Some Like It Cold 2
January 2nd, 2009 by ComputerBob
This is yet another one of my do-it-yourself adventures. If you haven’t already done so, please read My $135 Gamble before you read this follow-up to it.
I worked at the domestic violence center for a couple of hours this morning, while I waited for the online appliance-parts store to open so that I could call them and order the new motherboard for my refrigerator.
But as I was driving back home to make the call, I decided to check and see if any of my local appliance-parts stores carry that motherboard. So, when I got home, I started looking through the phone book.
I found a place that’s less than 2 miles away, and they had it in stock — but they sell it for its $154 retail price. I discussed it with my wife and we decided that it would be worth it to pay about $30 more to get the motherboard today, instead of ordering it from the online store and having to wait for it to arrive some time this coming Monday.
When I showed the online price to the guy at the local applicance-parts store, he offered me a 10% discount off of the retail price. So I ended up paying $148 for it, including tax — only about $13 more than I would have paid for the motherboard plus tax and shipping from the online store.
But I got a few scares when I opened the box and compared the new motherboard to the old one. The new one had 3 more connectors on it than the old one. And two of the connectors that were the same as on the old motherboard were located in a different place on the new motherboard. And the new motherboard had a grounding strap that the old motherboard didn’t have.
But the biggest scare came when I noticed that the installation instructions said that the new motherboard was a different part number than the motherboard that I had asked for.
So I looked at the outside of its box and confirmed that it showed the correct part number. Then I carefully examined the motherboard itself until I found its part number near one corner. It was the correct part number, too. Whew! It must be a somewhat generic motherboard that works in different models of refrigerators — with different part numbers.
Once I confirmed that I had the right motherboard, I very meticulously connected my refrigerator’s wiring connectors to what I really, really hoped were the proper connectors on the new motherboard.
Then, holding my breath, I plugged in the refrigerator.
And it started working.
I could feel the compressor vibrating slightly as it almost-silently hummed a low tone. With my digital multimeter, I confirmed that the compressor was receiving the proper 122 volts from the new motherboard, instead of the 9 volts that the old motherboard had been sending it.
It’s only been running for about an hour, but the temperature in the freezer is already down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 degrees Celsius).
And I feel incredible.
UPDATE:If you enjoyed this Do-It-Yourself story, you would probably also enjoy reading Working Hard To Make It Soft.
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January 3rd, 2009 at 8:23 am
Cool! One note: you left the minus sign off the Celsius temp.
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
Yes, it’s extremely cool to have fixed it myself! (pun intended) Thanks for letting me know about my typo — I’ve fixed it. And speaking of extremely cool, it’s the next morning now, and for the past several hours, it’s been 35 degrees (< 2 Celsius) in the refrigerator and 5 below zero (-20 Celsius) in the freezer.