The past couple of weeks, my fridge has been getting increasingly warmer while the temps in my freezer seem to have remained unchanged. Last week, I bought a digital fridge thermometer to discover that, in fact, my refrigerator wasn’t refrigerating very well at all, cooling only to the upper 40s and low 50s, well into spoilage territory. I had to pour some milk down the drain and throw away some bacon. I suppose we’re lucky we didn’t get food poisoning.
Last night, the fridge got up to nearly 60 degrees, practically shorts weather for Marylanders! Unacceptable. This morning, I hobbled on my crutches over to the RV park office and bought a couple of big bags of ice from their shop. One of the workers was nice enough to deliver me and the ice back to my RV on his golf cart and to help me get my ice chest out of the basement.
While I was there, I asked about a mobile repair service. They gave me a name and number, and I called. I lucked out; the repairman, Gary, happened to be on his way to our park to work on another RV. As a result, I only had to pay half of the normal service visit fee. He said he could come in the next hour or so, and while I waited for him, I removed all my perishables and put them into the ice chest, and then I took out all the produce that was still good and made a great big pasta salad and some more pico de gallo. I put those in an insulated bag with some of those refreezable ice packs to keep it all cool until I could use the fridge again.
The repairman, Gary, got here pretty quickly, and after a quick look at the fridge, he announced that my cooling fan had died. He said they only have a life of about five years. Given that my rig is 8 years old, it was overdue for replacement. My fridge is in a slideout, so it doesn’t have a roof vent. It depends on the built-in fan to take care of removing the heat generated by the propane burner. He said that there was a possibility that because it had gotten so hot near the cooling unit, there was a possibility I had burned all of that out, too. He said we wouldn’t know for sure until this evening when the fridge had time to cool down. I truly hope that’s not the case. That’s a very expensive fix, though something my warranty would cover.
In a jiffy, he had replaced the fan, so I asked if he could come in and fix my antenna rotator. I’d bought the parts but couldn’t figure out how to get it all together and make it work. I swear it took him all of thirty seconds to make the repair, and I still don’t know what he did. It’s magic!
He didn’t even charge me for the antenna, but the fridge repair set me back about $200. Not bad, really. And it looks like it’s working. The temp has already fallen about nine degrees since he fired up that new fan. I’m just hoping it falls into the low forties eventually, better, the high 30s, and then stays there!
As I was settling up with Gary, I asked what it would cost me to have my slideout toppers replaced. These are the fabric awnings that roll out when we put our our slide rooms and then roll up again when we pull them in. The mechanisms are fine, but the fabric is shot.
He cited a pretty reasonable estimate for all three of them. I think I can get them all done for right around $600, parts, labor, site visit, everything. That’s not bad. I told him I wanted to do it. He said he didn’t have the parts on his truck, but that he would get them and come back the next time he got a call on this side of Lake Pontchartrain. His service is located on the Northshore, about 70 miles away. I can see why he doesn’t want to make unnecessary trips and why he charges such a weighty service fee.
This will cut into my budget a little bit, but since I finally got my tax refund, I can swing it and still have the money for the trip. Fixing the awnings has been one of my goals virtually since we bought the rig, especially since the end of winter. They didn’t weather the blizzards very well. Freezing temps, high winds, mounds of snow and ice all took their toll. By the end of it, the awning over our living room slideout was little more than a threadbare rag flapping in the breeze, offering no protection at all to our slide. The other two weren’t much better.
Plus, I have to say that the bad condition of the awnings just gives the whole rig a ratty appearance, and I don’t care for that. I may live in a trailer, but I’m determined not to be stereotypical trailer trash. I want to keep my home well-maintained, as least as well as my budget will allow me to maintain it.
We may end up leaving New Orleans with a working fridge and TV antenna PLUS brand-new slideout awnings! That would make me, quite literally, a very happy camper.
Tags: awnings, mobile repair service, refrigerator, repair, slideouts, tv antenna
