Going conventional!

Dear old chest fridge lasted another week before giving up the ghost. It became clear that we really had to find an alternative. It's funny though. Trying to think of an alternative is what gave us the incentive to try the chest fridge in the first place!

To quote Clint who told us on a forum;

Great idea, but unless they have radicaly changed the construction materials in the 20+ years since I was a fridge mechanic, they are doomed to a relatively short lifespan.

You see, ice doesn't cause rusting, only liquid water does. So most of the chest freezers for the last 40+ years use "bundy" tubing (rolled steel), since they are always frozen.

After a few years of use, moisture from the foam and air builds up around the pipes. This is not a problem, so long as the pipes stay below 0 degrees C. But as soon as its above 0, they start corroding.

This is why turning off a chest freezer and storing it for a few months would often result in it springing gas leaks and irrepairably failing. The frost becomes water, and corrosion takes off.

..and that is exactly what we think happened.

So, we're conventional once again. I got a new little 210 litre fridge/freezer which uses 360 kWh/year.

Initially we thought that .2kWh per day (about 73 kWh per year) was pretty good, but we found that we still needed a freezer, so we've had a small chest freezer running as well. It claims to use 262 kWh per year, so that amounts to about 335 kWh per year in total.

So, if we turn off the chest freezer, our usage won't increase too much. Still, we both miss the chest fridge. It was very quiet! *sigh*

Another way we've become conventional lately is the recent purchase of a ride-on lawn mower. Our first mower! I'm mostly amazed it's taken us this long. The scythe will still be used for edging, but the bulk of the grass is getting far too thick to be enjoyable anymore. It may be a sign the chooks are adding some fertility to the back garden, since nothing but woody weeds would grow before. Now a thick covering of a running-style grass has taken over, and although it looks nice, it needs maintenance.

It's quite an old mower, somewhere between 1984 and 1986. It needed a few parts to get it working again, but now that it does, we're very happy. It's another project that we've jumped into the deep end with, learned a lot and had our hands in grease for. Lots of fun. :)

Oh, and one more thing! We've recently had professional help!

A plasterer! He's very quick, willing to work with our lime plaster, and Marty knows him from work. Brilliant! It's certainly looking more like a loungroom now. We have a few more "holes" to fill before he comes back to put down another layer, but he's very keen, so we'll have to do that this weekend.

Until next time!