Give Me Freon, or Give Me Death!

My refrigerator is a relic of the '70s, much like myself. It has individual egg holders in the fridge door and a curved shelf for frozen juice cans in the freezer.

It is broken.

I have to keep the thermostat on maximum cool to maintain a cool somewhere around 40°F. The compressor runs nearly non-stop and even still the temperature of a glass of water kept inside the refrigerator regularly fluctuates 5 degrees in either direction throughout the day. That's probably bad. The freezer works fine though, which is an interesting phenomenon.

Most of my perishable food spent at least a day above 45°F before I even noticed there was a significant problem. There were heavy condensation droplets inside all of the jars for a few days before I investigated thoroughly. Given the food I tend to keep around — fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, beer, and condiments — most of it was probably not much worse for the wear, but I threw out anything I was not 100% sure about. Much of it was foodstuffs that had been hanging around too long anyway.

The good news is the landlord has ordered a new machine. The unit is scheduled to be delivered next week, but I'm not sure exactly when. I am looking forward to not hearing this compressor running all the time. It isn't deafening, but it is incessant and has grown into something of a Chinese water torture at this point.