Bringing the Drama

so Thursday night, i noticed my refrigerator making a clicking sound every few minutes. it was still working, but i knew there was a problem. i googled the problem and realized it was a broken start relay. not immediately finding a how-to, i called to schedule a repair from Sears when i got to work the next morning.

this experience kind of played off of my Subway experience on Thursday. i stopped on my way to Jacob’s to get a sandwich. the guy asked me white or wheat, i told him wheat. he makes my sandwich and gets to the toppings. i tell him “lettuce, tomato, onions”, he puts lettuce, tomato, pickles. i repeat “onions” twice before he figures out onions does not equal pickles. he goes to take them off but i told him i was going to ask for them anyway. when i open the sandwich, he made it on white. hopefully the kid is not looking at subway as a career. anyway, so calling Sears….i tried to schedule one online, but they were giving me a time window of 8 am to 5 pm. whatever. i called the 800 number to hopefully talk to someone and schedule a slimmer window. it gave me the option to schedule a Friday appointment online, but when i called, the guy told me the next available day would be Tuesday. i told him about the available Friday appointment online, but he said he didn’t see that. so i told him i’d call back later and hung up. i went online and scheduled the Friday 8-5 appointment. someone called me about an hour later and said nobody could come Friday, but they could come Saturday. fine, so i agreed to that and figured someone would call me in the morning.

i stayed up most of the night watching the Ike coverage (i was fascinated to see a hurricane’s landfall from the comfort of my home instead of being evacuated). i got up this morning and googled how to fix the start relay. i found this webpage where the guy basically made a picture tutorial on how to fix it. it seemed easy enough, so about 9:15 am i set off to Home Depot to get the replacement part. sadly, HD does not carry any refrigerator spare parts, just spare refrigerators. one of the guys told me about an appliance part supply place, so i took off for the supply store. i called my sister on the way to get the location because all i had was a street name. i found the place and walked in to find two gentlemen discussing appliance brands and the guy behind the counter had a cowboy hat on.

after the other customer left, i explained to the guy behind the counter my problem. i had brought the model number of the fridge but unfortunately he did not have the part in stock. he asked if i had brought the original part, but i hadn’t, so i had to go back home then return with the original part.

the original part:

when i got back he saw that he still did not have the replacement part, but he would be able to help me out with a universal relay, something i’d have to rewire to get to work. we walked over to a rack full of relays and he pulled one off the rack. he opened it then said “i have no idea of your experience level for this” and i told him i didn’t really work on refrigerators, but if he told me how to install it, i’d get it done. he showed me what i’d have to do, which didn’t seem complicated, as long as i kept the wires correct. i wrote down his instructions and thanked him for the part. it was $27, Sears was going to charge me $65 just for coming out, then i assume money for the part.

on my way home i called up the Sears 800 number and cancelled the appointment. i was on hold for almost 10 minutes! the guy asked me why i was cancelling, and i told him “i figured out how to fix the problem and am doing it myself.” this was about 11:30, and no one from Sears had called me to tell me they were coming, so who knows when they would have actually gotten to my house!

i started by taking off the old wires using scissors so i could splice the new relay in. i plugged in the relay to the compressor like i was shown at the supply shop, then plugged in the wires to the capactior. then i spliced the power wires together.

i plugged in the fridge….the compressor didn’t kick on. i called the shop, he asked if i had wired everything and i told him i did, and he said to just wait, but he gave me the number of a guy to call if it didn’t work (he was going to be at the shop until 1). so i waited and watched the Clemson/NC State game, then i went and checked the fridge, still nothing. i looked at the wiring i had done……i had mixed up two wires going into the compressor (there are three). so i changed the wires and plugged in the fridge. SUCCESS! the compressor kicked on and everything works. i fixed the fridge myself for $27.

here’s what all i needed, the utility knife, scissors, and instructions:

i ended up throwing out the milk, juice, and meat that i had in the fridge, but it wasn’t that much. i might throw out more tomorrow if i think i should….but still, I FIXED THE REFRIGERATOR MYSELF! FOR TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS!