How we ended up with a broken fridge freezer & The true story of why you should never try to defrost a freezer with a hammer. Even just a small one.
Thinking of saving time by defrosting your freezer with a hammer like Thor? Read this amusing tale first.
Artists Impression of what actually happened in the kitchen that day
Yesterday morning we arrived home with our weekly shop only to find the fridge had been left open a crack, the already icy yet empty freezer section was laughably frosty but there was now a bulbous icicle built up from the floor to the roof of the small freezer section.
Barely even able to open the door due to the fact it had now become frozen shut with a solid liquid seal, I tentatively tapped at the side of the ice wall with our small hammer to try and break through some of the blizzard we had formed in our kitchen.
Shards of frozen water sprayed off covering me in a rather refreshing sleet when in came Jmayel. He manly took over from me and like a champion ice picker he broke off large chunks of the glacier we had unknowingly made.
I went upstairs to put my phone on charge when I heard a loud thump followed by a noisy hissing sound, quickly followed again by ‘oh no, Sach, I’ve f*!@ed up the fridge’
Back downstairs I surveyed the damage. It was true, the fridge was buggered.
Turns out fridges can’t function with any type of holes. Albeit a small one, it was enough for all the essential cold making fridge gas to escape and thus being the end of a frigid fridge.
Our practically brand new fridge-freezer, less than 10 months into its life span had been bludgeoned to death.
The Murder Weapon
Jmayel phoned the number we had on the warranty certificate only to be told that if the gas escapes ‘somehow’ (there was no mention of a hammer or any kind hammer activities in or around the fridge area in this particular conversation) then unfortunately it would not be covered on the warranty, still they would send a repair man in the morning to come and fix the fridge.
Great, just one day without a fridge, I’m sure we could survive. I’m not too sure how the 3 packets of fresh chicken we had just bought that were now sitting in a bucket of ice felt about this though, as they ended up in the rubbish bin the next morning.
As promised the repair men turned up promptly, took one look at the problem fridge and said ‘Ohhhhhh’ followed by ‘Arrrrrrr’ pointed at it a few times as if they had never seen such an alien being, a fridge repair man seeing a broken fridge, surely not!
They put their one screwdriver back into its utility belt before phoning the office and then passing the phone to J. The voice on the other end relayed that the fridge would need to be taken away for repair and we could have it back in…..3 weeks!
Not so great. Our dining table was covered in a selection of fruit & vegetables, milk and eggs, the remaining meat still in the bucket on the floor. Like poor souls we looked around as the fridge was man handled out the door, there was nothing for it but to consume as much as we could and minimize the wastage. (Turns out that food doesn’t fare well in humid temperatures of 35 degrees+)
We scoured the internet and forums for a possible cheap replacement that we could use for the next few weeks to be met with nothing. Although someone is selling a picture of Bruce Lee, 6,000kg of Jade stone and a real human hair wig. Just in-case you were interested.
A friend told us we could set up camp in their fridge and he promised not to eat anything but J told him that he might want a banana at a late hour and didn’t want to have to wake him up. (that’s the truth!)
Later that day we headed out to seek an inexpensive temporary mini fridge, only to find there is no such thing in Chiang Mai.
The original cost of our brand new Toshiba fridge just 10 months earlier was 5,250 baht. After searching around 4 different shops, to find nothing but full sized fridges at full sized prices we gave up hope of thinking we could get a cheap mini version just for a couple of weeks that we could then sell on at a later date.
Not wanting to shell out thousands of baht we returned home.
The Brand New Fridge at the beginning of its short life
I have to say, this was not our smartest move, we are still fridge-less and we have never bought as much ice in our life than what we have in the last couple of days. I don’t know what the guys at our local 7-11 think we are doing with it, but he laughed at me when I went in there earlier.
The next time the freezer compartment fills up to sub- arctic levels we will just patiently open the door and let it drip out at its own icy pace.
So, the moral of this story, however obvious it may seem to you now, there may be a time when you are tempted to quickly rid your life (and your fridge) of icebergs in a superhero fashion. But take it from us, never try to defrost your freezer compartment with a hammer. It will only end in disaster.
Sacha El-Haj – 8 Miles from Home
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