A High Tech Appliance

I’ve always had the standard appliance, but when we had to replace our fridge a couple years ago I really wanted a new age unit. It’s kind of ridiculous if you think about it. The more computer-age you go, the more issues there will be. It’s exactly what I wanted, though. The fridge is on top, with double doors, and the freezer is on the bottom and is a drawer. It’s huge, which is the main reason for my desire to go big. Devil cooks almost daily, which means our freezer/fridge stays full. However, the unit I chose has been difficult from the beginning. The double door fridge has to be closed in a specific way, or else it doesn’t seal. It helps that there’s an alarm on it, but still we’ve had problems. The “flap” has to go into a groove just right, or else it doesn’t close. We’ve had to replace that part several times, in just two years. Friends that come over never close it right, which isn’t their fault, in the least. It’s too high tech for anyone’s good. Bad design? I think so, but Kenmore probably disagrees. Our ice maker quit working suddenly, without any warning. Just one day it stopped making ice. We did our normal trouble shooting, which has always worked on all other appliances. Not this bastard. Instead of having someone out to look at it, we just started buying ice. It just wasn’t that important to fool with. When we were in NJ, we had friends stay at our place for a couple nights. Not for the entire duration of our trip, but long enough for them to use the fridge. The door didn’t shut, and the alarm went off. Instead of calling us, they ignored the alarm and locked up, never returning… We walked into the house with a fridge full of spoiled goods. We cleaned it up, went to HEB. Done. It seemed to work. Or else, we didn’t pay enough attention to notice it wasn’t cooling like it should be. When we left on our trip to NE, it was working. When we opened the front door five days later, our house wreaked of rotten filth. I hate walking into a dirty house, especially after a trip. Needless to say, it was a horrible homecoming. I cleaned that mess up and checked the freezer, but it was still working. All the food was frozen, so we assumed maybe we left the door open, by accident, in our rush out the door…. the next morning I woke up to another mess. This time the freezer was defrosting and all the water and syrup from frozen strawberries was now pooling out on the floor. What we figure is it was a slow decline from our NJ trip. The fridge door was left open, making the freezer push harder to keep it all cold. Devil replaced the thermostat, and two other parts. Nothing. He pulled the back panel off, touched metal to metal to get some kind of electrical reading.. nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He read online, nothing has seemed to fix it. On day four of having food in a cooler, he went to Home Depot and bought a small fridge. One that has no computer panel. No ice maker. Just a simple upright that will probably last us ten years. Once we get the high-tech-POS fixed, that fridge will then be moved into the studio.

There’s something to be said for simple necessities. I do believe the next time we buy a fridge, I’m going back to simple. No computer panel on front. No flap in the door that sets off an alarm when not closed properly.

Hopefully by the time this thread posts Sears will have been out to repair it, which we paid for over a week ago. If they canceled, yet again, I might have to pull Devil off of the ceiling and take his phone away. Sears will have an irate man making it his mission to ruin everyone’s day that answers his many phone calls.