Fridge

One year ago for Christmas, I purchased new appliances for my wife. Our kitchen was outfitted with a new range, oven, hood and a refrigerator with an ice-maker. After installing all the new appliances and transitioning our food from the old fridge to the new one, we quickly discovered that all our frozen food was melting. We called Whirlpool and they informed us that it may take up to 24 hours for the freezer to reach optimal temperature. We waited. All our frozen food spoiled. It never reached the right temperature (but at least the light came on). And Whirlpool refused to pay for our food to be replaced. They did, however, supply a serviceman who fixed the problem.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when, as I sat at the kitchen table eating my cinnamon swirl oatmeal, I could hear a strange dripping coming from the freezer. I opened the door, but didn't notice anything out of place. All the food seemed to still be frozen. I asked Andrea to step into the kitchen to see if she could hear the dripping noise as well. She heard it.

Within a minute or so, the dripping noise evolved, becoming a sizzling noise as if drips of water were hitting something hot. Now I was getting concerned. We pulled the drawer out of the bottom of the freezer and now could see the water dripping down and hitting a visibly red heating coil. Immediately we removed the food from the bottom of the freezer and I pulled the fridge about 5 feet away from the wall. I felt the back, but strangely it wasn't hot like I expected.

Concerned, worried, frustrated, I took a closer look into the freezer and then realized that this fridge is equipped with an automatic defrost. The coil is supposed to get hot. It's supposed to melt the frost that forms in the back of the freezer and it's supposed to make the water drip into a collection pan.

Oh well. This experience wasn't a total loss. While the fridge was away from the wall we were able to sweep back there and I found a raisin that must have rolled underneath, making the perfect addition to my cinnamon-swirl oatmeal.