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In my part of town appliances have not traditionally been included in apartment rentals, leaving tenants to get their own stove and frige. This makes for a healthy used appliance market. I got my current frige about 2 months ago for $150-- it's similar to the ones you see at Home Depot for $500. I bought a stove and frige for an apartment for $250 around February-- the compressor failed on the frige (exact same symptoms as OP's description) and the guy came out and replaced it for free (hence my follow-up business).
Very nice man who is said to be good with GFA units as well.
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our 1970's vintage harvest gold fridge started misbehaving, w/ the biggest culprit being the magnetic gaskets losing their oomph, and the doors not remaining tightly closed unless manually pushed each time. got a new fridge delivered from Sears, and electric bill immediately went down $20-$30/mo. bonus was selling old fridge at local auction house for $80, less 20% commish, to get $64 from which I pre-spent $18 to get a new set of retaining clips for the grill at the bottom of the fridge before delivering it to the auction house. if it's not working properly, and your sounds like it isn't, a newer model will save $$ you in the long run; take a deep breath, it's OK to replace the fridge...
B)
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[quote Bill in NC]In absolute dollar terms savings are small, and are unlikely to pay for the cost of a new fridge based on energy savings alone.
Since the big change in standards came in 1993, I'd not hesitate to buy a used fridge made after that date.
The reason I brought it up is that he was talking about a 15 year old fridge, and several people chimed in about buying old el cheapo fridges which I think is a big mistake, energy- and dollar-wise. I certainly agree that a newer used fridge is a good idea. The big jump in efficiency was around 1993, but there were a couple of other later efficiency increases too, so the newer the better.
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A big thank you for all the helpful posts. I especially appreciate those with the technical expertise who confirmed the tech's diagnosis. If we went the used route we would only look for a recent model fridge. msienkiewicz- thanks for looking out for us! Just this morning we came across the Sears ad with that interest free for 12 month offer. That would help a lot. We read the recent Consumer Reports article and it looks like Roper, Whirlpool, Frigidaire and Kenmore tend to be the best for reliability. The old fridge did serve us well. We purchased it at an estate sale 13 years ago for $125! I hope the next fridge lasts as long! Thanks again for all of the help! I hope you have a great day!
Dave
...on the trailing edge of technology.
