Debunking Appliance Myths.
Darlings, it's the weekend, and that means a non work-related post. Let's talk refrigeration!
We have two refrigerators and one freezer unit at Chez Vel-DuRay. The Freezer is a 50's era Coldspot (by Sears). I bought it because it's huge enough to hold all the frozen food that The Greek insists on buying, and because I loved the handle: It's one of those big old-fashioned chrome handles, but it's sort of teardrop shaped. It's a serious handle, to be sure - if you don't remember to let go of it as it's closing, it will pinch your finger in a most vicious manner, and if it could talk, it would say "well, that's what you get for not letting go of the handle".
Then there is the 1958 (I think) General Electric wall-mounted refrigerator in lovely pink, with turquoise interior. This serves the soft drink, beer and mixers needs of Chez Vel-DuRay, and The Lodge in particular. It wouldn't dream of pinching your fingers, probably because it thinks it's on thin ice, as it never gets very cold. Cold enough for beer and soda, certainly, but I wouldn't want to have the caviar in there. Not that we ever have caviar. But if we did, I wouldn't dream of storing it in the pink wallmount.
Then there's the Sub-Zero in the kitchen. People always give you that Mr. Moneybags look when I mention that we have a Sub Zero, but like most things at Chez Vel-DuRay, it came to us secondhand from Second Use building supplies. We paid $50 for it, and had a $300 tune-up on it, and there you go. Champagne on a beer budget, as dear old Mom would say.
It's a big hulking brute, even bigger than the Coldspot, and something of a pain in the ass. It has this big compressor thingy on top that has to be vaccummed every three minutes or so, and it doesn't have a kickplate (If I told you the price of a replacement kickplate, you'd die. Absolutely die.). Also, we hever had it built in, as it was intended to be, so it gives the whole room a rather sinister industrial vibe. But I like it, because it has plenty of shelf room for hors d'oeuvre platters and other of life's essentials, and it makes ice. A vast improvement over the dreadful side-by-side that was there previously. Don't get me started on how much I hate side-by-side refrigerators. We'll be here all day. Besides, they remind me of watching game shows back in the 70's, when everyone and their mother was giving them away as prizes.
So why am I telling you all about these refrigerators? Well, it's because everything that you've been hearing on the television is a lie!
People trash old refrigerators all the time. They unfairly group them all in a big pile labeled "Energy Wasters". If there's one thing I hate, it's waste, so I - Catalina Vel-DuRay - was conflicted about the Coldspot and the GE: Lovely to look at, yes, but could I, as a person concerned about the environment, justifiably use them?
So I went out and bought a thing called a Kill-A-Watt. No, it's not a weapon, but it does tell you how many kilowatt hours a thing uses. Kilowatt hours are what your electric meter records, and what you are charged for by your Major Concern. I have run it on all three refrigerators, and am now armed with hard data. Feel free to get out your eyeshades and adding machines and work along with me.
The good news is that, since neither the Coldspot or GE wall mount are "frost free", they use very little energy: 3kwh for the freezer, 2.5 for the GE! This amounts to about $27.50 of each bi-monthly power bill here in the land of abundant, cheap electricity (Hi there, Major Concern!) or about $165 per year! A small price to pay for the luxury of frozen food (which stayed frozen during the big storm when the power was out) and chilled cocktail fixings, wouldn't you say?
The Sub-Zero is another story: Being bigger newer (so it's "frost free"), and much less insulated, it uses as much power as both its elder sisters combined! That's about what you would expect from something manufactured during the Reagan Administration. (That was a dreadful time, as you older readers will no doubt attest. He was an awful, awful man, with a dreaful, tacky wife and horrid children. Except for the gay one.) Final numbers are not yet in (I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat, but you'll just have to be patient) but it looks like it sucks up 6kwh per day! If any appliance needs to be replaced, it's that one. And, I suspect, in the natural progression of things, it will be the first to go.
The point of this post? Hmm... How about this: If you have an older refrigerator that needs to be defrosted, hold your head up high. There's no enviro-shame in your appliance, and if it happens to be in a designer color (the GE is, I believe, Mayfair Pink) it adds color to your life, and therefore makes you a person more in tune with nature. Or something like that. Certainly, it's easier than meditating or clearing Ivy.
