Nuts

[Denis]

This morning at 4am I woke up to a distant clicking noise somewhere in the house and followed it into the kitchen, where I determined the refrigerator had stopped running. Since it didn't get above 35 today, the beer, cheese, bell peppers and pomegranates went outside and I lost the rest, mostly disposable stuff.

I'd been meaning to clean out the fridge anyway but I didn't want the reason to be a failure! The Sears guy is coming to check on it tomorrow, and I'm afraid he's going to tell me the compressor took a dump. I hate the idea because it's a 1961 RCA Whirlpool, which has been in the house since I bought it in 1996 and it's probably been in the house for decades. That sucker could freeze vegetables in the bottom crisper drawers!

[Hornisse]

Hope you can get it running again Denis.  1961 was a good year!

[TBird1958]

Yikes! I was 2 in '61.......That was quite a fridge, I'd say it had a good run 

[Freuds_Cat]

My deepest sympathy in this dark hour Denis  The damn fridge has been running 3 years longer than I've been around. 

[patman]

What made this country great.

[TBird1958]

Look at the bright side....you've got cold beer 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

At my old tv station there was an old fridge from the 40's that has run continuously since it was new and AFAIK is still humming along in the carpenter's shop.

[Freuds_Cat]

At my old tv station there was an old fridge from the 40's that has run continuously since it was new and AFAIK is still humming along in the carpenter's shop.

using twice the electricity as the transmitter 

[dadagoboi]

My 70s vintage fridge died last summer, its replacement uses less than half the energy. 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

using twice the electricity as the transmitter 

...actually the old ones used less power than modern fridges. They were smaller and didn't have a bunch of fancy regulation circuitry.

[eb2]

The kicker is, you can fix old fridges like those.  The repair guys assume you don't want to replace the old compressor, as it is a pricey repair vs most.

The drier in my house came with the place.  The washer died, and the repair guy took a look at the drier and dated it to the late 60s.  When it dies I will replace it, but he said it could outlive us.

[exiledarchangel]

I feel your pain, my refrigerator has issues too, works ok for some days, then its performance drops. WTF?

[Basvarken]

A fridge from 1961??
You gotta be kidding.
That thing must have been using more power than half of the city you live in!

[Denis]

Haha, well, the fridge is 3 years older than I and has been great the whole time. The freezer has only had to be defrosted once in 14 years. Lots of people who've seen it have told me, "Dang, you should get a new one and save a lot of energy. That's fine on the face of it, but a new, inexpensive fridge costs $450 and bumps up to over $700 for Energy Star rated ones.  Since my energy bill can be in the low $40s some months of the year, the payoff on a new fridge just to save $5 per month is an inefficient way of looking at it. Now, if the fridge REALLY is doomed, then it's worth getting a new efficient one, of course.

Here are some pics of the possibly doomed fridge. Reading up on it, the clicking can be caused by any number of things: capacitors, relays, dirty coils and yeah, the dreaded compressor. I'm hoping it's one of the former items not the last.

[nofi]

i notice the dash rip rock sticker, a great band.