Peter Blackford's example of the
LG refrigerator in Made by Monkeys certainly struck a nerve. I bought an LG French door fridge about three years ago. Shortly after it was delivered, I received a legal notice regarding a class-action suit against LG because its French door refrigerators used more electricity than what was claimed in their product specs. I receive a very small check annually as compensation.
Shortly after the warranty expired, the ice maker stopped working. I checked the mechanism, the electrical connections, the water feed tube for ice and foreign material, and the house water supply. All seemed OK. I unplugged the fridge and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Nothing helped. The fix was to use ice cube trays. About two months later, while I was sitting in the kitchen, I heard ice cubes drop into the ice maker bin. It started working by itself.
About three months ago, I opened the door and the light was out. I thought it was a bit strange that two bulbs would go out at the same time. When I went to remove the cover, it was warm. Later in the day, the lights were working again. That night, I walked by the fridge and saw light seeping out of the doors (which doesn't say much about the quality of the seals).
The lights were going on and off randomly, whether the doors were opened or closed. After about two weeks of that, the light problem fixed itself and has been functioning properly since. A week ago, I received another legal notice regarding a class-action suit against LG for French door refrigerator lights that go on and off at random or stay on permanently.
This refrigerator either has a mind of its own or it was made, tested and inspected by monkeys.
This entry was submitted by Lewis Goulfine and edited by Rob Spiegel
Tell us your experiences with Monkey-designed products. Send to Rob Spiegel for Made by Monkeys.
If there's a lesson here, it's probably in the recurring problems we see in the Made by Monkeys blog -- owners are experiencing increased difficulties with their white-box appliances. This increase seems to reside in electrical and electronic systems. From the anecdotal data in these postings, it seems that newer appliances are more prone to problems than older appliances -- apparently because of the new electronics.
Sometimes it's really hard to tell what is going on with electronics. I got slammed on the back of my mini van on an icy road. I got hit on the bumper, and there was little damage. But when that happened, the turn signals quick blinking automatically. I had to click the blinker manually. Before I got the blinkers fixed, I put a cup of coffee on the dash and accidently spilled it. The hot fluid went down the heating vent right above the steering column. Suddenly the turn signals began to operate as thought nothing had happened. That was two years ago and all's well.
I'm still not convinced it was ever broken or that it isn't broken now. I, like you, Lauren, can't imagine that it's normal for a stove to operate one way for 10 years then shift gears and do something else and the company says that's the way it should have worked from day one. I'm thinking this is temporary and my stove will be blowing up (not literally) before I know it!
I agree Beth, I would not go looking for a problem now. But I am curious as to why it just fixed itself after 10 years. I have never experienced something just fixing itself...once my things break they seem to stay that way.
I too, have experienced a ghost in the machine--this one a Jenn Air oven. For 10 years, I've used the oven with no problems and all of a sudden about a month ago, these fans started going on every time the stove got over 220 degrees. That meant ever time the stove warmed up, the fans went on and didn't shut off until after the stove cooled down. Depending on what you were cooking and for how long, the fans could blow for hours.
I did some research online and surmised that perhaps we'd blown a sensor or something like that. I got my local appliance person in and after researching the issue with Jenn Air, they concluded that the stove was working properly. That can't be, I said. But low and behold, the design spec called for the fans to come on after 220 degrees to protect some of the more sensitive electronics. So for 10 years, I'm suppose to believe that my stove was faulty and now all of a sudden, it corrected itself. Hmmm. Everything else seems to work fine, so I'm not going to go looking for a problem. Instead, I'm just trying to get used to the din of constantly blowing fans.
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