Page 50 - Discover WINTER 2022

Charlie's Chatter CONTINUED
Naturally, I was curious. “Is the
freezer cold?” I inquired.
She responded with a cold stare. “Was
the old freezer cold?” I retreated out of
arm’s reach.
Next, it was noted that now wider
items would have sufficient space in
both sections. Huzzah. We can now
finally keep a sheet cake in the fridge.
I will admit that the new fridge has
a spectacular lighting system. In place
of the old single dim bulb, we now have
very bright LED lights distributed all
throughout the interior spaces. These
are obviously controlled by some fancy
electronic gizmo buried somewhere,
most likely in the least accessible place
in the unit.
In place of my grandfather
shouting,“HEY! Close the door to
the icebox!” we now have an alarm
that beeps incessantly if the door
stays open for too long. But the most
interesting feature has to be the control
panel, governed no doubt by the same
aforementioned gizmo. It displays the
temperature inside both compartments
(Cold? Yes, cold. Frozen? Yes, frozen.)
How did I ever survive without knowing fear being that the magic electronic
the inside temperature of my freezer in
degrees Celsius?
It also uses a single chute to dispense
both water and ice, eliminating the
hassle and waste of having one for
each right beside each other. It allows
48 Discover Smith Mountain Lake WINTER 2021
you to shut down the cooling system,
while continuing to power itself and
the interior lights. I have yet to discover
the tremendous advantage of such
an improvement, given that the main
mission is to keep stuff cold. It also has
a “Sabbath” feature. This allows the
user to turn off the annoying modern
conveniences on the Sabbath, for those
who must do so for religious purposes.
Last time I checked, the Pope was cool
with modern refrigeration, but it was a
standard feature.
I discovered to my chagrin that the
water dispenser did not provide chilled
water. A quick check of the owner’s
manual revealed that “this product is
not designed to chill water. Use the ice
dispenser to dispense ice into your glass
before dispensing water.” Amazing. My
grandfather had already learned that
trick when he had an icebox.
This one has “French doors” in the
non-freezer section. Three days later, I
opened the right side door, and surprise!
No lights. I opened the left side, and
the lights came on as usual. Lord knows
what sort of malfunction has befallen
our expensive new refrigerator, my worst
gizmo buried somewhere in the bowels
of the thing might be the culprit.
There is a phone number for warranty
service that is printed on the last page
of the owner’s manual, which I had to
source online. I called the number at 8