Fix a freezer?

[SoCold]

Last month my neighbor gave me a small freezer that a tenant had left behind in her rental suite. It's the Danby 3.6 cu. ft. model sold at Costco for about $200. I was excited about the freebie and used it for several weeks, but one day I discovered that it had stopped working (luckily I discovered the malfunction and got to the food before it spoiled.)

The short lifespan is a common complaint about this unit on the Costco website. So I'm wondering if it would be worth trying to fix mine, or just forget about it and invest in a more reliable model. Does anyone have any experience fixing an appliance like this? Would you try to fix an appliance with a reputation for dying after 1-2 years?

[AlanStache]

I would put some time into online research, see if it is a simple easy to fix problem.  Do you have good plains for the fridge or is this "hay it free, cool I would like to have one".  If this is about money think about the extra power consumption too.  Then will you be spending more on stupid food stuff to fill it up and make use of it?

[swick]

I honestly don't think it would be worth the time and effort to fix it. We had a slightly bigger model from the same company. It worked for 13 months (warranty was 12) you could hear the motor turning over but not turning on.

Took it all apart and isolated the problem, but Hubby couldn't find an equivalent to the part that went, the pieces were all Chinese made  had no info on them. He is pretty sure that they used the wrong size of the piece that went, and it caused some further damage in the motor. There was also blackening like it had gotten too hot, lucky we didn't have an electrical fire. Could have tired fixing it but after guessing the part and getting it shipped up, plus damage to the motor, it wasn't worth it.

If you "really" need a freezer, I would watch craiglist, the buy and sell or whatever you have in your area, you can usually get them for fairly cheap because people don't want to move them. Even easier if you live in a college town. I would go with a different brand though.

[SoCold]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll forget about it. I liked having the extra freezer space because I was able to stock up when I saw good prices on meat, and I was going to start batch-cooking meals to freeze. I think we'd save enough to offset the cost of running a small unit. But, I can live without it. I'll keep my eyes open for a better quality unit.

[SDREMNGR]

I would advise reconsidering having a freezer.  I got an extra deep freezer for a special occasion need.  It was about 5 years old and in decent shape.  I liked having it but it increased my power bill by like $10 by itself!  And it encouraged me to have extra food held in storage for no reason.  The cost of the extra power bill sort of negated the savings from the food freezing.  And not having more freezer space encourages us to eat more fresh food and less frozen stuff and meat.

[Rezdent]

We do have a freezer, it's been repaired in the past and get great value out of it but this is something that people need to weigh benefit vs. cost based on their situation.
For us, we have been able to drop our grocery bills a great deal by producing a lot of our own food and stocking up on sales.  Plus batch cooking really helps us because we can cook during the cooler months.  Summers we have no AC and we do a lot of quick reheating.
If you shop more than once a month,  do not need to store home grown surplus, etc., then a freezer might not save you money.  You might find less intensive ways to store food.  Freezing isn't the only way to store seasonal food - there's also dehydrating and canning.

[Rube]

Probably the overload. Find a parts store and pick up a Supco 3 in 1 starter overload capacitor. You can buy them on amazon but you might get more help at the store. Those come in various sizes btw. Good luck!