap in our new build kitchen. It's a Bosch and often has a puddle at its feet - I don't think we empty it often enough to check the drainage. Wishing you a long and happy fridge life : )
ReplyDeleteOur appliances are 10 years old, except for our dryer, which is almost 15. We got new kitchen appliances when we built our house. We had to replace our washer 5 years ago - the one it was replacing was only 9 years old. Our dishwasher is mostly functional, but it doesn't dispense soap. No big deal - we just throw in a soap pellet at a particular time and it works fine. We had to replace our under-cabinet microwave, but I think that's due to power surges that seem to happen frequently in our neighborhood. We've gone through several TVs over the last 8 years due to that.
ReplyDeleteWe have a side by side Frigidaire refrigerator. I am not a fan of the bottom freezer, but I should get one because I am ALWAYS dropping stuff out of the freezer. And the french door refrigerator that we have at work doesn't have much room because it has too many compartments.
I hope your new refrigerator lasts you another 25 years! It doesn't seem overly burdened with electronic gadgets, so it should last a long while.
Our landlady just replaced the newest stainless steel fridge with a super fancy new white fridge. She proudly showed it off to us (and Grey and I sat in front of the thing in awe for close to an hour afterwards) exclaiming "stainless steel is SO dated."
ReplyDeleteGrey and I replaced all our appliances in our condo out of need. Similar issues with our old fridge (dated back to 1989).
May your fridge last at least another 25 years. Or at least not break until you sell your house. ;)
ReplyDeleteWe rent so we have to go with whatever is in the house. But the thought of buying appliances (and owning our own home in general) is very exciting. The oldest kitchen item that I own is a circa 1972 General Electric hand mixer that my mother in law gave to me years ago. It was one of her and FIL's wedding gifts. The thing is a beast and I plan to keep it until it dies.
BnB, I think my mother has my grandmother's vintage (1950s?) mixmaster, complete with original bowl. It still works! :)
DeleteThat's awesome! They don't make stuff like they used to! :) And to think that my MIL was going to send it to Goodwill before I rescued it from her box and asked if I could have it. I also have her Pizzelle iron from the same vintage.
DeleteWe're on our second fridge in this house - we've been here 23 years now. It is stainless steel (matching our dishwasher - also our second in this house - and our oven). I've always had freezer-on-the-bottom fridges, and much prefer them to any freezer-on-the-top fridges I've used (my mother has one of those). Right now I need to sort through my freezer and start using some things that have been there for a while.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at the "that is new" comment your DH made when you fridge started making sounds. My washing machine made an odd sound a few days ago, and I thought, "uh oh, that's new." I have my fingers crossed we won't need to replace it, as we just had to replace the dryer last year.
Hmmm...we've been living here for almost 6 years and the fridge was the one the previous owners left us (including the dishwasher). Our freezer was also left by the previous owners and it's still working. Our washing machine was the one that my husband had had for a long time already (not sure how long, but at least over 11 years old as it was there already when I visited him for the first time in 2004). We'll see how long they last.
ReplyDeleteI've never had the "privilege" of buying an appliance - but after renting for so many years, I've certainly learned a lot about them. We just got a new fridge recently, thank goodness, the old one was small and made a racket and of course fixing it would cost half the amount of new one. I thought for sure the landlord would just get it fixed, but we ended up with a new one. Same freezer on top model, but bigger. Of course, water collects at the bottom of the inside - can't figure out why but it was worse in the summer with the heat. Hubby has raised it and lowered it but it still collects water on top of the crisper. Suggestions?
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I know with the old one, as I wrote above, there was a tube at the back of the unit (hat was clogged with ice & other debris... the repair guy cleaned it out, & it was another 5-6 years before it started acting up again. I wish I had paid more attention to what he was doing, because it seemed relatively easy to fix. I wonder if you could find a video on YouTube showing how to do it, or some other simple solution you could try before calling in service?
DeleteMany of our kitchen appliances were over 50 years old - specifically, the ovens and the cooktop. They didn't work very well (only one of the burners on the cooktop actually worked!) and no one had the parts to fix them because they were so old. Since the remodel, everything in our kitchen is new. And complicated to figure out - everything is so high tech now! But, whatever. Certainly not complaining - it's better than no hot water, one burner and ovens which would not close, which was why we fixed the kitchen.
ReplyDelete