Not a Good Day Yesterday.

[Sean Regan]

Not a good day yesterday.

We have a tall 50/50 Miele fridge/freezer. It must now be six years old. It wasn't cheap.
It's the second one we've had, the first had to be replaced under guarantee after three months, as it stopped working and their engineer couldn't fix it.

An overall disappointment, they couldn't have put less paint on it, as it's worn off on any sharp edges like the corners of the doors.

It has no end of settings, including "Party." Beefs up the cooling of the fridge part, as the door could be frequently opened. "Holiday," reduces electricity consumption as the doors won't be opened for several days.
There's even one for "Sabbath." I think that just turns the interior light off in the fridge part.
None of these settings we've ever used. As long as the fridge half stays on +5c and the freezer -18c. We're happy.

But now the freezer part is fine, it's holding -18c. But the fridge part is showing +16c. Putting it on "Factory re-set" cures it for a while as it comes back down to +5c, but after a few hours it's back at +16c. I've done that four times now.

So I phoned Miele's "service department."
Huh!

This was, "a very nice Indian woman, possibly working from home with her children, in a house in the foothills of the Himalayas, for no end of companies,"

Such people work from a provided script.

She had of course, no technical knowledge whatsoever and said she was unable to connect me with someone who had.
She gave me two choices, a sort of "lucky dip." I could either pay up-front £170 for a call-out plus parts, or £309, for a guaranteed repair for 12 months. Or if they can't fix it, that much off a new fridge/freezer. "They better fix it!"

Miele do have a "web chat" facility, that appears to be unmanned.

I've sent them a "strongly worded," e-mailed complaint, for what good that will do.

At the moment I've paid the £309, "upfront" as we need it fixed.

One advantage we have is that I nicked a shelf and a door rack off the one that was replaced, as there's never enough supplied.

I've moved everything but veg out of the freezer part (just in case) and put it in the two back-up freezers in the garage.

I emptied the decade's old Budweiser fridge I keep in the tea-house of beer, and carried it down to the house and stuck it next to the sink until the other is fixed. So at least we have a working fridge.






How times have changed.

Fifty years ago we had a much smaller, "Hotpoint Iced-Diamond" fridge/freezer, which was trouble free for twenty-five years and when we replaced it with a larger one, "we had to beat it to death with a stick."

 

[Jersey Devil]

How times have changed.

My parents had and old refrigerator, from before self defrost existed. You had to remove the ice from the little metal box inside that served as the freezer. it was a step up from the Cramdens icebox on the Honeymooners. It was there when I was born... and still working when I removed it for them when they sold the house about fifty years later. Try that nowadays.

 

[Anniekay]

My parents had and old refrigerator, from before self defrost existed. You had to remove the ice from the little metal box inside that served as the freezer. it was a step up from the Cramdens icebox on the Honeymooners. It was there when I was born... and still working when I removed it for them when they sold the house about fifty years later. Try that nowadays.

I remember those !! My mother always made me be the one, armed with an ice pick, tasked to clear the ice out of the freezer compartment. We had a big white Frigidare that, if you weren't careful, the door handles would pinch the bejeezis out of your fingers !!

 

[Sean Regan]

I tackled another job this morning. The tap in our kitchen.



The kitchen units were fitted about 20 years ago and are in excellent condition. I did everything else, tiling, electrics, false ceiling with down-lighters, floor, etc.
But over time, the tap has become harder to rotate. It happened before, about eight years ago. If the body of the tap moves, it puts a strain on the connecting pipes, which might eventually cause one to crack and we'd have water everywhere.

Space in this kitchen is at a premium. To get at it, both these soft-close drawers have to come completely out. To do that, the door of the washing machine has to be open..no kidding!









Then I'm faced with this.
Above the flexible pipes there are two short lengths of 15mm copper pipe which connect to the tap unit. Behind them is a nut with a centre screw.



To get at it, I needed a socket on the end extension bar (by feel as even lying flat on my back with my head and shoulders inside the cupboard, I still can't see it) and turn it with the socket ratchet bar, (all at the age of 85).
Anyway, job done. My wife suggested, "I get a man in." But plumbers don't want these small fiddly jobs.

As I'd done it before, it wasn't too hard. Job done. The tap now turns without trying to move the body.

My ancient Budweiser fridge is next to the sink as this load of rubbish has gone wrong.



I've done four, "factory re-sets" which has got the fridge back down to +5c. But after about five hours, the temperature has gone back up again. Fortunately, the freezer half stays constant at -18c. But I've stopped doing re-sets, in case the freezer part packs up.



We can survive for the moment.
A Miele engineer is coming on Tuesday to fix it. I think it's either a fault with the computer or a faulty valve. But either way, it's going to cost me £309. We've not a lot of choice.

 

[Anniekay]

I'll wager that the next fridge you get will not be a Miele, @Sean Regan .

 

[Sean Regan]

I'll wager that the next fridge you get will not be a Miele, @Sean Regan .

If it's bad news and it can't be economically repaired, they'll give me a £309 off a new Miele.
I'd have to settle for that. But I'm pretty sure it can be fixed.

 

[Sean Regan]

The replacement tap I ordered over last week-end, for the kitchen, finally arrived at 3.00 pm today.

"Damn it! Janet!"

This one had been getting harder and harder to turn on and off, so much so my wife couldn't use it at all this week. No amount of lubrication made any difference






The new one was a pain to fit.

The flexible tails attached to the supply, for the original one, must have been fitted before the work surface was put on. They didn't reach the base of the tap and the fitter had added two short lengths of copper pipe, because he obviously couldn't be assed to get longer ones.
I couldn't get a spanner on the ends of the tails, so I had to connect each of them to the new tails, with a short length of 15mm pipe. So the supply of hot and cold water now has two tails and two in-line taps. I needed to leave the the second ones on the new tails as it's impossible to reach the original ones. So we've got a longer than usual loop of pipe tails, but there's a space behind the back of the top drawer for them, so it doesn't matter.

It seemed to take forever, lying on my back with my head and shoulders in the drawer unit, but in the end it only took just over an hour and a half.
The longest time was spent getting the old tap out.








When I said I was going to do this, I got the usual, "Why don't you get a man in?"
But "a man," if they agreed to do it, would have wanted to take the work-top off.
It's a huge corner piece, the tiles come down to the surface and it wouldn't have gone back without causing more work.

 

[Mike]

Looks like a fine job to me! Around here taking the old ones out takes the longest too, because our water is so hard here that the darn connections are usually, basically, welded together by hard water build-up. That's usually what leads to them needing to be changed too. Hard water causes them to start leaking due to eating notches in the seals.

 

[Sean Regan]

An up-date on our Miele Fridge/Freezer.
We were presented with a choice, by Miele's, "Service Department," which I've since learned are just people working from home in Greece (I thought it would be India), for a number of different companies, who have no technical knowledge, they just work from crib sheets.
There is no facility to talk to anyone with technical knowledge who might be able to give advice.

Having paid £309, for what turned out to be a fairly easy fix, in case a new compressor was required as was suggested it could be, by the woman on the phone, I complained by letter to their managing director.

I got an apologetic phone call this morning from the MD's secretary, with the promise of a partial refund, I'll "only" have paid £170. The cost of a call-out. So £139 will be "winging its way back to me."
She said he agreed with my suggestion that they could have been better and that they were now going to set up a facility, where customers can ring for advice, but this will cost £70 for the call, but it would be taken off the £170, if a visit is required.
They aren't giving much away, are they?