The lifespan of a fridge

One of those useless titbits of information which floats around in cyberspace, and to which very few of us give much attention, has to do with the life span of a fridge. Ten years seems to be the general consensus of opinion — though whose opinion is not quite clear — and that same benchmark can apparently be applied to most large electrical appliances.

Well, much to my dismay, I can now confirm that — at least in this household — the one about the fridge is correct. If only I had recognized the signs — the heaving, the heavy engine grumbling noises, the shudders — I might have been better prepared for the worst. But no — I just regarded these symptoms as nuisances sent to ruin the audio of my favourite films, our having an open-plan lounge/kitchen/diner and all.

So when it finally died a very noisy death ten days ago, I was quite unprepared. Financially more than anything. And no amount of surfing on the internet could find us anything that cost less than almost €400 to fit neatly into the fitted cupboard space over in the corner of the kitchen. And this morning it arrived, and to add insult to injury, it took hubby some 3 hours to finally tame the thing enough to get it to sit inside the cubby hole properly.

If you know someone in the bomb squad who can find and defuse the ten year time bomb sitting inside your fridge, I suggest you get them to do it at the earliest. Meanwhile treat your faithful fridge with a little tender loving care … you just never know when it might turn nasty on you.