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Article #165Re: 9 year old fridge: repair or replace?
From: throwitout
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:35
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:35
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3903 bytes
On Sep 17, 5:18 pm, deja_bhoot2...@yahoo.com wrote: > I purchased a side-by-side Sears (Kemore?) fridge in March, 1998, > which has worked fine all this time (I think it cost about $1200 back > then). There is no problem with the insides of the fridge itself. > > As most modern fridges do, this also has a waterline hookup for cold > water, and for ice box. Ice function is working fine. For the cold > water, for the past 4-5 months, there was a short delay between > pressing switch, and water coming through in the small spigot. This > delay got from a few seconds to about 1 minute. But once the water > started, it was working fine. > > Now the water function is not working. The water connection is fine, > as ice is being made at the same rate as before. It seems something > simple, a mechanical, or electrical switch in the water component, is > not functioning. I am afraid to pull out the control box mounted > outside, as it is not clear if it is just push fit, or some plastic > clips in a tab, or what, so it might break if not pulled properly. If > I could see someone take it out once, I could do it (I have fixed many > things myself in the past, including a microwave, toaster, electrical > circuits around the home, etc.) > > There is no other problem with the fridge (jn fact, not even any > scratches), but I figure a nine year old fridge is probably no more > than $300 worth, if that much. So, spending $100 to $200 on calling an > appliance repairman seems silly. But I feel awfully guilty throwing > away a perfectly functioning fridge. > > What's average life expectancy of a fridge? What's a reasonable price > for an appliance repairman in the SF Bay area to fix this? Any > referrals would be much appreciated. > Personally I don't like side-by-side fridge units. They tend to be pricey and less efficient (energy and practically) than normal fridges. I also don't like built in ice-makers and water chillers. The ice- maker takes up half the freezer, and both systems add to the mechanical complexity. Much simpler to use a pitcher and ice trays / bucket. I would look at fixing it yourself. Yes newer fridges are more efficient, but a 10 year old unit isn't that old, or that inefficient (compared to say a 30 year old fridge), and should have another 15 years in it. If you buy another new fridge you might end up with the same problem in 10 years. And I don't think buying energy savings will overcome the cost of a new fridge every 10 years.
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X-Google-Thread: 106595,9d38a539f6fddaca X-Google-Thread: 107518,9d38a539f6fddaca X-Google-Thread: f6c48,9d38a539f6fddaca X-Google-Attributes: gid106595,gid107518,gidf6c48,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!g2news2.google.com!postnews.google.com!g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: throwitout <throwitout@dodgeit.com> Newsgroups: ba.consumers,misc.consumers,misc.consumers.frugal-living Subject: Re: 9 year old fridge: repair or replace? Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:35:29 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 49 Message-ID: <1190327729.800673.262350@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> References: <1190060293.321484.3310@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.89.221.127 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Trace: posting.google.com 1190327730 10034 127.0.0.1 (20 Sep 2007 22:35:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:35:30 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: <1190060293.321484.3310@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.89.221.127; posting-account=ps2QrAMAAAA6_jCuRt2JEIpn5Otqf_w0