Monday, June 22, 2009

It Never Fails, or Rather, It's Failing

The *&^&%$% refrigerator has a clogged drain.

What am I talking about?

Symptoms: Internal condensation. Freezing food in the 'fridge part, though I haven't touched the controls.

This happened to me at my old place, where I paid a guy to come over and fix it. In that case, the drain line had frozen water in it somehow. I boiled water and the guy poured it in and unclogged the drain.

Simple. But I cannot remember what he took apart to get to the drain line or how much water came out. And this might not be frozen water blocking the drain--it might be dust, dirt, my hair, cat hair from the previous tenants, or a combination of the above.

The question then is this.

I'm flying out tomorrow night. Do I just leave it and hope nothing leaks so bad that the tenants downstairs get a soggy roof or do I stay home from work and call the appliance guy though I'm about to be out of work for more than a week?

I guess there's not really any question. I'll be working from home in the morning.

4 comments:

John Bligh said...

Fix it now. No need to leave something hanging over your head (or rather the folks downstairs's heads) while you're gone. Water damage can be nasty, as you know.

Marie Javins said...

There is another option.

Throw away the food (not THAT much) and unplug it overnight. Let the water drain out by itself.

But I still have to fix it when I get back, if the blockage isn't ice, so that doesn't really work.

Ed Ward said...

No idea as to the age of the thing, but a great many manuals for appliances are available online, usually as .pdf files. Maybe looking at yours would unclog your memory of where the guy poured the boiling water last time by pointing you to the right part.

Marie Javins said...

It involved a lot of screws and prying of plastic covers. I know the model et al and it's about 4 years old but yeesh... who wants to break a fridge..?