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Website owner: 
Dave Harnish
CEO: Sadie
Dave's Repair Service
1911 Heath Hill Rd
New Albany, PA 18833
Email:
drs@sosbbs.com


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The DRSNews
June 2004

Published by Dave's Repair Service, All Rights Reserved
You are encouraged to forward this newsletter to friends! 
***************************************
A Special Welcome to all our new subscribers!

In this issue:

1) Summertime - Can Your Refrigerator Breathe?
2) Send me a Testimonial - I'm Offering Bribes!
3) Reminder: Saving Your Refrigerator Door Seals

1) Here we are once again at the start of that season when refrigerators start to shudder. To help keep yours humming along through the heat and humidity of summer, here are a couple of tips I always repeat this time of year:

Best Refrigerator Tip #1:

Keep that condenser clean! All the heat removed from the food inside a refrigerator is moved 'outside the box' by the condenser coil. Nearly always black because black radiates heat best, these coils used to be flat and nearly the size of the cabinet. They hung on the back, where they quietly radiated heat to the kitchen, requiring no fan to keep them cool. 

It was a good system, using gravity to provide airflow and saving energy by not requiring a fan ('Did require 2-3 inches of airspace above the refrig, though).

There are still a few units out there with their coils hanging on the back, and if this describes yours, wonderful! You will never have the pleasure of doing what most of us get to do every year or so. (Guys: you can still lie on the kitchen floor and pretend to do something useful, but be sure she doesn't read this newsletter <g>).

Nearly all condensers these days are folded or rolled and stuffed underneath the refrigerator, and need a fan to pull air through them to do their job. 

I won't get into the logic behind this change, but it adds one more item to the list of preventive maintenance jobs around your house. And it's probably the number 2 reason a refrig pro is called in (and paid!), so you can save some money here.

Once a year - early summer's a great time - pull the toe-plate off the refrig and have a look underneath. Most condenser air inlets are on the right side, though some pull air in across the whole width of the cabinet. (note there are a few - Maytag products mostly - that require back cover removal to clean the inlet of their 'jelly-roll' shaped coil).

This air inlet area's where you'll see lint buildup, and it's often just a solid wall of lint - definitely NOT what you want! You don't want any lint there, bc it acts as insulation, and you want the best heat transfer efficiency you can get from that coil.

Just turn the refrig off and fire up your trusty shop-vac. A brush specifically made for this purpose is a really handy tool for the job, and on the models with tightly packed coils, is an absolute must. To see an example of one that works well for me and really speeds up the job, click here .

For more on this job, including a precaution or two, please see item #4 in the May '02 DRSNews

2) I'm looking for testimonials from our subscribers and/or customers, to post on my website, and I'll BRIBE you to get one! <grin>

Here's the Deal:

If the DRSNews or your dealings with Dave's Repair Service have been at all beneficial to you (or even if you've been disappointed - this'd be a good time to fix whatever might be broken!), please send me a short testimonial at drs@sosbbs.com  

If your testimonial is selected for publication, I'll post it, along with your first name, initial of your last name, and city/state/country, on my website. I do reserve the right to edit it for clarity and brevity.

And here's The Bribe!

I'll publish, along with your testimonial, a one-line description of your website, and a live link to it, so be sure to include the URL!

(I know this wouldn't be a problem with you guys, but I have a legal obligation to say that I reserve the right to screen your website for inappropriate content before posting)

I plan on keeping one of these testimonials near the top of my homepage, with a link to a separate page (or pages) of them underneath. This homepage testimonial will be rotated on a regular basis to keep it 'fresh', so there's a good chance yours will end up there at one time or another. 

Any of you that have been marketing for a while know that the more 'external' links pointing to your site, the more traffic you get, and you'll recognize the value in this 'bribe'.

I hope to have at least some of these published in next month's issue, so don't wait - send 'em on in! Remember to include your name, city/state, and the URL of any website you promote, along with a one-line description of the site. Send them to me at: drs@sosbbs.com

And I'm serious about emailing me even if you've been disappointed or dissatisfied. Please do so. I won't be personally offended, and if there's a problem, I 'can't fix it if I don't know it's broke'.

Thanks in advance! And a special Thanks to you kind folks who've already sent your 'unsolicited' feedback. I appreciate that.

Ok, back to refrigerators...

3) Best Refrigerator Tip #2:

Another preventive maintenance item that's more important than ever is door gasket lubrication. Those of you who've been with me for a while have heard this before, but this is a great time of year to check on it. I've copied the following article from my website, 'How to add 10 years of life to your refrig door seals', below:

(from www.DavesRepair.com/DIYhelp/DIYrefseallube.htm )

Here's a simple trick that will most likely prevent your ever 
having to replace either of your refrigerator's door seals.  

It becomes even more valuable if you own one of the newer models whose seals are no longer attached with screws, but GLUED on (a really dumb idea there, manufacturers!) 

Once every year (make it a part of Spring housecleaning? Anyone still DO Spring housecleaning?) wipe down the working surfaces of the seals with a damp cloth, and dry. 

Then apply a thin film of Petroleum Jelly to the HINGE side surface of both seals. (ONLY to the hinge side working surface that contacts the cabinet, NOT the whole seal!). This allows the sliding face of the seal to, well, slide, across the hinge-side cabinet face, and prevent its twisting and tearing, the #1 cause of failure.

There was a time when new refrigerators, at least Frigidaires, arrived from the factory with this already done, but that was back in the late 70's so I'm dating myself and we'll drop that subject… <grin>

***

Thanks for allowing me into your inbox again this month. 

Feel free to invite others to subscribe. They can sign up easily right here on the website, on the signup page .

Also, if you have any topics you'd like to see discussed here or covered in an online article, let me know and I'll do my best to oblige. The website's a resource I'm excited about, because it allows a lot more flexibility and detail than email. It's a lot easier, for example, to use photos to illustrate something in a web document than via email.

May the Lord richly bless you & yours!

Your Friend,  

Dave Harnish
Dave's Repair Service
New Albany, PA
drs@sosbbs.com
www.DavesRepair.com
 

Only one thing in the physical world is unaffected by entropy! 
Know what it is? (Hint: see Isaiah 40:8)

 

 

 


"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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