Refrigerator isn't working

[Geo-TH,In]

78 year old tenant tells me her refrigerator isn't working, ice cream is melted. I look at refrig
and she has both freezer and refrig controls turned all the way to the left, warmest position. I
set both of them on normal. A few days later she tells me the same thing, ice cream is melted. I
find she has turned the controls back to the warmest position. I set controls back to normal and
told her to leave them there. Now freezer is -10, refrig is 38.

I asked her why she moved the controls in the first place. Reply, my electric bill went up $20 and
refrig is running all the time so there must be something wrong with it. How can there be something
wrong with -10 in freezer? BYW, the place is total electric and we are now in the heating season.
Previous month, no AC or heat. Some people drive me crazy.

 

[D beatty]

Geo-TH,In that's one of the joys of dealing with the general public.

 

[cwtech]

I guess this is part of the aging process for some folks.

I had to end up installing a lock-box over the thermostat at my 90-year-old Mother's house.

She would feel cool, so she would turn the thermostat way up. ...Then when she would feel hot, she would turn the thermostat way down until she felt cold.

 

[Russ from MN]

That'w what my Mother-in-law used to do with her car heater!

 

[Stan in Oly, WA]

I've always felt that it was dangerous to go through life not having any idea of how things work, but apparently most people are completely comfortable with it. When you add diminished, or diminishing, mental capacity to that, you get what amounts to a hopeless situation. It gives you some insight into how people can be swindled out of their life savings by someone who calls them on the phone. If everything works sort of magically, then anything could be true.

Stan

 

[IowaJohn]

Yep, kinda' like my Dad before we had to put him in the Alzheimer's unit. One evening several years ago he was helping with harvest and wanted to know where I wanted the wagon after he unloaded it. I said by the yardlight which was on and the only light at the bins and is in the middle of the yard, his reply was "where's the yardlight"? Stinks to get old.

 

[Bob]

In our town a retired doctor who was "losing it" rode with is wife to the gas station. She though he could still fill their mini-van with gas.

He grabbed the nozzle and went into "carwash mode", hosing the van down with gasoline.

Someone hit the emergency pump "kill switch", and they got the FD to come up and hose away the spilled gasoline.

Could have been QUITE a tragedy.

Sometimes when someone drops dead "before their time" everyone cries "tragedy" but living beyond your time (and MIND), is NOT the way I want to go!

 

[John,PA]

YOY might consider making sure the condensor coil and/or fan motor is CLEAN.

I have call like this on CHRISTMAS EVE by older relatives, too. Most of their CHRISTMAS meal preparations are already in the REFRIGERATOR. Pretty important stuff for the older group.

John,PA

 

[Two Dogs]

Years ago I had an eighteen year old wife who would do the same thing. She wasn't senile; just crazy. TDF

 

[Geo-TH,In]

d beaty, How well I know, too bad they can't outlaw stupidity.

 

[showcrop]

A friend used to own a little restaurant. People, waitresses included, were always turning the T'stat up or down by 10-15 degrees, instead of just a slight adjustment. He finally had it disconnected but left there, and a new one installed out of sight.

 

[Bret4207]

I used to ride nights with a guy who would constantly play with the heater controls. He'd get the windshield cleared and then turn the heat down to cold. Mind you, this is winter on the Canadian border and -40F was not rare. So we'd go 2 miles, the windshield would start to fog up again. On would come the heat for 3 minutes and then ice cold. This went on over and over, the only break being when he'd start fooling with his pipe which was a debacle on in it's own. Being the patient type, after and hour of this foolishness I asked him just what in the world was wrong with him and what did he think he was doing. I may have used some crude terms regarding his lack of intelligence, his lack of common sense and I probably said something about his parents too. Like I said, "patient". He explained, in nerve wracking detail, that if he let the windshield get "too warm" in the -40F weather, the ice might melt and freeze the wipers down! I "calmly and patiently" pointed out that at -40F, with the wind chill added in, the chances of the ice around the windshield melting were about the same as him making it through his probationary period without me beating him to death with his own stick- not very good!

He was nowhere near as bad as a girl I rode nights with. Ever ride with some who can't stay at one speed? Every 3 seconds she steps on the gas for 3/4 of a second and lets off....coasts for 2 1/4 seconds and hits the gas again, over and over and over and over. It was like being in a small boat going up an down in big waves. Now, while I'm the "patient" type, I have to have you understand that I could never sleep when I was working nights. I'd be okay the first night and not too bad the second night, but by the 3rd night, after getting maybe 1 1/2-2 hours of sleep a day....I wasn't as "patient" as I usually was. I might even have been the tiniest bit short tempered. So after 3 night's of my neck snapping back and forth like one of those "tipsy birds" you used to see in novelty shops, I "calmly" mentioned to her that the vehicle had a cruise control....and I might have said something about her cognitive skills and I might have recommended she address her crainial-rectal inversion....in a "calm" grandfatherly tone of course. After she got done crying and carrying on about men and pigs and mentioning my parents might not have been married she finally admitted she didn't know how to work the cruise control. This lead me to begin one of my patient, grandfatherly explanations on young people who couldn't read an operators manual....things went downhill from there.

 

[Steve@Advance]

"Ever ride with some who can't stay at one speed?"

Yep, worst case I ever saw was a friend(?)/coworker from a few years back. He didn't need a throttle, could
have just as well been an off-on switch! It was full throttle, down shift, 4 barrels, WOT... Then completely
off, coast down to nearly nothing, then back on it! I only rode with him a few times, scared me to death! I
think he was extreme ADD, couldn't keep his mind (what was left of it) on track. Not only did he not keep a
steady speed, he could NOT stand to have anyone in front of him. He would accelerate up behind, tailgate,
pass at the first opportunity... Then slow down! Amazing he is still alive...

 

[47fivewindow]

It's impossible to convince some folks that a furnace will not put out more heat if thermostat is 20 degrees over room temp than 10.

 

[OliverGuy]

Pull the knobs off

 

[Jeff NWOH]

Or that if the a/c is set on 55 that it will cool faster....

 

[notjustair]

I have a friend who just zones out driving. One time he left Denver and drove back to Kansas City. About Topeka he noticed his feet were itching. He had the heater on high the whole way and didn't notice. Jeeze.

He wanted to drive bus for me. I told him that if he couldn't regulate the heat for himself he wouldn't be good at doing it for 65 people who were 25 feet behind him. I don't need a bus running down the road with the left turn signal flashing to nowhere, either.

 

[jacksun65]

My grandmother would set the thermostat to 60 in the summer and 80 in the winter I told her she needed to move to Australia LOL. She always drove a crysler new yorker white we called them Icicle wagons. Litteraly ice would blow out the vents sometimes.

 

[John,PA]

I AGREE.....But.....First make sure the freezer temp reaches PLUS 5 deg., and the other section has reached 35 Deg., FIRST.

May take awhile. Most time has to stay put at kitchen table with older LADY!

Experienced.

John,PA

 

[David G]

She might be having some dementia issues, I would take the knobs off and watch her real close.