Last week I managed to fix the control board on the fridge by spending $20 on capacitors instead of paying $180 for a tech to come out and charge me $300 for a new control board.

Buoyed by that success, I decided to see if I could figure out why the light-goblin in the fridge takes a few seconds to turn the light on when we open the door.

It isn't such a terrible problem, but now that the light works (it did not, prior to the first repair) I find myself annoyed by the sudden flash of light after my eyes have adjusted to the darkness inside the fridge.

The problem was pretty clearly related to the door switch. It takes a while to activate. So I popped the switch out with my screwdriver and noticed that it is "not user serviceable". Bah! Humbug! It's a switch! I'm not paying $15 to GE for a darn switch. Besides, it'll take who-knows-how-long to get it.

So out comes the dremel and.... bingo! User serviceable part!
The switch is rather elegant, actually. The terminals are each a single sheet of copper with a contact on it. One terminal flexes to push on a plastic piston that pushes against a lever that is actuated by the door. When the door is closed, the piston pushed the one terminal's contact away from the other contact. When the door opens, the terminal pushes the piston outward and comes into contact with the other contact, closing the switch. Simple.

But the open/close cycles have arced a few times and the contacts are pitted and coated in carbon (which doesn't conduct electricity very well).

I polished them with steel wool and a pencil eraser, then spritzed some silicone spray on there to help prevent future carbon deposits and arcs, then lightly bent each contact to make them a little springier. After gluing the switch closed, it should work much better! Total cost: 4 drops of super glue (3 cents?) and a spritz of silicone spray (2 cents?). Savings: $14.95 (plus shipping) and several weeks of waiting for the part to arrive.

And best of all? Now when I go hunting for beer, I can see where I'm going without having to wait for the fridge-light-goblin to wake up and turn the light on. I suppose that it will also mean that the fridge will stop trying to cool itself when the door is open, which will mean a lot less work for a lucky few electrons who aren't called upon to throw themselves willy nilly at the various motors involved.

And if you buy into that whole butterfly-effect thing: maybe the resultant 2 oz of carbon dioxide that isn't produced by me not wasting power.... maybe that'll give the Maldivians a few more days. But mostly, its about the beer.

Labels: house, repair