The Wonders of Appliance Maintenance
Posted on August 29, 2007 by Him and tagged appliances
Last night Her and I were jonesing for some dessert that we'd share (yes, share, as Her is on Weight Watchers and I'm going to run the half-marathon). When Her opened up the freezer, she noticed some ice cream drippage and defrosted meats.
Oh crap, we thought, something's wrong with our freezer. In the last few weeks, we've noticed that our ice cream was a little softer, but that's about it. No defrosted meats. No drippings. Not last night though. Crap.
I'll let you in on a little secret about me: I suck at being Mr. Handyman. My first instinct was to call the landlord, except that he sucks and I'd rather roll around in a bathtub of porcupines than talk to him. Then I remembered: the coils! Clean the coils!
So we pulled the fridge out from the wall and unplugged it. Her removed the kick plate and we both peered underneath the fridge...to see a queen size quilt's worth of cat fur entangled amongst the coils. It seriously looked like our refrigerator gave birth to a litter of kittens. We both muttered a few swears and then I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and went to work. I managed to vacuum about three-quarters of the fur before we had to dump out the dust container and start again. After cleaning, we plugged it back in and hoped for the best.
Luckily for us, since our freezer was packed pretty tightly most of the items were still frozen. We didn't have to toss out much, just some melted ice cream. The items that weren't fully frozen went directly into the fridge for continued defrosting. Those items include about 8 chicken boobies breasts, some ground beef, a few pork chops, and some ribs. It looks like we'll be making a few meals out of that stuff, or we'll be having a "Our Freezer's Busted" dinner party. I guess we're not eating out this weekend, so cha-ching for the wallet.
This morning the freezer was working like it is supposed to. I'm sure that the cleaning will shave a buck or two a month from our electricity bill as well.
See, I told you we're not ready to be homeowners.
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MVP | Aug 30, 2007
Home ownership really doesn't require that large of an emergency fund. We've managed to get by with a $1K fund for the past 1.5 years. Recently, we finished paying off our debt, so we'll work to build the fund to $20K, but that's meant to cover a whole array of life emergencies. We replaced and repaired several home items after emergencies, and none exceeded the $1K. They included home heating repairs, new dishwasher, new kitchen disposal, and replacing the bathroom floor after a toilet leak. I'll agree, though, that it requires a certain measure of "handiness" to get many household emergencies taken care of on a tight budget. I'm lucky to have that in my husband, otherwise, I'd definitely opt for renting.
I agree with MVP - we've had our house for almost 5 years, and we've never had a problem that cost over $500. When our washer and dryer died, we bought "new" ones from a place that refurbishes appliances and sells them with warranties for less than $200. We also had to replace our bathroom floor when our washing machine died/overflowed all over the place, and we did the whole thing for about $200 - we found a contractor that sells leftover tile from big jobs for super cheap.
And you guys are on the ball for thinking of cleaning out the coils anyway :)
Karen Wojtowicz | Sep 4, 2007
I don't know if you know this, but, you can cook all of that defrosted meat and then refreeze the cooked meat to eat later on. I learned this from my MIL when our power went out.
Marie | Aug 30, 2007
It was a good catch. It shows that you are on the ball about things. Frankly, you are never "really" ready to be a homeowner. That stuff just takes practice.
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