The Refrigerator Wrestler

The Refrigerator Wrestler

Filed under Blog Notes

Jul 5

My adventures with the furniture salesman last week are only the latest chapter in an ongoing saga with our refrigerator. Some months ago, it started behaving badly. The ice in the freezer melted, and the refrigeration compartment, while perhaps a degree or two cooler than the outside temperature in the hottest month of the year, was obviously struggling.

I was raised by intellectual parents in the gleaming atomic age. By the time I was old enough to own my own appliances, the world had divided into them and us, them being qualified to keep things running, us… not.
I know that at the first sign of trouble with anything significant, I’m going to have to initiate diplomatic relations with an alien, but necessary, group of redneck fix-it types who know about repairs. Members of this intimidating nation are free to tell me–and charge me–whatever they like, because I’m completely at their mercy. It has always been a more comforting option to just go buy a new car than to live with the anxiety of trying to keep one running after it starts having problems,and staying awake at night wondering if the guy in the jumpsuit is laughing at me behind my back.

People who move here and then complain about the “manana” attitude and whine about a shiftless work ethic strike me as highly suspicious. In the States, as a realtor, I was held hostage by workmen too numerous to count, plumbers, electricians, heating-and-air-conditioning guys, repair people of all stripes. As for the Manana attitude, well, the only way I ever knew where any of my handy -man type guys were is because I happen to attend AA meetings myself. It took precision timing, but I developed a strategy that involved catching a painter on his way back from a binge. If they’d been attending meetings and managing to accumulate some sobriety for a few months, I’d give them a wide berth, so great was the likelihood that they were about to pick up a bottle and go on a bender. None of this would have been so harrowing, if it weren’t for the fact that it cost hundreds of dollars every time one of these characters got involved, and you were never sure what they were doing, or if it would work, or if by the time you needed some warranty work you’d be able to find them again without calling Dog the Bounty Hunter. And the idea that they were more likely to show up when they said they would than the guys I’ve dealt with in Mexico is just ludicrous.

My observation here in Mexico is that there are three possible phases involved in a repair. If you’re lucky, the problem will be resolved in Phase 1, which is the guy that you called shows up on time and fixes the problem, charging a miniscule amount, thirty pesos or something. I’m here to tell you, that happens far, far more often than not, and a whole helluva lot more than it ever did in the States. If it doesn’t, you move on to the second phase. This only happens if the original repair was unsuccessful. The repairman returns. After this, things can go in a couple of directions. People here are awfully, awfully good at what they do, and they will do it right the first time if they know how. There’s some wiggle room here for human error, of course. If that’s the case, it will be immediately spotted and corrected. If it’s not, you enter Phase 2b. This is where the gifted repair guy has taken his best shot and is about to start making stuff up,and down the rabbit hole you go. We had been stuck in 2b for a while with the extended family of father, brothers, sons, and wives– They are the Flying Wallendas of major appliance repair –that are responsible for keeping local refrigerators running.

The problem with this phase is that most Mexicans would rather commit ritual suicide than give you bad news, so they’ll try anything, but at some point, they move into Phase 3. That’s when the repair person has exhausted what he knows and what he can make up, and the object still doesn’t work. At this point he’s smart enough to quit showing up, even though we’re not smart enough to quit calling and bitching. It is probably the uninformed gringotard who has been graduated to this phase without receiving the memo that is responsible for all the kvetching about “manana.”

There came a moment when the refrigerator had been muscled out onto our front terrace so that it could be worked on by repairmen who, having entered Phase 3, abandoned it there. The freezer was stocked, not with ice cream and frozen vegetables, but with milk and fruit. In other words, it was now being used as an auxiliary refrigerator. Which made a total of three, because there was also a blue igloo chest sitting in the kitchen where the fridge was supposed to be. It was a low moment. Generally, I am perfectly convinced of the rightness of our move to Mexico, but cut me some slack. I’m a 52 year old woman, and subject to, er, fluctuations in mood. The multiple unsuccessful attempts to fix the refrigerator were making me feel anxious, helpless. I would have liked to go buy a new one. However,we had just gotten back from ten days at the beach. It’s not a great time to be replacing big ticket items. While I was mulling this over, a prehistoric looking spider, probably imported from the Puerto Vallarta jungle in the trunk of Bruno’s 1991 Taurus, ran across the porch. Worse! Now I was a person with a cooler in the kitchen, a refrigerator on the porch, a car from the last century, and giant hairy spiders running around loose. I felt that moving to Mexico was a colossal mistake, that I had sacrificed any chance of every achieving anything, taken a left turn when I should have gone right. I felt broke, a failure, and that, more than a loser, I was a loser living in freaking Mexico. Uber Loser!

