OK, the moves are done (we moved two branches into new buildings this month, which is part of the reason I've not discovered anything). So time to start sharing my vast wealth of knowledge with the world again.

Kinda tiny tidbit for this first one (trust me, I've got big stuff coming in a day or two): Why was my freezer broken? We've got a frost free upright freezer. Almost since we got it, it's been a little flaky. Twice a year, it seems to go nuts. The fan comes on, the condenser kicks on, and then the condenser kicks off. Fan keeps running, though. About a minute later, the condenser kicks on, and then off. This keeps up for days, until the freezer is about 40 degrees and everything has spoiled.

I've had a repair guy out 3 times on this. He's never found anything, because the problem seems to always occur on Friday, and by the time he gets out on Monday everything is working again. So the last time it happened I said "Screw the repair guy", and decided to fix it myself. A friend mentioned that problems like this could be the defrost heater or thermostat, so I located that and played around. I ran it without those devices for a while, and it seemed fine. By the time I was done playing, it was working again, so I hooked everything back up.

This weekend it started acting up again. So, knowing what I learned from last time, I removed the cover and bypassed the defrost thermostat--running the heater manually. The heater worked fine (it gets hot, and I've got the small burn on my finger to prove it). I then plugged everything back in, and waited for it to kick on again. When it did, it exhibited the same problems. So, next step--I disconnected the thermostat and printer, and put the cover back on. Within a minute, it was running normally again.

$150 worth of site visit costs from the repair guy, and it looks like my problem is a $10 part. I'm gonna order a new defrost thermostat today and find out for sure.