My fridge died yesterday. Just over six months out of warranty. Figures, huh?
Amy called a repair guy to come out, but he only has a voicemail that he checks once a day. I’m not a patient man when my food is spoiling.
A few trips to the stinky basement fridge with the perishables later I considered waiting it out. I had plans for the night (needed to make some beehives). But my friend Jason convinced me to at least take a look. I’m glad I took his advice.
It was pretty easy to figure out what was wrong. There are two fuses on the circuit board that runs the fridge. The main one had blown from an electrical surge. My house seems to get these regularly. I’ve already lost a couple computers.
The thing is, they put the damn fuses on the board by soldering them in. I can hear the repair tech now, “Sorry sir, it’s a bad computer board. I can have one ordered in three days. They cost about $200.”
It’s not that I know how to solder really. I’ve done it on a totally different scale doing stained glass, but never on a circuit board that I can remember. But I figured it was worth trying (carefully). If I couldn’t do it I’d bow out to the repair guy’s expertise and cringe while writing the check.
It was rather easy. I just heated up the pins while gently pulling on the fuse (with J’s assistance). It slid right out. Today I took it in to an electronics shop (Ken’s Electronics on Lake Street in Kalamazoo) and he fixed me right up with a replacement fuse. Grand total was $4.24 or so. He was a beekeeper too! He started back in the 40′s and at his height he maintained a few hundred hives. He said he has three now.
I didn’t need to add any more solder. Heated up the pins and they slid back in and held strong. I’m currently freezing the 5 gallons of chicken stock that Amy made out of our rooster in it. More to come on Amy’s first butchering job in another post.
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