The Haunted Refrigerator

 A few years back, during a serious heat wave where we hit 116º F., my eighteen-year-old fridge went on the blink. As did a lot of other refrigerators, the repair guy I called allowed. Be a while before he could get here.

The repair guy eventually came out, said he could keep it going for bit, but that I needed to start looking for a new one, because the end was near.

What would you get to replace it? I asked.

As close to this one as you can find. No electronics, no ice or water from the door, no computers. Heat wave like this comes along, fridge is backed up against an outside-exposed wall? The circuit boards fry, and they are hard to come by. Might be weeks before you could get a replacement. 

The current new models are mostly expensive, shitty, might not get five years before they start needing repairs. Stay analog.

My wife wanted one with a freezer compartment at the bottom. We were constrained as to size, the space we had was for an eighteen-cubic-foot model. I shopped around, found one that would work, ordered it, and the old one died while it was enroute. We did a couple days with ice in the bathtub and ice chests.

The new one had some quirks. It made burbly noises, moaned, groaned, probably haunted by the ghost of the old one, but it kept the food cold and -- knock on wood -- still does. I didn’t like the pull-out freezer, but okay.

The biggest quirk? Doors opened and closed fine; however, if you opened one, grabbed something, and closed the door, but forget there was something else you needed and tried to re-opened it immediately?

It didn’t want to do that. The seal was so tight it created a vacuum, and it took considerable muscle to break that seal and get the door open. I mean, move-the-whole-fridge force.

YouTube suggested something like Vaseline on the rubber seal, but that didn’t do much. So either you waited thirty seconds after you shut the door to re-open it, or, you gave the handle a mighty tug to break the vacuum.

Which brings us to yesterday’s adventure.

All that mighty tugging on the handle resulted in the top screw of the handle getting loose. After a while, you could see the screw in the gap, and through that, the writing on the wall. Not “if,” but “when.” 

Last night, the screw came out. 

Well, shit. 

And here’s a thing: There is no way to access the Phillips head end of the screw.

So, it was gonna be duct tape or the internet. I got the duct tape out, just in case. Armed with the fridge’s model number, I went looking.

Apparently on this unit, one removes the handle by pressing it toward the door and sliding it up, where the brackets allow it to be removed.

Well, no. Tried that, didn’t work.

Sometimes, the internet said, the thing gets stuck. Pressure and application of a mallet at the bottom might do it.

Yes, that did the trick. Yay!

Getting the tangled screw out of the bracket took some doing, more mallet-work and a screwdriver in the vise. That done, I was able to reassemble the pieces and presto! Handle repaired! Only took an hour.

Understand, for most handy folks, this would be a three-minute chore. But for me, a man who has trouble operating anything more complicated than a wheelbarrow? It was a small, but serious victory.

Never a dull moment.