"cshenk" wrote in message
...
"Robert Green" wrote
"cshenk" wrote in message

Or Freecycle. Whichever is locally better run. In my little neck, the
craigslist isnt well run but the Freecycle is. Just has to do with the
local moderator is all. I see Fridges (working) at least once a week.

Gawd, it's tempting, especially if I find someone who's willing to
deliver
and haul the old one away for some extra $. But I remember working on
the
refrigerator in the walkup I lived in. It was basically the Kingdom of
the
Roaches. I am sure experienced appliance repair folks have seen it
before.
Warm, dark, near food - a perfect roach mansion.

I am afraid I will be sticking with new units and looking for advice and
which have been the most trouble free for users.

No problem Bobby! Hey, here's one next idea. I have a local Maytag
repair
place who also sells refubished units. They provide installation and haul
away for a fee (40$). I've gotten many things there over time and always
had good luck.

That's a good idea. I'll check Google to see if I've got such a place. My
wife's pretty adamant about not getting a refurb so I might either have to
fix what we have or go for a new one.

My current fridge is an Amana, bought new 10 years ago and still going
strong. The one before it was a whirlpool that came with the house (age
unknown, may have been 35 or more).

My Westinghouse is over 35 years old and I've kept it going, but now I think
it has a coolant leak and that's going to be hard for me to deal with with a
bum knee (well, two, but one's much worse than the other - my wife calls
them the bad knee and the very, very bad knee).

When buying a new gas oven a bit ago, I looked at the fridges just for
ideas
on what they cost today and there were many small but decent models in the
400$ range at the local Lowes. If retired military, you also get a 10%
discount there. (I;m retired Navy, 26 years).

Ahoy, Chief! That's good to know. I was thinking of Lowes. I'll have
make sure to bring my ID.

While O6's and above would never admit it, the Navy only works because the
chiefs keep it running. What was your rating? E8? I have to admit, I had
a hard time keeping all the ratings and ranks in order, and just when I
thought I had it down, I got an exchange assignment where I had to learn
foreign ratings and ranks. Somewhere, tucked away in an attic carton, I
have my insignia flash cards.

In another thread (about BP) I mentioned how in the Navy, if a captain runs
his ship aground, he's out. While that sometimes is a bad thing (hard to
get people willing to command experimental craft like my dad designed) on
the whole, it makes the man at the top responsible for anything that goes
wrong and give him a great incentive to make sure nothing does. What's your
view?

At the Pentagon I didn't get to talk to many enlisted personnel. You can't
spit without hitting an O5 or above. It was always great to watch a phone
colonel come in from afar for his first Pentagon assignment. They usually
come from a place where they were in total command and the biggest of the
big cheeses but at the Pentagon they found themselves getting coffee for the
full colonels and generals that littered the place. Or worse yet one of the
million Assistant Undersecretary of Some Arcane Field of Defense civilians
roaming the halls.

I have a great Bupers/New Orleans story that I probably shouldn't tell on
line. Let's just say that the Navy has its own way of doing things and they
were damned if they were going to change their systems to match the other
services even though it was so ordained by the SecDef himself. I'll bet you
have stories to tell. with 26 years in. And more stripes and stars than a
tiger getting loose at the Academy Awards.

Here's a joke about nasal radiators:

How do you know if there's a Navy pilot at your fourth of July picnic?

He'll tell you.

And another about Ensigns:

What's the difference between a roomful of puppies and a room full of
Ensigns?

The puppies will stop whining eventually.

What's this got to do with refrigerators? (-:

I've got a buddy coming over and we're going to take one last look at
whether the old beast can be salvaged. It's gotten new gaskets, new
shelves, new fans, new door handle, door railing, and even added another
bulb and socket because it was dim inside and the wiring was already there
for it - on the deluxe models I assume.

I even cut a little hole in the freezer floor with a Dremel to see if the
coils had frozen over. That was the biggest issue with this box. A door
left ajar froze the coils. A plug in the drain line froze the coils, too.
I believe that the last time I defrosted the coils, I either cracked a
solder joint or put a pinhole leak in the coils. When it's working I can
feel/hear a lot more gurgling in the freezer coils than I used to.

But it's old with an old motor that's way less efficient than modern
compressor motors so there would be a payback in fixing it or finding
someone to recharge it and repair the leaks. Decisions, decisions. The
unit fails to keep up on hot days (we've gone green - or should I say
stinky) and turned off the central air, keeping only the bedroom cool with a
small window unit. So far, much cheaper - almost 1/4 the cost of the CAC,
but our central unit is an old, poorly installed inefficient SOB. It almost
works except for cooking. Even with a summer salad menu, it gets nasty. I
might have to put a second unit in the kitchen window for occasional use.

--
Bobby G.