Fridge on the Fritz

Well the saga continues. It is not enough to have a freak accident with a failing toilet valve, resulting in flooding that makes you have to cut holes into the drywall of the room that you just finished painting. On top of that, less than a week later, our lovely Maytag refrigerator decided to fail. They say things come in threes, so I am just a little concerned about what might happen next!

On Wednesday afternoon I was enjoying Anne of Green Gables (the old PBS special) with Lynnae and Charlie. All of the sudden I heard this horrible opening and shutting noise start... and keep going, and going and going. I figured that one of the animals must be playing with something, but then noticed that all three of them were sitting peacefully near me, also enjoying Anne of Green Gables. I made my way cautiously over to the kitchen, where I was greeted by a fridge panel that looked like something out of Star Trek. All of the lights were flashing on and off rapidly, sometimes showing numbers, and other times showing dashed lines... there was the occassional red light as well. And the flap that lets the ice out was opening, and shutting, and opening, and shutting, and opening... Accompanied by a freakish whirring. On top of it, I thought I smelled something burning. "This is it," I thought, "Our fridge is officially haunted."

So I called Andy just to share our beautiful luck with him and to ask if there was anything that I should do. Afterwards I called Maytag. As soon as I started talking to a representative, and they asked me for the model and serial numbers which are inside the fridge, the flashing stopped. I decided to risk it, rather than schedule an appointment that could cost me hundreds of dollars, and hoped that it was truly haunted instead of broken. I started making dinner, (it was our favorite - breakfast for dinner night,) and was happily finishing up the french toast when it started again. It kept stopping and starting all night, I recorded the times just so we would know if it was changing. I finally stopped recording when it exceeded three hours the last time.

Andy did some research online and found that this is a very common problem with the Maytag Ice 2.0. Don't buy it. In the two years we have had it, this is the third malfunction that has required a repairman. Andy's research had showed us that the "haunting" occurred when the condenser was trying to come on, so we couldn't trust the temperature of the fridge or the freezer. It also suggested sticking a paper towel in the dispenser flap to minimize the noise. Before he did that, it was echoing through our whole house... afterward, barely a peep unless you were in the kitchen.

Andy also found our extended warranty with Lowe's... the one time that we actually bought one of those things, I am so glad! We bought it because we had just purchased a Maytag Neptune washer and dryer set that had already given us grief. (I don't suggest Maytag, we have had major issues with all of our appliances. And Maytag is now Whirlpool, so watch out for that too.) I called Lowe's and found out that the first service appointment they had was Tuesday. TUESDAY?!?!?!?! Hello... I have two kids that require juice, milk, yogurt, etc... and our water dispenser was not working... and I can't eat out much because it is impossible to avoid sodium... so I called Lowe's and pitched a bit of a fit. In the end I ended up being able to call a Whirlpool authorized service center to come out and fix it. They were available today - so all is now well.... until the next failure.

At this point, we couldn't help but make fun of the situation... so if you want to, you can watch our dorky "haunted refrigerator" video to welcome in October.