That's all. Carry on.
We have two refrigerators and one freezer unit at Chez Vel-DuRay. The Freezer is a 50's era Coldspot (by Sears). I bought it because it's huge enough to hold all the frozen food that The Greek insists on buying, and because I loved the handle: It's one of those big old-fashioned chrome handles, but it's sort of teardrop shaped. It's a serious handle, to be sure - if you don't remember to let go of it as it's closing, it will pinch your finger in a most vicious manner, and if it could talk, it would say "well, that's what you get for not letting go of the handle".
Then there is the 1958 (I think) General Electric wall-mounted refrigerator in lovely pink, with turquoise interior. This serves the soft drink, beer and mixers needs of Chez Vel-DuRay, and The Lodge in particular. It wouldn't dream of pinching your fingers, probably because it thinks it's on thin ice, as it never gets very cold. Cold enough for beer and soda, certainly, but I wouldn't want to have the caviar in there. Not that we ever have caviar. But if we did, I wouldn't dream of storing it in the pink wallmount.
Then there's the Sub-Zero in the kitchen. People always give you that Mr. Moneybags look when I mention that we have a Sub Zero, but like most things at Chez Vel-DuRay, it came to us secondhand from Second Use building supplies. We paid $50 for it, and had a $300 tune-up on it, and there you go. Champagne on a beer budget, as dear old Mom would say.
It's a big hulking brute, even bigger than the Coldspot, and something of a pain in the ass. It has this big compressor thingy on top that has to be vaccummed every three minutes or so, and it doesn't have a kickplate (If I told you the price of a replacement kickplate, you'd die. Absolutely die.). Also, we hever had it built in, as it was intended to be, so it gives the whole room a rather sinister industrial vibe. But I like it, because it has plenty of shelf room for hors d'oeuvre platters and other of life's essentials, and it makes ice. A vast improvement over the dreadful side-by-side that was there previously. Don't get me started on how much I hate side-by-side refrigerators. We'll be here all day. Besides, they remind me of watching game shows back in the 70's, when everyone and their mother was giving them away as prizes.
So why am I telling you all about these refrigerators? Well, it's because everything that you've been hearing on the television is a lie!
People trash old refrigerators all the time. They unfairly group them all in a big pile labeled "Energy Wasters". If there's one thing I hate, it's waste, so I - Catalina Vel-DuRay - was conflicted about the Coldspot and the GE: Lovely to look at, yes, but could I, as a person concerned about the environment, justifiably use them?
So I went out and bought a thing called a Kill-A-Watt. No, it's not a weapon, but it does tell you how many kilowatt hours a thing uses. Kilowatt hours are what your electric meter records, and what you are charged for by your Major Concern. I have run it on all three refrigerators, and am now armed with hard data. Feel free to get out your eyeshades and adding machines and work along with me.
The good news is that, since neither the Coldspot or GE wall mount are "frost free", they use very little energy: 3kwh for the freezer, 2.5 for the GE! This amounts to about $27.50 of each bi-monthly power bill here in the land of abundant, cheap electricity (Hi there, Major Concern!) or about $165 per year! A small price to pay for the luxury of frozen food (which stayed frozen during the big storm when the power was out) and chilled cocktail fixings, wouldn't you say?
The Sub-Zero is another story: Being bigger newer (so it's "frost free"), and much less insulated, it uses as much power as both its elder sisters combined! That's about what you would expect from something manufactured during the Reagan Administration. (That was a dreadful time, as you older readers will no doubt attest. He was an awful, awful man, with a dreaful, tacky wife and horrid children. Except for the gay one.) Final numbers are not yet in (I know you're sitting on the edge of your seat, but you'll just have to be patient) but it looks like it sucks up 6kwh per day! If any appliance needs to be replaced, it's that one. And, I suspect, in the natural progression of things, it will be the first to go.
The point of this post? Hmm... How about this: If you have an older refrigerator that needs to be defrosted, hold your head up high. There's no enviro-shame in your appliance, and if it happens to be in a designer color (the GE is, I believe, Mayfair Pink) it adds color to your life, and therefore makes you a person more in tune with nature. Or something like that. Certainly, it's easier than meditating or clearing Ivy.
That's all. Carry on.
posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay @ Saturday, June 09, 2007
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