In a scenario that didn’t need any help to depress me, there was a pair of jeans sticking out of the fridge and revealing a healthy slice of ass crack, but neither belonged to Javier Castellenos, the local appliance repair man who had gone missing. No, the jeans, and the crack, belonged to my husband, who–coup de grace!–was trying to fix the ice box himself. For some reason, that was the last straw. Something about my husband trying to fix a broken refrigerator made me feel as though we were teetering on the brink of disaster.

Ah, don’t worry, there’s a happy ending! Like I said, mood swings.

Bruno has more experience than I with this whole pattern, because he drives a 20 year old car that has been driven into a horse. At this very moment he’s chasing down Chui, who is responsible for the day to day upkeep of our valiant 1991 Ford Taurus, in spite of his complete lack of qualification for such a job. Or any job! He lives outside the network of competent repair people that are the subject of this post, believe me. He tends to leapfrog into Phase 3, but he’s been with us for a long time. Chui obviously neglected some vital step when he painted the car, as that paint is now peeling off in long strips.

For some reason that has never bothered me, but the whole refrigerator thing caused me to panic. Here’s the happy ending; Bruno fixed the refrigerator. Returning to some joyous boyhood passion for tinkering, forgetting that we don’t have the necessary clearance from the brotherhood of redneck repair guys to do this kind of work, using some common sense, he fixed it. It’s sitting back where it’s supposed to be, making ice cubes like crazy–we both grin at each other every time we hear another batch thunk into the receptacle. It makes me feel like he, like we, can do anything. That we are self sufficient, that we are not intimidated by guys showing their butts. We show them ours!

That, no I didn’t miss my chance by moving to Mexico. Far from being my undoing, is the making of me.

14 Comments

14 Responses to “The Refrigerator Wrestler”

tancho said on July 5th, 2010 at 6:47 am

You will discover through simple necessity the need to develop and understanding of a lot of things, around the house.
When we first moved down, I ordered a satellite dish from a guy in Guadalajara, he was the expert, but after about 90 days of trouble etc, I had to get involved and solved the issue myself. Same thing goes with water pumps, plumbing, electrical , truck alternators , washing machine, drier, etc.

I swore I would never buy a Craftsman mechanics tool box, but after asking locals for referrals of reliable and honest mechanics, I figured I could do 90% of the required work.

I now recharge my own a/c on the truck too.

I commend your hubby for jumping in and fixing the fridge, the schematic of the unit is usually tucked in the back and it only has about a dozen parts, surprise him next time your at a Sears and buy him a wrench or two!

And it will give him a great sense of accomplishment too!
Elliott said on July 5th, 2010 at 7:07 am

As long as this article is, I can’t quite convey my delight at finding out that buying a new appliance is the last, not the first resort, and that there are potentially many steps (that we can accomplish ourselves!) between the two.
Thanks for checking in, Tancho.
Steve Cotton said on July 5th, 2010 at 7:33 am

Wow. Talk about motivational. Time for me to pull out my old FIY books and do my impression of Uncle Frank. We all have one — the uncle who could do anything. Instead, I have turned into Mr. Dilleteante — the guy who went to law school and forgot how the internal combustion engine works. Incompetents, unite! You have nothing to lose, but your spare change.
Elliott said on July 5th, 2010 at 8:34 am

Nicely Said! Don’t worry, if this episode proves anything, it’s that there’s an Uncle Frank in us all.
TW said on July 5th, 2010 at 8:59 pm

My wife and I went through a similar experience a couple of years back. The side-by-side refrigerator/freezer we owned decided it didn’t want to play the parts of ice maker, or for that matter, even being the equivalent of a beer cozy!

So, we called our “fix-it guy,” who scratched his rear, shifted his tool belt a few times, and said; “The compressor’s gone!” Then he told us a war story about the cost, but, as he said; “It’s cheaper to replace the compressor than it is to replace the whole thing!”

Now, here we are with what was a fantastic r/f that would cost over $2,000 to replace! He wanted a little less than half of that to replace the compressor.

I had to think about it!

Enter the internet. A wonderful tool where the “do-it-to-it” people can find glorious ways to botch repairs on their own appliances. We don’t need experts who charge us $125 just for a call, to tell us they’re going to have to charge us enough to put their three kids through college, on one repair!

To make a long story short, my wife and I decided that we’d give it one shot on our own, and buy new if it didn’t work.

