Reading and writing have not come easily lately. Nor has settling into the cozy rhythms of fall with its spectacular colors and crunchy leaves. It’s a hard time to feel safe in the world. There’s a lot going on. Personally, we’ve been careening through the gauntlet of drop off and pick ups for after school activities, check ups, jobs (yes, two more of our household members have joined the workforce).
In the midst of not having enough hours in the day, I sometimes insist on making things harder for myself. In weird ways. Well, in many ways, to be honest, but I’m talking about particular situations where I am trying to accomplish what should be a simple task. Like buying a new water filter.
One of the best days in my life was a couple of years ago when we got our new refrigerator. Prior to that, if you came to visit, you would likely have brought a baggie of ice from your own home in a cooler. Our freezer was too packed to fit in ice cube trays so we gave up trying. In the winter we would use snow from the back deck.
We had wanted a new fridge, but couldn’t justify the expense when the one that came with our house worked just fine. Seven years later, it started leaking uncontrollably. We were elated. I didn’t care what kind we bought as long as it had an ice maker. What I really really wanted was one that had ice and filtered water on demand on the door. It’s seriously lame adulting to consider this such a luxury, but that’s my truth. My dream came true. It was a tricky installation because the kitchen was designed in such a way that the refrigerator could only go in one location. And that cubby hole couldn’t be made any larger or be relocated. After much measuring and looking at several models, my husband realized that he could shave off just enough of the cabinet casing that was above the cubby space giving us a much needed extra ¾ of an inch. Honestly, we could’ve just taken down the entire upper cabinet for all I care. Being 5’1”, I can’t even tell you what’s up there in appliance purgatory.
Our lives changed overnight. Cold filtered water and ice anytime. All the times. The novelty of it has still not worn off. After about 6 months, the change filter light came on. I ordered a new filter on Amazon. It came labeled with the correct model number. I broke out the manual, removed the old filter and tried to insert the new one. It’s not rocket science. But it didn’t fit. I coaxed and forced, but it wouldn’t click in. I took it out only to realize that the connection point on the top was completely different from the old one. The new one had all these plastic fin things that didn’t allow it to fit all the way in. So, I wrapped it back up and returned it. The next day I went to Home Depot. One the rack were about 15 filters with the correct model number. The same model number. Yet, about half of them had the plastic fins on top and half of them did not. Which didn’t make sense. I bought a few of the ones I knew would fit. Peace was restored to the refrigerator door for another year and a half until we ran out. I went back to Home Depot. They only had the fin tops. I asked the Google. There was only one mention of this issue with no advice. I went back to the appliance store where we bought the refrigerator, they were baffled. I called GE. They told me that the old style filters had been discontinued, but that they could still be purchased through Walmart. The representative sent me the link. I figured that since they were discontinued, they wouldn’t be available forever so I bought 8 years worth of filters. They arrived. I put one in. It fit. But instead of water or ice, an error message flashed on the screen. I took it out, put it back, unplugged, replugged…still the error message and no water. I put the old filter back in and got same Error message and no water. I called back GE. They said they had no idea, but wished me good luck. I called the appliance store and found out that we had bought the extended warranty. Go us!! A repairman came out a few days later and was, like everyone else, baffled, but determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. He said the case of filters I bought would not work because they did not contain a certain chip that would allow them to communicate with the refrigerator. He left saying that he would research it and get back to me. In the meantime, I returned hundreds of dollars of filters. The repair tech called back saying that he had done all he could, but found nothing helpful. Apparently, we had a refrigerator still under warranty with a discontinued water filter. I told the repair person, “I’m going to give this one more shot. I’m going to buy one of the new fangled filters with the fins and my husband and I will do everything we could to make it fit. But I was worried that we might break the whole filter housing unit and that would void our warranty because we had acted like orangatangs with power tools. The repair guy guaranteed he’d be back out to fix it at no cost if that were to happen. “Let me know how it goes.” he said.
I went back to Home Depot, bought the new weird filter, went home, took out the old filter, and cautiously lined up the new one which easily slid and clicked in with no effort whatsoever. It almost floated into place by itself. I closed the door and pressed the button. No error message, water flowed, and ice happened a few hours later.
Why didn’t the first new one work? Did I try too hard to get it in? Was it defective? How many people did I involve to solve a mystery that never existed? Is this a parable about trying too hard or creating problems that aren’t necessary? It wouldn’t be the first time. It took many moments and much mental load over several weeks during a time that I barely had time to buy groceries.
I couldn’t bring myself to call back the repair person to let him know.
On a different topic, I have a lot on my mind about world affairs and am mostly not sharing my opinion. I’ve stayed mostly off of social media to avoid having to read the opinions of others. Writing about something as benign as water filters could seem like sticking my head in the sand, throwing up my hands, and saying, “Whelp, not my problem.” This couldn’t be further from my truth. Emma Lazarus said, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” Sorry to say, friends, not one of us is free. We never have been, but it’s times like these that makes it more apparent. In the meantime, we can still find joy and love and peace in our own little worlds. In fact, it’s essential that we do.
Toasting you with a big glass of filtered water with ice, love, and peace - Lorryn
I’ve been thinking of you. Thanks for continuing to write.
Thank you! And thank you for honestly sharing “you”. Why do replacements become long research projects? I feel the same.