Fridge back together

So, I left you some time ago with the news that our fridge broke down. It turns out it was still (barely) under warranty so they sent us a new cooling unit. Rob called a couple of guys; one had no interest and the other said he'd come but didn't - twice. So we watched the 15 minute video showing how to do it - it looked not so difficult. It shows the use of "thermal mastic" so then we tried to find that in town, failed, ordered it online. Once it arrived, we started in on the dirty deed - only to find some thermal mastic in an interior box (but it would have needed a caulking gun while ours was in toothpaste tubes).

Anyway, we spent Tuesday night (after buying more ice and doing the cat sitting gig) taking the fridge apart:

The shelves are out, the doors are off.

Lay it down and start taking off the old cooling unit.

The burner assembly - note how much paint has burned off the tube to the left (up when standing).

Hacking at the foam seal behind the freezer.

I can see floor!

Next we brought up the new unit and tried to line things up. We gave up after midnight, saving it for a fresh attack. Back at it Wednesday (after cat sitting):

It's together again, for better or worse.

Note the bulged out back plate - the new one isn't exactly the same model. Also, there were very few screw holes so Rob had to make some new ones. We went through an entire can of spray foam filling in the gap where we'd carved out more foam than strictly necessary. Buying drill bits and spray foam happened during the day on Wednesday.

We got it back up, doors on, lit the burner - and watched smoke come out from burning paint. Now the new pipe should match the old one.

It's working and we can stop buying ice. All that remains is to claim our frozen food from a neighbor's house. Our feeling is that next time, we'll just buy a new fridge and stick to software.