Twofer Tuesday

Here’s the exciting follow-up to last night’s suspenseful post. I managed to get both the refrigerator and garage door working.

• Refrigerator: With the fridge turned off and emptied out I could see through a hole in a sheet metal panel at the back of the freezer section that the coils were iced over. (The dehumidifier in the basement will ice up like this if I leave it set too high in the fall.) With a small hex wrench and some effort, I pulled off the panel, then I used Carol’s hair dryer to melt the ice enough that I could pull it off in big chunks. When the coils were clear I put the panel back on, Carol got the food back in, and a couple of hours after turning it on the fridge compartment was below 40 and the freezer was below zero, so I know the compressor is still working. My guess is the defrost cycle got messed up because of the days-long power failure, but I really don’t know.

• Garage door: The motor was clicking and humming, but it wasn’t moving the belt. The door has been hitting the floor too hard since the torsion springs were replaced last month by Precision Garage Door (the outfit that I will never use again). I suspected this was knocking the switch out of kilter that turns off the motor. I pulled the release cord to disconnect the motor from the door bracket, then I slid the switch back and forth and opened and closed the door manually a few times. I got up on the stepladder, opened the back of the motor, and adjusted the closing force for a lighter landing. After the release cord was reset I hit the switch and the door opened. When closing, the door now touches the floor gently.