Where to start… we plugged it in, and guess what? the darned thing worked! The ice maker worked, the freezer worked, and the refrigerator worked! Still, we were cautious. Since we have a “second refrigerator,” and a stand alone freezer, we figured, let’s see how it goes with nothing in it. It worked great!

In fact, it worked great for 10 days! Then, it quit working! We did notice a frost build up on the auto-defrost system in the freezer, and when we checked on the internet, it said we were on the right trail. We replaced that part of the unit, and it began working perfectly, and has stayed on course for over two years now.

For two weeks my Wife said that I was her hero. That was, until I tried to fix the exhaust fan over our stove. It’s been two years, and I still haven’t got it done!
Elliott said on July 6th, 2010 at 1:55 am

TW, that’s exactly what the problem was. It was just a big chunk of ice in the back of the freezer. It seems counter intuitive that the problem with the freezer was ice, but that’s what it was! Is yours a GE by any chance? Maybe you and I can be a class action suit.
TW said on July 6th, 2010 at 2:32 am

We found our problem was the defrost heater and it’s thermostat. Yes. A GE, and from what I found when I called a local parts shop and started rattling off the part number… he finished the number for me, and said he sells about a half dozen of them every week, because they have a tendency to fail after a few years usage.

(Link to component shown)

http://www.amazon.com/WR51X442-Refrigerator-Defrost-Heater-Thermostat/dp/B003BIGDIQ

Before we did that, we did the little suggestions from the internet. We thoroughly cleaned the coils from the back to insure air flow, and cleaned everything underneath to aid it as well.

We ended up paying about $58 including tax and fixed it.

It’s amazing how these appliance repairmen get away with ripping people off. They’d install a compressor and the new Defrost Heater Kit, and charge about $800-900. In all, they’d make a quick $1,000 by the time they add in the two service calls, and the rest of the “parts” they needed to use.

Even worse, I’d bet they recirculate those compressors that they knew were good in the first place!

When I called the repairman to tell him he got it wrong, he just laughed. Then when I asked him why he didn’t know that it was such a simple repair, especially since there’s information all over the internet about it being a problem.

His response? “F— you!” End of conversation.
Elliott said on July 6th, 2010 at 6:08 am

We are A) ordering the part from amazon, RIGHT NOW!
B) Buying you a giant margarita when you come down.
TW said on July 6th, 2010 at 8:56 am

You’ll want to replace the entire unit as shown. Not just the thermostat.

My guess is you’ll find that the two tubes have turned black. That’s an indicator that the entire unit should be replaced. Even if they haven’t turned black, they probably aren’t working properly.

There are stories of people trying to do one part of it at a time, and ending up buying the entire assembly as shown in the end, anyway.

You and Bruno have already bought us a big Margarita. Your blog, and the pics he’s taken. They make the Lake Chapala area seem like a great place to enjoy life, while waiting on wings – as the Tallboys say in song.

I’m glad we could help you guys!
Paul - Ajijic Plumber said on July 15th, 2010 at 1:05 am

I had to laugh when you said, “there was a pair of jeans sticking out of the fridge and revealing a healthy slice of ass crack” you see, I put a humorous plumbing tips video on my site about this very thing… The accidental exposure of one’s posterior.

Please take a look…..

http://www.squidoo.com/finding-the-best-plumber-in-ajijic-mexico

I don’t want to give the wrong impression.

I consider myself professional.

Let’s face it, haveing to ‘Wrestle with your Refrigerator’ or put up with pesky plumbing problems in Mexico is no fun.

So I wanted to add some light hearthed humor (that is clean).

Please let me know if I should keep it on my site.

Thanks.

Paul Torres, AKA Ajijic’s Best Plumber

P.S. Glad to hear the ‘fridge’ is working again.

P.P.S. For appliance repair
Vicente Camarena
Colon 38 A, Ajijic, 766-2256
Is very good.
TW said on July 15th, 2010 at 11:32 am

Elliott,

Let us know how your repairs go.
Stan said on July 15th, 2010 at 7:45 pm

What a hilarious and intelligent writer you are – just read this post and the one following, and they made my evening. Another place I can stop by when I need a smile…thanks!
Elliott said on July 16th, 2010 at 3:21 am

Stan, thanks for the compliment, and welcome aboard! TW, my Mom just arrived for a long visit, and she “muled” the part that I had delivered to her house. Bruno installed it last night, so cross your fingers!
Chris Rogers said on July 18th, 2010 at 2:18 pm

Elliott

“Most Mexicans would rather commit ritual suicide than give you bad news.” Hysterical, and so utterly true. I had to make this comment – being very impulsive – before I’ve even finished reading this post.

Chris