For me, one of the things about trying to live more sustainably is keeping the place running, ie carrying out maintence and having a go at fixing things that go bung. Don’t get me wrong, there is no way I will go playing around with the 240v side of our power system, too much chance of doing unpleasant things to myself (or others). I will, however, have a go at other things, like the TV, the low voltage side of the off grid power system and the lever taps, working out what is wrong and then having a go at fixing them.
Just recently we had an issue with the fridge. We converted from a 12v to a 240v fridge about 5 years back not long after the new system went in and we really haven’t had any issues with it. Just recently, though, we have started to get water leaking out the front of the fridge door. It has been warm and humid so we have been getting quite a lot of condensation inside the fridge.
This is not the first time I have encountered this problem. The previous fridge was designed to allow condensation to travel down the back of the inside of the fridge to a ridge running horizontally along the back and sloping down on each side to a central drain point where the water collected into a reservoir under the fridge. This drain point developed a clog and next thing you know we had water everywhere, but it was just a matter of unclogging that hole, which was accessible from inside the fridge.
Unfortunately, when I inspected the inside of this fridge, there was no obvious place where the water seemed to be coming from, so fixing the problem was a bit more difficult. After some fruitless inspection of the inside of the fridge, I pulled it out from the wall and turned it around so that I could see in the back.
I notice that there was a reservoir which was crusty with salts left when the condensed water evaporated, and it was empty. After further reconnaissance I found a nozzle pointing down into where the reservoir was and it appeared to be blocked with some disgusting, probably fungal material. I got hold of a roll of thin wire from the garage and proceeded to probe up around inside it, (as uncomfortable as that sounds) clearing the yuckle (technical term) out of it. Low and behold it started to drip steadily into the reservoir!
I kept an eye on the bottom of the fridge for a couple of weeks and all was well so I was ecstatic! Unfortunately I started to notice water seeping in again. Thus I turned the fridge around and checked, and the hole was not obstructed at the exit, but there was also no water dripping from it. I figured the problem must be further up inside, so I got a small length of plastic coated wire approximately 6mm in diameter and inserted it up the pipe, jiggled it around and a whole stack of cold water came rushing out. It has now been several months and the problem has not recurred, so apart from the odd inspection, I believe my work here is done!
It is worth checking things out yourself to see if you can fix things before calling in the professionals, or worse, send it to the tip!
