our fridge kept peeing itself
We had a problem with our fridge. Every morning, we found the fridge standing in a wet puddle.
This went on for weeks, until last Monday we finally had enough of scolding our fridge for its incontinence and mopping up the wetness.
We decided we needed some help.
So my mother-in-law (I live with my in-laws) finally got some professional help. She called the shop where she had bought the fridge and they quickly sent us two guys who took a look at it.
As it turns out, the rubber seal on the fridge's door didn't make a proper seal when closed. This let warm air from outside into the fridge, leading to condensation inside, which eventually dripped down into a puddle.
The solution was obvious: the rubber seal had to be replaced by a new one. And that's what they told us.
Unfortunately, though, the rubber seal cost a whopping 130 euros. That's way more than we expected for a little bit of rubber, but after thinking it over, it would still be much cheaper than replacing the entire fridge.
So we bit the Chihuahua penis and decided to get a new rubber seal.
The next day, the two guys came back with a bread-spanking new rubber seal and proceeded to install it. They first ripped out the old seal, applied some glue to the new seal, and then stuck it to the fridge's door.
Yaay! New rubber seal! No more fridge pee!
But the next morning, the fridge had left a puddle again.
"WTF, Fridgie?!"
My mother-in-law called the shop again, the two guys visited us once more, took a look, and said "Ah, yes... The rubber seal doesn't properly seal yet. That's because the fridge is standing straight up and so gravity is not helping close the door. The fridge needs to be propped up at the front so that it stands at an incline."
We scratched our heads, but thought: They are the experts. They'll know what they're doing.
So they used some plastic thingies to prop up the two front corners of Fridgie and, with that in place, gravity now indeed slammed the door shut.
Wednesday morning, however, Fridgie had peed himself again :(
"Damn you, Fridgie!"
At this point, we felt a little lost, but we didn't want to spend any more money on those two “experts.” So my mother-in-law had the fortunate idea of asking our neighbor, who's a plumber, for advice.
Now, as it turns out, plumbers know how to put beer in and out of fridges, but not necessarily how to fix them. Fortunately, though, our neighbor knew a guy named Rodrigo who, as a side hustle, fixes all sorts of appliances in his spare time. So my mom-in-law asked for Rodrigo's number and called him.
He showed up that same afternoon, took a quick look at Fridgie, and immediately diagnosed the problem: the lower hinge of Fridgie's door was a bit loose, which led the whole door to sink a little. This sinking of the door then led to an almost imperceptible gap at the bottom, between the lower part of the door's rubber seal and the rest of the fridge, causing condensation and peeing.
So he took a screwdriver and tightened the screws of the lower hinge. This lifted the door again to where it's supposed to be. The gap disappeared and the door, when closed, was now completely sealing the cold air inside.
And indeed, the next morning there was no puddle under Fridgie. His incontinence had been cured! Hooray!
As you can see, the two guys from the shop gave us sensible-sounding advice, charged us handsomely for it, but actually had no clue of what they were doing.
Rodrigo, meanwhile, was the real expert and just charged us a couple of euros for tightening a screw.
So, I guess the lesson is don’t trust everyone who claims to be an expert and don't trust them just because they charge a lot. Real expertise exists. But there's also a lot of fake expertise that's happy to take your money while not offering any real solutions.
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Thanks for reading!
— David
Thanks. I know this to be true. My boyfriend is a handyman and can fix anything. This is what he would have done as well.