The
DRSNews
April
2004
By
Subscription Only
Published by Dave’s Repair Service, All Rights Reserved
In
this issue:
1)
Beware Using Refrigerators in Unheated Rooms
2) Rare and Unusual Parts & Manuals on the Website
3) Easily Removing Dishwasher Rust Stains
1)
We’ve had a really cold winter here in the Northeast this
year, and once the cold air arrived it stayed a while. I’ve
had several folks ask why their spare refrigerator in their
unheated garage wouldn’t keep frozen food, well, frozen.
So
I thought I’d share this with you to save you the hassle
of learning it the ‘hard way’.
The
short answer to the question is that the thermostat in
a modern frost-free refrig is reading the (40F) temp in the
fresh food section.
In
theory, that means when the ambient temp drops to 40,
the t'stat no longer calls for cooling and any food stored in
the freezer (0-5F) begins to thaw. In the real world, when the
temp in the unheated room drops below about 55-60F, there's
not enough compressor run time to keep the freezer cold
enough.
You’ll
want to keep this in mind if you’re using a frost-free
refrigerator as a backup and it’s in an unheated garage or
porch, etc. You’ll be
able to store fresh food OK in the
refrigerator
section if you need the ‘overflow’ room, but I
recommend you empty the freezer section in the Fall to
prevent food loss.
2)
I’ve just added some rare and very hard-to-find products
to the website, and thought they might be of interest to you.
Here
are a few of them:
Vintage
NLA Frigidaire Washer Bellows Seals, both styles
and sizes, as well as the (Rare!) pliers to replace them. The
older styles and the pliers have long since been unavailable
from Frigidaire, and these are the last ones I can find in
the USA!
(update 3/07: the inner. 'oil' bellows, part
#5433572, are long gone, but I still have a few of the outer larger
outer 'water' bellows', part # 5433576, in stock)
http://www.DavesRepair.com/vintageparts.htm
Vintage
service manuals recently added include
Westinghouse ‘3-belt’ Front-loader washers, Frigidaire
Washer ‘Serviceman’s Digest’ for '64-'68 models, Sunbeam
T-20 and T-9 Toasters, (Really! Toasters!) Sunbeam Mixmaster
Food mixers,
and an operator’s manual and schematics set for that great
old McIntosh C-8 (tube) Preamplifier. More vintage
electronics manuals coming soon.
There’s
even a (1953) service manual available for the
great old Sunbeam A-1 hedge trimmer - talk about rare
and unusual!
The
Maytag and Speed Queen wringer washer service
manuals continue to be popular items, and I must say
these manuals really turned out well. Nice to work with
these older, high quality originals.
You’ll
find those, and other manuals, here:
www.DavesRepair.com/pdfmanuals/manualsindex.htm
I’m
working on more of these just as fast as time allows,
and will keep you posted. Please let me know if there’s
any other type of manual you’d like to see ‘resurrected’
in digital format, and I’ll see what I can do.
3)
Here in the country we see our share of well water
carrying a heavy burden of rust, and it often shows up
as an ugly brown stain completely coating the inside of
a dishwasher.
A
good cure for this is citric acid, and I used to sell
expensive little packages of it that we got from GE.
However,
I’ve not been doing that since discovering this (cheap)
alternative.
If
your dishwasher’s interior has become more brown
than white, pick up a jar of TangÔ
instant breakfast
drink. Fill the detergent dispenser with it and start
your machine on a ‘normal wash’ cycle with no dishes
inside. (Remember to run the hot faucet at the sink
first, to ensure the dishwasher’s first fill is with hot
water)
Once
the machine has filled and started to wash,
open the door and throw 2-3 tablespoons of Tang
into the water and let the machine run through a cycle.
In
some cases this has to be repeated and another
cycle run, but the results can be dramatic. Doing this
on a regular basis before the staining gets too bad is
probably a good idea if your water suffers from high
iron content.
***
Thanks
once again for allowing me into your
inbox again this month. I really enjoy this project, and
hope you benefit from
it.
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 is 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.
Thanks
for all your encouragement - I really appreciate
it! May the
Lord richly bless you & yours, and may He continue to have
mercy on America!
Warmly,
Dave
Harnish
Dave’s Repair Service
New Albany, PA
drs@sosbbs.com
www.DavesRepair.com
(570) 363-2404
“He
who kneels the most, stands best.” – D. L. Moody
1 Thess. 5:17, 18
Vintage
Manuals, Discounted Parts, Appliance Help
for the ‘Handy’, and DRSNews Back issues:
www.DavesRepair.com
