Please help! - we had a big flood in TN and several inches of water got in the garage. The old fridge in there is still humming along but the new freezer is not working. Anybody have an idea what we should do? Thanks!

-- Georg in TN (dgkotarski@bledsoe.net), January 25, 2002

Answers

let it dry out REAL WELL,, check the breaker/fuse box ,, it may even have an internal breaker,, once its dry it may work again. Motor got wet,, so it shorted out,, once its dry,, REAL DRY,, it may be fine. If nothing else, you may have to replace the motor,, no big deal really

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 25, 2002.

Do you have homeowners insurance for floods? They may cover the cost to fix/replace any damaged items.

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), January 25, 2002.

Had a friend once that had rising water 4 ft deep in home and he took out the motor(s) for his washing machine and dryer (before trying to start them after the flood) and placed them in the oven at a low temp and dryed them out...replaced them and they worked fine.

If the water got to them and you think they are damaged; that's another problem...the answer above about home insurance is your best bet. Refrigerators will try to run based on temperature settings and most likely it did try to come on..do as suggested above reset the breaker (Fuse) and see if it holds if not then most likely it tried to run and has a short caused by dampness and possible burned out motor....it could be only a fan motor if it is located down low. Where is the wiring that goes to the compressor can you tell it got wet in an exposed wire area? Also, after a hurricane, we found 50 HP motors running under water and they were fine...but they were shut off as soon as found for protection (safety) as they were not designed for total submersion in water. You have some good advice above and good luck!

-- milam gerick (milamgerick@juno.com), January 26, 2002.

Just a little info. MOST homeowners policies do not cover flood damage. Read your policy, but it probably doesn't.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), January 26, 2002.

Thanks to everyone for their support. Yes, we have flood insurance but probably too big a deductible to file on that. Also, I'd be afraid they'd cancel it.

Anyway, the freezer is running again. It either dried out, as you guys suggested, or it was never off. My husband discovered that the temperature stayed at zero degrees! So he thinks the light shorted out, making us think it had quit. When he listened to it, it didn't seem to be running but freezers don't run every minute. In the future, we'll put it up on blocks just in case. THANKS!

-- Georg in TN (dgkotarski@bledsoe.net), January 28, 2002.