4.10.18-Saturday night before Easter Sunday
It was Saturday night before Easter Sunday. Nothing special, our usual meal of pizza, beer followed by, hopefully, a good movie. I went to the freezer to pull out a pizza and noticed it was not nearly as firm as it should be, but it was still very cold and it cooked up very nicely. All set to eat the frozen delight and it was off to the fridge for a couple of beers. Once again not nearly as cold and refreshing as they usually should be. By bedtime we knew we had a problem and by morning we were off to the plaza for a couple of 20-pound bags of ice.
We were not shocked. It was only a couple of years ago we were forewarned that this would happen, but no one gave us the reason why. By Tuesday we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we needed a new unit, after all this living with ice is both expensive and does not quite do the job. We figured it would possibly go around $3500, more or less, the good money was on the “more.” Tuesday the 3rd we would have to go to Alliance RV here in Wildwood, FL for them to install a new unit on Thursday. We decided on a residential unit; these run on AC current and or batteries.
At Alliance we sat down with Mike to go over options for the replacement. The new unit would cost around $1300 before installation, I could understand that. Then he mentioned we would have to remove and upgrade or inverter, to gadget that turns DC current into AC which is what the fridge needs to function. Okay with that, then he mentioned they cost about $2700 before installation. I thought it was getting a little expensive but it is what it is. “Oh, by the way”, he said, “you’ll also have to add two additional batteries to your battery pack, about $250 , once again, before installation.” I’m still Okay, but it felt like we were in the process of buying a new RV. He said that would be about it except for the need to make a modification to the wall cabinetry it would have to be fitted to, no options there, can’t leave it in the middle of the floor and, of course, there’s the expense of installation, the unit, inverter, cabinetry and, of course, the ever loving batteries that would have to occupy one of our storage bins, under the coach, because the battery closet has no room for expansion. Oh, he forgot, additional wiring would be needed for the new batteries in this new location. All in all with sales tax, of course, the job should come in around $8000, more or less!
We were not really thinking of going to Paris this coming winter, but I think it’s possibly a sure thing we’ll spend the winter months and longer just admiring our new Samsung Refrigerator. He did assure us that these new appliances will never permit soft ice cream. The new fridge will save us on propane, which the old unit needed for cooling. The savings on the propane alone should pay for the fridge in about forty-four years, more or less.
For what it is worth, we continue to enjoy the RV lifestyle and continue to come in at under the total cost of property taxes and home-owners insurance on the home we used to own in Titusville.
How’s your refrigerator doing?
Not fully installed:
Well it’s finally here! Not fully installed, but installed enough for us to go out and re-stalk the fridge. We arrived at Allison RV on Thursday evening in order to be serviced as early as possible. Well, not everything goes as planned. The electrician was not able to complete the installation by the end of Friday night, but he will be back on the job on Monday morning, we hope. We are optimistic, however.
The cooling beast is in:
Well the cooling beast is in. It’s so big, and best of all, it came in under the projected cost, about $7100. We did notice that when we bring in the slide holding the new fridge, the slide experiences a bump as it is being retracted. This is another issue we’ll have to tend to probably end of this month.