Enter your search termsSubmit search form
	Web TheEpicenter.com

    Refrigerators, like all mechanical devices, wear out.  Refrigerators are referred to as "durable goods," meaning that they have an intended life in excess of 3-5 years. You will however, find that a refrigerator can last 20 years or more in many cases.

    I remember back in the late '70s when my father had a garage sale to clear out some of my grandparent's possessions after grandpa's passing.  There was an old Philco upright from the late 30's down in the basement.  My father sold it to a guy for $10.  After the buyer struggled for several hours to get it out of the basement and finally to his house, he called my father back  to complain that the fridge didn't work.  After repeatedly insisting that it surely must work, my father finally relented and agree to refund the man's ten bucks.
    Several minutes later, the man called back; the refrigerator indeed worked, and he had merely forgotten to turn on the switch when he plugged it in!

    Now in that case, the 40 year old Philco was both good and durable!

    My own experience has indicated a failure rate of one time in a 5 year period.  Nothing is worse than having perishable items in the freezer, and finding that the refrigerator has conked out on a Sunday, when the repair man is at the beach!   The last time my fridge went down, I was lucky (or prepared) as I transferred the contents to the backup refrigerator in the garage.

The freezer section contains water!

    We can never too often stress the eminent importance of water to survival.   I can stand to drop a few pounds of stored energy (fat), but I can't go without water for more than a few days and neither can you!

    My garage refrigerator's freezer section is filled with water in single serving bottles.  I have tested the plastic containers you see, through a half a dozen thaw and freeze cycles, and have determined empirically that water bottled in number 1 plastic will withstand repeated cycles without bursting (a common problem from freezing expansion).  I'm not endorsing a specific brand of water.  You should look for the number 1 symbol on the bottom of the container and only use non carbonated water.

    Now, remember the problem with having a refrigerator fail on a Sunday?  (Or if you have week long power outage?).  The beauty of my frozen bottles is that now my old garage refrigerator contains a supply of ice!   And when the ice melts, it will be my extra source of water!  Get the idea?

Food and more water!

    You see 5 year coast guard water rations, and MREs.  You can't see inside the drawers that are usually meant for vegetables, but they contain more water!

    (To the dismay of survivalist author Ted Wright, my beer is located in the door of the refrigerator and not buried in the ground!  That's an inside joke.
Ted likes to give me a bad time about taking up valuable refrigerator real-estate with my beer, but I keep telling him that I can't enjoy my beer if I bury it with other supplies!  At least I don't need to worry about rotating it when I drink it, Ted!)

    Some of the contents of my garage refrigerator : MRE meals, MRE bread, MRE hamburger buns, and MRE main entrees like spaghetti with meat balls, ham slices, potatoes au Gratin and the like.   Though it is not necessary to refrigerate many of these items,  the lower storage temperatures will extend the shelf life of your MRE's beyond the 10 year mark!

    You will also notice a supply of batteries in the refrigerator!  It sounds like a strange place for batteries, but shelf life can be extended by lower temperatures.
 
 

The main reason to have a spare:

                                                               (Sorry about the quality of the photos, but there really are two straps on the top!)

    Two straps were installed at the top, and two were installed at the bottom of the refrigerator.  Most refrigerators are set up so doors can attach from the right or the left side.  You will be able to take advantage of these hinge hole locations to install the securing straps.  Even if the doors are mounted so they open to the right, the left side holes still exist where the door hinges would have been located for left door applications.

    I used the nylon webbing from a set of front seat belts out of an old Jaguar I dismantled several years ago.  (British cars are one of my many hobbies!)

    Any junk yard can supply you with a set of seat belts at very low cost.  Front seat belts are the longest (over the shoulder type).  And one pair will provide material for all four straps.  Secure the straps to the existing refrigerator hinge holes with bolts and large washers.  Secure the other end of the straps to wall studs using screws and washers. 

    To insure that the supplies stay inside the refrigerator during a big shake, I fashioned a securing device out of 1/2" plywood as shown..

    The "E" shaped device fits under the two door handles (and between them).  Your handles and the spacing between them will differ, but you get the idea.  I attached one of an adjustable auto cargo tie downs (discussed last week) to the center of the "E", and bolted the other end of the tie down to the wall stud behind the refrigerator.

    Since I use the refrigerator to hold my beer, I need easy access to the contents. The "E" device is easily removed by grabbing the adjuster and pulling 2 inches of slack.

    You should be able to find a functional garage refrigerator for free if you hunt carefully.  I once had an additional spare from a kitchen remodel, and found that I couldn't get rid of it.  I contacted several charities like the Salvation army, and none of them would pick it up because it wasn't a self defrosting model!  Can you believe it?  They wouldn't pick up a functional unit simply because it wasn't self defrosting!
    I discovered that it was going to cost me $15 to drop it off at the dump, so I convinced a friend that he NEEDED one, and he still  uses it today!