Monday, March 16, 2009

Update on the refrigerator story (below)....

Now that it has been running for about 24 hours since it was manually defrosted, I can report that it is running both better and quieter than it did before. The thermometer inside it shows that it is maintaining a temperature almost 10 degrees cooler that it has been recently with the controls set at approximately the same settings as before.

The other good news, which I appreciate even more, is that it is also operating with a lot less noise, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn't awakened in the night by any loud noises from it. I should explain that this is a small studio apartment, and the refrigerator sits only about six feet from my bed. So unless it is reasonably quiet, I don't get much sleep. I had a decent sleep last night, and I hope this continues.

While researching the problems with typical modern high-pressure refrigerators the other day in preparation for fixing mine, I learned that among other things, today's refrigerators are designed to be set up so that an upright model will sit on the floor leaning slightly backward. They say to adjust the adjustable front feet so that when the door is opened to an angle of 45 degrees, it will slowly close on its own. The adjustable feet on mine would not extend far enough to do that, so I had to use some shims under them to raise them up enough. Once set in the correct position, I noticed it was running quieter, and I suspect that this has something more to do with its operation than simply assisting the door to shut on its own. I think it also has an effect on how the fluids inside the unit are flowing. In any case, whatever I did made a big difference. So if your refrigerator is noisy, and many modern ones are, try making sure it is sitting properly in a position of leaning slightly backward. It can't hurt.

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