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My fridge died and I tried to fix it with a hairdryer
Last Tuesday my freezer stopped freezing, so I grabbed my wife's hairdryer and thawed the evaporator coils in about 20 minutes. Defrost timer was shot, but I felt like a hero until I melted the drip tray and had a puddle on the kitchen floor. Has anyone else jury-rigged a fix that backfired like this?
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the_jake1mo ago
A hairdryer on a fridge is like using a sledgehammer to hang a picture, sure it works until everything falls apart. You might have saved the defrost timer but probably cooked the thermostat or wiring along the way. A puddle beats a fire, but next time pull the fridge out and check the timer with a multimeter before grabbing any heat source.
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janah831mo ago
Not to nitpick, but the defrost timer is usually a separate part from the thermostat, so melting the drip tray wouldn't have cooked the wiring unless you held the hairdryer in one spot way too long. The real risk is that hot air can warp the plastic housing around the coils or melt the foam insulation behind it, which is a common mistake. I've seen guys use a heat gun on a freezer and end up with a hole in the back wall. Next time, a bowl of hot water placed inside the freezer works slower but doesn't risk any melt damage. That puddle was probably from the defrost drain being clogged, not from melting the tray itself.
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