All The Food is On The Lawn

Today is Friday. On Sunday night, Marybeth opened the fridge and said, “this water is warm.”

I checked the temperature reading and it said 70ºF. The freezer was still 2ºF. The LED panel read “SERVICE” and the fans were all running.

I got to diagnosing this Sub-Zero refrigerator-freezer. I found our model number (700TCI3 or 700TC 3) and serial number (M2685994) on the rating tag inside the door. I removed all the food and put it in Tupperware outside, in the yard. We’d been cursing the cold for days but now the 10º temps were going to help us keep this food from killing us later.

I vacuumed the condenser blades and turned things off and on and that didn’t help. I searched online and found some YouTube videos on Sub-Zero Error Codes Explained. Our panel was reading 50 EC and 40 EC, for “Your refrigerator compressor is running too long.” I cleared the codes and let things rest - hoping to recover - overnight.

Monday morning, nothing was improved. I called Sub-Zero and found their one/main/only service partner in Chicagoland: Blue Sky Appliance Service. I scheduled a service call for Wednesday morning.

Nick, from Blue Sky, came bright and early and was a helpful, young, happy face. He diagnosed that all parts are getting power but no cooling was happening. Thus, a decision to replace the CO system (compressor, fan, freon, etc.), to the tune of ~$2,400. Nick says this will buy us another ~10 years of service from this unit.

We can’t replace the unit cleanly because this kitchen was built in 2007 (the fridge was installed in 2007) and the standard fridge width was 27” at that time (this fridge is 27” wide) but has since changed. All modern fridges start at 30” wide, meaning we would have to rebuild the whole cabinetry and countertop around the fridge if we wanted to replace this one.

So, we will go with the parts-only replacement. Unfortunately, this can’t be scheduled until 2026-02-16. So our food remains outside the door until then. And I’m eyeing the squirrels that wander by.