If It Ain't One Thing, It's Another
 

I've become the frigging Maytag repairman. I have a refrigerator with a freezer on the bottom and double doors up top.Saturday night, the top part of the fridge stopped cooling things. I cleaned the coils (needed it) checked the cooling fan (it was working fine) and removed and checked the relay on the compressor for continuity and it checked within parameters. I thought maybe it just needed to sit for several hours so left it unplugged and got up at 0500 Sunday morning and plugged it back in and put some ice trays in the freezer section. Got up at 0630 and got ready for church. Checked the freezer at 0745 and the ice trays were starting to form ice! Great, I think, got it fixed by cleaning. Left my son a note to check it when he got up to get ready for work and if the top half wasn't cooling, to unplug the dang thing. Wife called our son after church and he informed her that the top half was NOT working and he'd unplugged it. Had my daughter get online and do some research for me for another fan motor location. She found out that it has one in the freezer in front of the evaporator. I get home, eat lunch and pull that fan motor. Test it and it's locked up. Got online and after MUCH searching, found one at a great deal. Shipped to me $38.70. Soooo, I'm hoping to have my Maytag up and operating sometime Wednesday evening. Depends on what time the USPS decides to show up. In the interim, most of our "cold stuff" went into our chest freezer and our great neighbors let us borrow their apartment sized mini-fridge to put some cold cuts, eggs, milk, cheese and condiments in. It isn't an ideal situation, but God provides when you're in need. I'll let y'all know what breaks next!

You saved hundreds of dollars by fixing it yourself. Skills are nice to have.

It's not skills for me, Andy. It's out of NECESSITY! I have no money to pay someone else to do these things. I'm not afraid to try to repair anything. If I don't manage to fix it, I'm no worse off as it wasn't working to start with, right? LOL

That's right.

Nice family approach to a shared household appliance. Hopefully, some of your non-skills are being transferred to the next generation of Rubes.

Since I finally learned basic HVAC theory, I actually understand why that would cause a problem. Granted HVAC equals refrigeration NOT, but it's still like a pressurized air conditioned box.

It's really a pretty simple process, derf. At least it appears that way to my damaged brain. Coils under the fridge are cooled by a fan in the back of the fridge at the bottom. It also helps cool the compressor. The cooled refrigerant travels to the condenser inside the freezer and there's a fan in front of the condenser at the top that blows the cold air up and into the refrigerator compartment. Simplicity in design, but kind of a pain in then neck to access. I had to be very patient and not break something, which I was sooooo tempted to do! I'm expecting the new fan tomorrow afternoon. I've had to throw out some stuff that I didn't want to. Jelly, preserves and condiments mostly. I did save my few beers. That's a necessity!

It IS basic; the key is setting aside the time to learn it/teach yourself....

Skunked beer.........ugghhh

Man, I don't care what brand beer someone has (usually) because I like most any kind. Skunk? No thanks, but it can't be any worse than that nasty Guiness Dark. I hate that stuff. Gimme a Miller Lite instead. Or a Busch, Bud, Natural Light, Michelob etc. etc. And I learn new stuff out of necessity, man. It's not like I really want to, because I'm a lazy bastard.

Skunked is the term people in the midwest use for beer that's been stored cold, then taken to room temp, then cooled down again. Usually tastes unpleasant

I know what that is, derf. I've had a few sips over the years. BUT, my Miller Lite survived just fine. As a side note, I got the new fan motor yesterday afternoon and 30 minutes later, the refrigerator is working like it should and by this morning, everything was cold and back in it, where it belongs. Even my last Miller Lite!