The Americana is in the house...for now.

[spacepig]

Well, I think we won the gasket battle, but it may have been all for naught. Since we couldn't find a new gasket that was close enough to the original, especially where the doors touched, we decided to take the gasket off of our pink Americana from the other sides (since its middle gasket was also trashed).

We had both refrigerator and freezer cranked, and the fridge stayed at around 32 and the freezer was 0. However, there was a lot of condensation all around the inside, to the point that it was dripping on the counter portion. We could also feel cold air coming out the side of the freezer. So, I had some weather stripping that I bought for doors and windows and we decided to put that all around the fridge and freezer. The condensation was dramatically reduced, and it is now only in the upper right portion of the fridge, and it does not leak onto the counter. However, I wipe it off at least once a day to make sure. There is no longer cold air coming out of the freezer and now the fridge keeps the same temp as above, but now it's down to 5, and the freezer is now at 7 and keeps temps 0 to -10

The issue is that it seems to run *all* the time. Sometimes it sounds like it's just the compressor, other times just a fan or both. I did hear it shut off yesterday for about 15 minutes before coming back on. When it did, there was squeaking/screeching noise that would stop when I pulled open the freezer drawer. It eventually stopped and I haven't heard it since, but AFAIK, it hasn't stopped running, either.

So, the Americana may be a no go if it becomes too costly electricity wise. We are holding onto our newer refrigerator, just in case. We'll give it a month to see what happens .

 

[justjunque]

It certainly looks great!

Oh. And...kitty!!!

Barry

 

[pulltostart]

Looks right at home there, Jeannine.  Maybe Estelle can teach it how to behave!

 

lawrence

 

[tinkr]

If you are looking for parts

Check the thread 77318 in Imperial. He may be able to help you. Organizing the parts department.
And someone on in that section may be able to help diagnose the issue.

 

[spacepig]

Thanks for the compliments.

The fridge kind of looks weird to me in the space and I'm not sure why. It might be the yellow wall color, or the fact that the top of the fridge is not even with the cabinets. With the fridge being an odd size, there's no stock cabinet that is the same size so I would have to custom order one. I am going to try and paint another wall color today to see if that will help.

Oddly enough, since my post, the fridge has been cutting off and on all day, and there is no squeaking/screeching noise when it turns back on.

Will have to check out the parts thread. Even though everything is working fine now (knock on wood), it's probably not a bad idea to have back ups for just in case.

 

[turquoisedude]

It looks great Jeannine!  Glad to hear that the compressor seems to be cycling now - it is apparently not unusual for a GE fridge to run for a very long time when started up after a spell of inactivity.  If it kept running after a day or so, that would have been a bad thing. Trust me...LOL 

 

[spacepig]

Thanks, Paul.

I bought a more neutral color, so maybe that will help with appearances.

The fridge has been in the house for about a week now, and we let it run for a full week before bringing it in. I would swear it hadn't shut off for days, but since I'm not home (and in the kitchen) 24/7, I can't say that for fact.

The only thing different since yesterday is that I wrote the above post about it, and a cold front came through last night so it's a bit cooler in the house.