7 ms·

Poor people can make their own decisions about whether to use an old fridge or not. They know much more about their own situation than you do. You are not well

by emtel 11mo ago

Poor people can make their own decisions about whether to use an old fridge or not. They know much more about their own situation than you do. You are not well situated to make these sorts of decisions for them.

Johnny555 11mo ago
But do they? Does the person taking on that broken refrigerator know that it has a flaw that makes it consume so much electricity that in 3 years the power use alone would cost more than buying a brand new refrigerator? (ok, in this case they gave it to someone that needs a temporary 'fridge during renovations, so it's kind of a moot point, they aren't just giving it to "poor people")
- b112 11mo ago
  Probably not any better than the last two LG fridges which both broke due to compressor issues, causing me to lose $1k of food each time. In one case, during the high summer, I didn't notice one was slowly getting warmer. I had constant bowel problems, because I was eating rotten mayonnaise. This was compounded by the fact that I bought fancy spicy mayonnaise, which I'd never tasted before, which masked the rotten flavour. So -- my lessons learned, never by LG horrible fridges again, and keep an analog thermometer, which I bought for $5, in the fridge. (General FYI, LG has had more than one class action law suit because of their compressors, and, they even make it very hard to obtain replacements. Evil bastards.) My point is, you should take care with any fridge, new or old. (edit: some clarity on mayo)
  - kasabali 11mo ago
    > So -- my lessons learned, never by LG horrible fridges again You'd need to be careful because many other manufacturers are using LG made compressors in their products.
    - cogman10 11mo ago
      LG and Samsung are the two that I think everyone should stay away from for major appliances. GE and it's spinoff brands tend to do better.
    - deleted 11mo ago
      [deleted]
  - RedShift1 11mo ago
    You need to smell your food before you eat it. Trust your senses.
    - b112 11mo ago
      Please. I've definitely smelled off food, and of course don't eat it. The mayo in question was some weird spicy stuff, and it didn't smell or taste bad. Note: https://www.sciencealert.com/sniff-tests-wont-save-you-from-food-poisoning-an-expert-explains-why https://www.sciencealert.com/sniff-tests-wont-save-you-from-... You cannot smell or taste all forms of bad food. At all.
  - Marsymars 11mo ago
    I plan on putting some LoRaWAN temp sensors in my fridges/freezers to alert me if the temp goes out of spec for very long. (As soon as YoLink has their Local Hub available and functioning with Home Assistant.)
    - vluft 11mo ago
      Good news for you, their local hub is available and I currently have fridge and freezer (and a few other sensors) hooked up to home assistant via it right now.
    - b112 11mo ago
      I have remote gauges with alarms in my freezers, but I'm in my fridge every day, and nothing beats a simple analog gauge. In the freezers I also employ either the "freeze some ice cubes and put them in a baggy" or "freeze a small jar and put a coin on top" methods. If you see the ice cubes have melted and refroze, then trouble. If the coin is not on the top of the jar -- same thing. Fail proof methods.
    - scottlamb 11mo ago
      I doubt you'd be able to get a signal through from inside the fridge. I made a Home Assistant "food safety" dashboard and alerts. I found two challenges: * Connecting to the outside world. I didn't go wireless because a fridge/freezer cavity is basically a Faraday cage, because I didn't want to deal with replacing batteries, and because high humidity + low temp = wet, sad microcontroller. And even a "flat" 4-conductor telephone cord disturbed the magnetic seal enough that there was a noticeable gap. I ended up buying a 4-contact, 1mm pitch, 200mm flat flexible cable to run across the seal. I separated the contacts with a utility knife, soldering them to other cables on both sides. I also heatshrinked the conductors individually and the whole junction together for strain relief. Then I superglued it into place. And 4 conductors is enough for ground, supply voltage, and either TX/RX or 1-Wire+unused. * Getting a reading that matches what foods actually experience rather than the air temperature. The latter fluctuates a lot more when you open/close the door or depending on what the defrost/compressor is doing. I ended up buying waterproof 1-Wire temperature sensors (elecrow sells them for $1.20 each + reasonable shipping), 4 oz plastic bottles, cable glands, and propylene glycol (relatively safe antifreeze, though I wouldn't chug it). I drilled holes in the lids for the glands to run the sensors in, then closed the bottles up while immersed in the solution. Cheap DIY buffered temperature probe. I currently measure buffered temperature, air temperature, and humidity, but really only the buffered temperature matters.
  - crazygringo 11mo ago
    > $1k of food each time What, is it chock full of exclusively ribeye steaks and smoked salmon? That feels like a crazy number. I keep a lot of nice vacuum-sealed protein in my freezer but even then I'd say the value is $300 max. How do you get to $1K?
    - b112 11mo ago
      Canadian dollars, so 1.45x USD, and some expensive meats. Lamb is 3x the price of beef, for example. Name brand bacon is not too bulky and thin, 10 bucks for 500g. Some fish is expensive too. It adds up surprisingly fast.
- analog31 11mo ago
  You can borrow a watt meter at my local public library. I'm not saying the average person would have the knowledge to think of doing this, but it's not out of reach.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
bloomingeek 11mo ago
There's an old expression that I actually lived out: "Poor people have poor ways." When I was living well below the poverty level, I used whatever resource that was available as long as it was legal. I was given a chest type freezer that was made somewhere in the early 60's, but was in good working order, since it was owned by a person in the HVAC field. It wasn't very efficient, but I needed the freezer space. (Since we didn't have air conditioning, I could afford the electric usage.) Most poor people make decisions based on whatever works, not if it's the best option, because of the lack of money.
- throwaway173738 11mo ago
  When you have no options whatever works is the best choice.

