Funny picture gallery

[shovenose]

^

lol! I'm sure that would pass safely testing.

[c_hegge]

.

[c_hegge]

I've shortened and cleaned up this thread, as the first 10 pages or so had missing/corrupted attachments after the software upgrade a few years ago.

[LongRunner]

So, what do you do when those rascally rodents have chewed up most of the power cord on your refrigerator (despite having two cats in the house), but you just happen to have a spare cord with a rewireable IEC male plug (among your huge stash of other cords saved from the landfill)?

Fridge power cord mod (at a glance).jpg (139.2 KiB) Viewed 49838 times

Fridge power cord mod (hero shot).jpg (111.26 KiB) Viewed 49838 times

Courtesy of yours truly.

(Unlike many home-grown emergency "repairs", this one should actually be safe enough – provided that a counterfeit cord is never used and the plug is wired correctly, obviously. The only notable omission I had to make is the strain-relief sleeve; that's because the plug shown is, unusually, designed specifically for cords with light-duty insulation – which are not allowed on major appliances, which are required to use ordinary-duty at least. But I figured that the cord on a refrigerator won't take much strain, and it's also worse for wear anyway; and I was at least able to mount the internal clamping bar, which is enough to prevent the cord from pulling out of the plug. One other thing I have to note though is that many refrigerators in North America use an SPT-3 ribbon-type cord, which is unlikely to fit into the common rewireable IEC connectors that are designed for round cords. As a matter of curiosity though, that particular plug is able to solidly clamp a common European H03VVH2-F2X0.75 cord or its Australian Standard equivalent, and it even has removable pins so you could leave the earth pin out and effectively convert it into a G type [often referred to informally as C18, as denotes the functionally equivalent panel inlet] plug. But practically speaking, the only precaution you have to take for this arrangement beyond those needed for the original cord is to avoid accidentally unplugging the arrangement and potentially losing your groceries.)

[LongRunner]

As of today, that Fisher & Paykel E331T has well and truly died (with furious beeping and whacked-out temperatures, which have forced most of the frozen food to be discarded). Considering that it had only barely enough capacity and that the space provided won't allow anything much larger, I ultimately decided to replace it with a stand-alone fridge in the original space, and a chest freezer in another spot (a few metres away). (Both from Hisense - which may not be the best-regarded brand in the world, but if it's worth anything, they're claimed to tolerate up to 43°C ambient - models HR6AF243 and HR6CF146 respectively. Refrigerant in them is R600a which as I've mentioned elsewhere, is not to my liking, but frankly, there's not that much choice nowadays. I did also find out about Mitsubishi Electric's MRBF325C which is a bottom-mount model that would fit in the space, exists in a stainless steel version, still has R134a refrigerant, with a 5-year warranty - but it wasn't in stock locally.)

I'll just have to hope that they contain themselves, as I don't own the kind of armour that would be needed to survive a substantial explosion (and even if I did, it would probably be much too cumbersome to wear daily). I did retrieve that rewireable plug (and the cord that was used with it, which will need a good cleaning…), so I should be able to illustrate how it's wired some time soon - in another thread.

UPDATE: Here is the plug.

[LongRunner]

(The opening is supposed to be in front of the meter.)

Dodgy electricity meter housing.jpg (221.61 KiB) Viewed 41021 times

And since it was installed by a "professional":

Then again, "qualifications" don't seem to prove a damn thing anymore anyway, so how surprised can you be?