donforrester1947 posted: " For the past three to four weeks, the new freezer in the garage has been lurking in the periphery of my thoughts as a basis of irritation. It wasn't the first thing I thought about when I awakened in the morning, but not a day passed that it didn't"
For the past three to four weeks, the new freezer in the garage has been lurking in the periphery of my thoughts as a basis of irritation. It wasn't the first thing I thought about when I awakened in the morning, but not a day passed that it didn't surface somewhere in my thought processes.
When we moved into our new home at the end of May 2023, we had two refrigerators in storage. One was stainless steel and had been used for a year before we moved it into storage. It was virtually brand new, and the freezer space was located in the lower portion of the unit.
The General was adamant that we needed a new refrigerator for the house, but she wanted to go back to white instead of stainless steel. The unit she selected was similar to the one we already had, except for the color. We opted to give away the white refrigerator we purchased in 1991. The freezer space was located in the top of that unit. By the way, the freezer space held twice what either of the units moved into our new home hold.
I probably shouldn't refer to it as a "bright idea", but the General determined we had ample space in the garage to place an upright freezer. The additional freezer would solve our lack of ample freezer space. My only involvement in the selection was to provide a nod of approval for her to purchase whatever she wanted. She ordered the unit from Home Depot.
When they delivered the freezer and plugged it in, it tripped the breaker for the tankless hot water heater. At that point it became a choice between ice and hot water. In my books, the hot water would win out every time. According to the delivery guys from Home Depot, the freezer needed a dedicated electrical connection. It could not just be plugged into one of the four additional plugs located in the garage.
By the way, we had a small freezer in the garage of our last home. We didn't have to do anything other than plug it in. We reached out to our builder, and he reminded us that we paid for an additional dedicated electric outlet in the garage. That plug was to the left of the tankless hot water heater.
Though it wasn't an ideal location for the freezer, we could make it work. Unfortunately, it didn't work. When we plugged the freezer in, it tripped a GIF in the garage. The General's brother who knows something about electricity determined that there was not an additional dedicated plug in the garage. Everything was wired together.
My solution was to return the new freezer to Home Depot. According to the General, that was not a possibility. The way I saw it, if you couldn't plug it into a regular outlet, it didn't serve us well.
With assistance from our builder, the electrical company that wired the house scheduled to be at our home between 8:00 a.m. and noon yesterday. It was a "No show for them" during that time frame.
They did arrive by 1:30 and it took them no time at all to ascertain that there was not an additional dedicated plug in the garage. We had paid for a dedicated plug that we did not receive. Fortunately, we had attic access to the space above the garage, so they should be able to add the additional plug.
The electricians asked if it would be permissible to add the extra dedication plug below the breaker box. It would be a simple process for them and much easier than going through the attic. In addition, that was the location the General preferred that the freezer be located.
I'm for calling it a story with a happy ending. We now have both a freezer in the garage and a tankless hot water system that works. In addition, since we'd already paid for an additional dedicated plug, there was no charge for the additional work.
In addition, the freezer is no longer in the periphery of my thought processes.
No comments:
Post a Comment