Y’all know I’m always up to learning new things. Well, lately I’ve been teaching myself with trial and error. It has been… umm… interesting. I think this story will be the perfect example of how stubborn that I am.
Bare with me folks. I’m not even gonna try to use professional terms. 🤷♀️
I woke up this morning to what I thought would cost me a fortune. My refrigerator had been leaking a little on the inside from the freezer, but not a big deal. Today it wasn’t cooling at all! After the initial “FML” thought, I instantly said out loud, “Nope, not today Satan! I got this!”
I had NO IDEA what I was getting into, so I’ll start at the beginning… I take everything out, including the shelves, and grabbed the screw gun. I just start taking out all the screws I saw, top and bottom (which surprisingly was only 6). As I was slowly beginning to pull things out and/or off, uncovering wires, I quickly decided it was a good idea to unplug it before I fried myself! …… 🤦♀️ Moving on…
First piece is the freezer. Ahha! The coils (or at least that’s what I’m gonna call them) was frozen solid. Let’s take off all the pieces in the bottom too (cause I have NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING!). Well, this piece uncovered absolutely NOTHING I had ever seen. I don’t even know WTF I’m looking at!
It’s time to seek PROFESSIONAL HELP! So, I Googled my issues. Then, needing a second opinion, I jumped over to YouTube! Not one person had the same dang refrigerator that I did. But, nevertheless, it built my confidence back up enough to jump back into it!
I learned that I should check the “drain hose”. Mine didn’t have the same hole as the other 100 refrigerators that I watched folks effortlessly find! The only way I could think to find it was to pour water off the coils and see where it went. Well, that was a big splash of regret! 🙄 DUH! I took all the pieces off, so of course it would pour straight through! I decided to put the bottom piece back on and try it again. While putting it back on, I notice a hole… That’s the dang hole I’ve been looking for! It’s like a weird funnel piece that takes it to this random hole that’s in the most random place.
I can’t see down the funnel, so I try to use my flashlight; crawl up in the freezer (literally), and I can’t quite turn my head to the angle that I need to be able to see. 🤦♀️So, I did what any other smart phone owner would do, VIDEO WITH FLASH! Then, I watched it to see what was down there! I was totally looking at the bottom of the fridge through this damn freezer vent hole “thing”. 🤦♀️
Obviously, that hole wasn’t clogged, so I shifted my attention to the random hole in the back, down on the “not freezer” side. I had no clue how to see if it’s stopped up, but something told me to just stick my finger in it. WTF DID I THINK I WOULD FIND IN THERE!? My finger was covered in some shit that looked like swamp monster poop! But HEY, I FOUND THE PROBLEM!!
But how do I clean it out?!?! Umm? Qtips? Obviously one wasn’t long enough. So, I taped a few together (I thought it was genius)! NOPE! It failed miserably! I needed to think hard about this one. I thought “how would I clean this if it weren’t in a tiny hose?” VINEGAR AND BOILING WATER!
I put the water on the stove, grabbed the vinegar, and fell back to my knees at this “rocket science refrigerator”. Now, I’m sitting there looking at the containers, and back at this hole, like “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PUT THIS STUFF IN A FLAT FREAKING HOLE, THAT’S AN INCH FROM THE ROOF OF THE FRIDGE?!?!”
TURKEY BASTER! Well, it would be perfect but you (I) DON’T OWN ONE! I look around and see the kids’ Tylenol syringe. 🤷♀️ Worth a shot…. I start by just putting straight vinegar in the hole one syringe’s worth at a time, doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I then grab the scolding hot water and use the PLASTIC syringe to put some down the hole, ya know, before it MELTED AND BURNED MY FREAKING HAND!
I found another syringe, cooled the water a little, and started shooting the fridge up again. This didn’t seem productive so I started trying to suck the water back through the syringe, with no luck, but it gave me ANOTHER BORDERLINE GENIUS IDEA!!
I grab the plunger from under the sink, and go to town plunging the shit out of this hole. It sectioned good, but didn’t do a damn thing to the clog! This felt hopeless, so the light bulb lit up again! I could take the back off of the fridge, and just take that hose off, and clean it!
I moved everything around within the refrigerator, pulled that thousand pound of air-conditioning away from the wall, and grabbed my flashlight! WTF is going on back there? You can only take like a foot off at the bottom?!? I’m stubborn, so I get the hammer and return to pry it off… Not nudging at all!! I then push the fridge back in place, and pull up a chair!
“YOU WILL NOT WIN! YOU WILL GIVE UP THAT SWAMP MONSTER POOP! I’M WARNING YOU! NOW DO AS I SAY AND SPIT IT OUT!” I then realized I wasn’t talking to a toddler. I was definitely ready to torture this damn thing!
It’s time to get serious! I put a pot of vinegar and water to brew in the coffee pot. I took baking soda and spooned all that I could into that little freaking hole before attaching the funnel piece back on! I decided that diluted vinger wasn’t the kind of “extreme” I wanted to go for. I took the vinger and poured it straight down the funnel to the hole!!!! (I love this part!) Like a pissed off volcano, the freezer erupted in a foamy aggressive chemical reaction, which made me do my best mad scientist “IT’S ALIVE!!!” impersonation.
After the fun died down, I decided that if I didn’t fix this stupid refrigerator I was going to be completely satisfied with that awesome science show I just put on for myself, and would gracefully manhandle this chunk of metal right out the door, as I go to buy another one!
But I didn’t give up! I got the vinger and water from the coffee maker, and poured it over the coils as recklessly and as fast as I could. Water was going EVERYWHERE! I didn’t care at all! I put another pot in the coffee maker and impatiently waited for it to be done. I done this TWICE! I still wasn’t giving up! This situation was getting REAL AND INTENSE! Shit’s going down and I’m borderline psychotic at this point.
FINALLY! I POURED ABOUT THE 6TH POT IN AND HEARD THE GLORIOUS SOUND OF VICTORY!! I HEAR THE HOSE FLUSHING OUT! GURGLING LIKE A KINDERGARTENER BRUSHING THEIR TEETH!
I excitedly get a jug of water and pour it in again, just to frolick in my victory of hearing that sweet sound of water rushing down that pipe!
BUT WAIT!!!
Where does all of this water go? I need answers! Google quickly told me that it drains to a pan under the refrigerator in which it eventually evaporates.
Now I’m wondering if I’ve ran over this water-catching hidden pan. I lie on my belly and look underneath to find a nasty looking OVERFLOWING pan. CRAP!
No Wait!….. IT’S PERFECT! I CAN LITERALLY PUT A WATERFALL THROUGH THIS DRAIN HOSE! I figure out how to get the pan out, and start just running hot water through the hose, over and over again! Basking in all of my glory, making sure the hose is COMPLETELY CLEANED, I BREAK OUT IN CELEBRATION!
I DID IT! I FREAKING DID IT! I WON! I MADE THE ARCTIC BOX GIVE UP THE SWAMP MONSTER POOP! HE NEVER STOOD A CHANCE AGAINST MY BORDERLINE-GENIUS IDEA! BAHAHAHA!!!
CLOSURE: I have no clue what actually worked, but something (or the combination) definitely worked. I’m also almost positive that most people wouldn’t have had such a difficult time with this, but for those that have no idea what they are about to get into…. FIRST READ THIS! I wouldn’t suggest that you do this exactly as I did but if you do, please, PLEASE TELL ME IN DETAIL, to make me feel a little better about my refrigerator battle!
BaHaBritter 