OK I’m a guy. Because of that I’m supposed to be good a technical things involving machines. Guys are supposed to know when something is not working right, even if it’s only a slightly ‘funny’ sound that the device might be making. What’s more I proved this stereotype true a couple of weeks ago. You see I know, because I’m a guy, that refrigerators are supposed to be silent and every once in a while start up and go Hmmmmmmmmmm. Just a quiet, innocuous humming, maybe a whirr, in some models a muffled rattle of ice into the bin. So while Marsha was in Minnesota my guy senses told me that something might be wrong with our fridge. When it started up instead of going Hmmmmmmmmm it went
zzzzZZZZZ-CLACK-HMMMMbzzerrrropppppppmmmmmmm. I knew this was not right. I noticed the change immediately, well not immediately actually, it took me several days to pick up on it, but when I did I had a strong feeling that our refrigerator was on its last legs. All because I’m a guy, and guys know these things intuitively.

When Marsha got home I pointed out the noise and Marsha agreed, it was time for a new fridge. We went to Home Depot first and didn’t see anything that we wanted. Then we went to Sears. At Sears we found one that was great. Larger, more efficient, lots of adjustable shelves and drawers. The only thing was that we weren’t sure it would fit. We went home and measured. Width was good. Depth was good. The only issue was height. I noticed, because I’m a guy that the opening was actually bigger that it appeared. There was a piece of trim mounted at the top. If we could remove that we’d have enough space. I probed around and decided that it was stuck in place with adhesive of some kind, but try as I might I couldn’t get it to let go. Marsha checked with a mirror and discovered that it was held in place with three screws, which was good because I have screwdrivers. I have them because I’m a guy. A guy with tools. What I didn’t have was a way to get the screwdriver into the small space between the existing fridge and the moulding. I pondered this problem for some minutes. Then, while I was pondering the problem Marsha rolled the old fridge out of the way, which made things much easier. I removed the trim piece and we knew we’d have plenty of space. By then though, Sears was closed so we’d have to wait to place the order.

I suggested that, because I’m a guy and I know about these sort of things, that it might be a good idea to move all the frozen stuff from the old refrigerator to our big chest freezer. Marsha agreed and we spent the next few minutes ferrying baskets of foodstuffs downstairs. The next morning my caution was confirmed because the refrigerator and freezer were both way too warm. I deided that it had died. We went out to get a small “dorm fridge” for temporary storage. We’d thought about getting one for the deck before but hadn’t gotten around to it. On the way we dropped a few critical items in the fridge at Barb’s: Tillimook cheese mostly. We weren’t going to risk that treasure to the vagaries of a dorm fridge. We had decided that Walmart was the best option on short notice. As it was a Monday and I had to go to work we drove separately. I arrived first and waited, and waited, and waited. When Marsha finally arrived she explained that she’d gotten caught at a light that refused to change. Apparently it needed something the size of an Abrams Tank to trigger the sensor. After a while she even thought about running it, there was no cross traffic to speak of, but the light had a camera designed to catch red light runners so she had to stay put. Finally it changed and she was able to continue on to Walmart. Once we met up we discovered that they didn’t open for another hour anyway. I was forced to continue on to work and Marsha went home.

During the day Marsha went out, got a little fridge, brought it home, set it up, and moved most of what remained over to it. After I got home we went to Sears and placed the order for the big fridge. Now the thing is, we live on an island. No problem there as Sears stocked exactly the model and colour (white, none of this stainless modern stuff for us thank you very much) we wanted in Vancouver. The bad news was that, because we live on an island we couldn’t get it until the following Tuesday when they sent the weekly load over from the mainland. So for the rest of the week we had to make do with the little fridge. Mostly that is. While I, the guy in the house, had concluded that the old fridge had picked that exact time to expire, Marsha found out that if she adjusted the controls to correct for the change in load both the refrigerator and freezer would still hold the correct temperatures. Apparently the inertia of the cold food in there was keeping it stable. I have no idea how anyone on earth could have known this. For the most part we kept things in the outside fridge but a few things, some veggies and such we kept inside for convenience.

Finally Tuesday arrived and the new appliance was delivered. They called my phone, being the guy, to say that they would be by in about fifteen minutes to drop it off. I then contacted Marsha to let her know. They got there hauled the old fridge out and slid the new one into place. They even hauled the old unit out to the carport. Marsha had discovered that BCHydro will pay us $30 to take the old inefficient fridge away because we replaced it with a new high efficiency one. The bad news was that they wouldn’t be by for two weeks to get it. So I’ve had an old fridge sitting in front of my car for the last couple of weeks. Oh well, it’s one of the things us guy’s have to put up with for being so technically adroit.

The new fridge looks and works great. It’s larger, has more drawers, and best of all it’s cleaner. The only thing is that we still didn’t have a fridge that went Hmmmmmmmmmm. This one goes more of a Hmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeee. Not really a squeaking, more like the sound of a tiny turbine engine. I assured Marsha that it just had to break in, and after a week or so it would be gone. I said this with confidence because I’m a guy and we guys know these things. After a two weeks the noise wasn’t gone and Marsha called for a service person to come out.  He, it had to be a he, guys know machinery and technical things,  arrived a couple of days later and looked the fridge over. His verdict: “This model makes that noise. It’s the compressor. Newer fridges have better insulation so the walls are thinner. It actually keeps the cold in better but isn’t as good at muffling the mechanical sounds.” This made sense to me, because I’m a guy that also works with technical things. I understood that this was the way it was and we’d just have to get used to it.

That was three days ago. Today we noticed it wasn’t making the noise any more.

Doug & Marsha
PIX: The Snowbirds were back in town!