Well guess what. I pulled off the panel inside the freezer section and
what do I find but a block of ice covering all the coils. Aha I think,
the defroster has gone bad and I'm not about to tackle repairing it.
So I set up a hairdryer to melt the ice before the guy comes over.

An hour later the repairman comes over. My suspicions are answered as
he says that the heater bars and control mechanism are bad and need to
be replaced. (He showed me the bars, they 're make of glass and look
busted.) This he does, but guess what... it doesn't fix the problem.
The defroster section still doesn't work.

So he says I should not have melted the ice, that the believes the
hairdryer damaged the aluminum coils. He says I never should have
touched it, that whenever an appliance goes bad, one should never
tinker with it. Then he says that there may be a freon leak, or that
the compressor is gone bad.

I tell him to forget it that I'll just dump the piece of crap. (G.E.)
Now I'm out $85 and I still have a fridge that don't work.

The reason why I melted all the ice was because the recommended
http://www.applianceaid.com/frig_notcold.html said that's what to do
to get to the heater bars. The repair guy says he never does that,
that he uses a pot of boiled water at the bottom of the freezer, that
it's more "gentle."

OK. Think I just got hosed? Or what?



On 6 Sep 2004 04:31:09 -0700, (jeff) wrote:

Joe-46er wrote in message . ..

Hi,

When is it time to toss away a refrigerator?

When the cost of repair is more than 50% of the cost to replace the
item.

My 9 year old
side-by-side GE 21 cf was doing fine, then all of a sudden it began to
fail. Not completely (yet).

Some common things to check for...
http://www.applianceaid.com/frig_notcold.html

Right now the freezer section works as follows: 22 degrees at the
bottom and 32 degrees at the top. (I don't know why the discrepancy.)
The non-freezer section maintains a 52 degree temp. These are when set
at max cold.

Put the controls back on a mid point setting.

The fins are dust-free. I've turned the controls on and off several
times.

Have you tried an over night defrosting?

Is it worth calling in a repairman?

If the rest of the refrigerator ( gaskets, plastic panals/parts ) is
still in good shape, for sure call!

I figure that the worst problem I
could have is a bad compressor. So what might that cost?

Approx 350-400 to replace a compressor.

Is it
cost-effective to repair or should I just go get a new one? The
original was $900 at the time. I can get an equivalent today for
around $700.

Depends on what is wrong and what is required to correct the problem.

This brings up another issue...finding an honest repairman. I recall
seeing a TV consumer special about how unscrupulous some are.

Ask some nieghbours/friends/relatives who they use.

jeff.
Appliance Repair Aid
http://www.applianceaid.com/




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"Take a little 5FU, leucovorin and oxaliplatin for thy stomach's sake." -- 1 Timothy 5:23 (adapted)