by emtel 11mo ago

Johnny555 11mo ago

But do they? Does the person taking on that broken refrigerator know that it has a flaw that makes it consume so much electricity that in 3 years the power use alone would cost more than buying a brand new refrigerator? (ok, in this case they gave it to someone that needs a temporary 'fridge during renovations, so it's kind of a moot point, they aren't just giving it to "poor people")

b112 11mo ago
Probably not any better than the last two LG fridges which both broke due to compressor issues, causing me to lose $1k of food each time. In one case, during the high summer, I didn't notice one was slowly getting warmer. I had constant bowel problems, because I was eating rotten mayonnaise. This was compounded by the fact that I bought fancy spicy mayonnaise, which I'd never tasted before, which masked the rotten flavour. So -- my lessons learned, never by LG horrible fridges again, and keep an analog thermometer, which I bought for $5, in the fridge. (General FYI, LG has had more than one class action law suit because of their compressors, and, they even make it very hard to obtain replacements. Evil bastards.) My point is, you should take care with any fridge, new or old. (edit: some clarity on mayo)
- kasabali 11mo ago
  > So -- my lessons learned, never by LG horrible fridges again You'd need to be careful because many other manufacturers are using LG made compressors in their products.
  - cogman10 11mo ago
    LG and Samsung are the two that I think everyone should stay away from for major appliances. GE and it's spinoff brands tend to do better.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
- RedShift1 11mo ago
  You need to smell your food before you eat it. Trust your senses.
  - b112 11mo ago
    Please. I've definitely smelled off food, and of course don't eat it. The mayo in question was some weird spicy stuff, and it didn't smell or taste bad. Note: https://www.sciencealert.com/sniff-tests-wont-save-you-from-food-poisoning-an-expert-explains-why https://www.sciencealert.com/sniff-tests-wont-save-you-from-... You cannot smell or taste all forms of bad food. At all.
- Marsymars 11mo ago
  I plan on putting some LoRaWAN temp sensors in my fridges/freezers to alert me if the temp goes out of spec for very long. (As soon as YoLink has their Local Hub available and functioning with Home Assistant.)
  - vluft 11mo ago
    Good news for you, their local hub is available and I currently have fridge and freezer (and a few other sensors) hooked up to home assistant via it right now.
  - b112 11mo ago
    I have remote gauges with alarms in my freezers, but I'm in my fridge every day, and nothing beats a simple analog gauge. In the freezers I also employ either the "freeze some ice cubes and put them in a baggy" or "freeze a small jar and put a coin on top" methods. If you see the ice cubes have melted and refroze, then trouble. If the coin is not on the top of the jar -- same thing. Fail proof methods.
  - scottlamb 11mo ago
    I doubt you'd be able to get a signal through from inside the fridge. I made a Home Assistant "food safety" dashboard and alerts. I found two challenges: * Connecting to the outside world. I didn't go wireless because a fridge/freezer cavity is basically a Faraday cage, because I didn't want to deal with replacing batteries, and because high humidity + low temp = wet, sad microcontroller. And even a "flat" 4-conductor telephone cord disturbed the magnetic seal enough that there was a noticeable gap. I ended up buying a 4-contact, 1mm pitch, 200mm flat flexible cable to run across the seal. I separated the contacts with a utility knife, soldering them to other cables on both sides. I also heatshrinked the conductors individually and the whole junction together for strain relief. Then I superglued it into place. And 4 conductors is enough for ground, supply voltage, and either TX/RX or 1-Wire+unused. * Getting a reading that matches what foods actually experience rather than the air temperature. The latter fluctuates a lot more when you open/close the door or depending on what the defrost/compressor is doing. I ended up buying waterproof 1-Wire temperature sensors (elecrow sells them for $1.20 each + reasonable shipping), 4 oz plastic bottles, cable glands, and propylene glycol (relatively safe antifreeze, though I wouldn't chug it). I drilled holes in the lids for the glands to run the sensors in, then closed the bottles up while immersed in the solution. Cheap DIY buffered temperature probe. I currently measure buffered temperature, air temperature, and humidity, but really only the buffered temperature matters.
- crazygringo 11mo ago
  > $1k of food each time What, is it chock full of exclusively ribeye steaks and smoked salmon? That feels like a crazy number. I keep a lot of nice vacuum-sealed protein in my freezer but even then I'd say the value is $300 max. How do you get to $1K?
  - b112 11mo ago
    Canadian dollars, so 1.45x USD, and some expensive meats. Lamb is 3x the price of beef, for example. Name brand bacon is not too bulky and thin, 10 bucks for 500g. Some fish is expensive too. It adds up surprisingly fast.
analog31 11mo ago
You can borrow a watt meter at my local public library. I'm not saying the average person would have the knowledge to think of doing this, but it's not out of reach.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

bloomingeek 11mo ago

There's an old expression that I actually lived out: "Poor people have poor ways." When I was living well below the poverty level, I used whatever resource that was available as long as it was legal. I was given a chest type freezer that was made somewhere in the early 60's, but was in good working order, since it was owned by a person in the HVAC field. It wasn't very efficient, but I needed the freezer space. (Since we didn't have air conditioning, I could afford the electric usage.) Most poor people make decisions based on whatever works, not if it's the best option, because of the lack of money.

throwaway173738 11mo ago
When you have no options whatever works is the best choice.