Baby, It's Cold Outside, but Less So in My Refrigerator

The heating element in my refrigerator went on the blink a month or so ago. If you read this blog with any regularity, you already knew that.

Yes, I was surprised to learn refrigerators have heating elements. Seems sort of counter intuitive, no? How do you keep things cold when there a gizmo in there trying to keep them warm?

Moreover, it's in the freezer compartment. No wonder I don't have ice.

Actually the heating element keeps the frost to a minimum. And you thought it was magic.

Unless a lack of liquidity has forced you to try to perform your own major-appliance repairs, you may not realize that when it comes to how your refrigerator/freezer works, the refrigerator portion is just along for the ride. The freezer does all the heavy lifting and blows whatever cold air it doesn't need over into the refrigerator compartment.

When the heating element is malfunctioning, or in the case of my fridge, simply not working, frost builds up into ice and the freezer doesn't cool as effectively. Ergo, much less left-over cold air to blow into the refrigerator compartment.

Stuff in the refrigerator compartment was warm despite the stuff in the freezer still being frozen rock hard.

My mother, Big Anita, always told me that I should learn something new everyday. I hope I fulfilled that obligation for you today.

Tomorrow: How to fill your own tooth.

Anyway, I bring the whole heating-element thing up again because I finally got around to ordering the replacement part last week. It arrived yesterday, seven days later.

I'm not sure where it's been since I was notified it shipped on July 12, but I wasn't surprised when I didn't find the word RUSH stamped on the box.

If you read this blog, you also know that I had to order a different part than the one to be replaced. I was less than optimistic that my limited refrigerator-repair skills would rise to the challenge of Jerry rigging a rogue part then have it actually work.

I defrosted my freezer for the third or fourth time since this ordeal began. To take out the broken part required backing out two small sheetmetal screws and unplugging two wires to disconnect the part from the evaporator.

The replacement instructions for the make-do part required 29 steps. 29!

As it turned out, I was able to skip about six of them because the two unplugged connector wires in the freezer compartment were long enough that I didn't have to make any splices.

I am happy to report that all seems working according to spec...at least for the moment.

My beer is cold and the cat hasn't been electrocuted.