Shared Knowledge

 

“GE TA4SLC Mini Refrigerator Drip Pan”

 

12 September 2005

 

 

 

When we renovated our home a number of years ago, we had installed on the bottom floor a GE TA4SLC model mini refrigerator (refrig) to hold soda and other drinks. As part of the renovation, we picked out the refrig but with all other aspects of the renovation project to watch over, we really paid no attention to the installation of the refrig.

 

Over the years, the refrig has been a constant source of hassles as the cooling coils are on the inside and are supposed to be what the manufacturer calls a freezer compartment. Anyway, over time, the cooling coils would be covered with at least an inch, if not more, of frost, which then would require we shut down the refrig, empty it of all its contents and place rags at the bottom to catch all the frost melted water.

 

Finally, having enough of this annoyance, I decided to buy a new mini refrig with automatic defrost but when I looked around, I could not find one with identical dimensions to the one we had, which had automatic defrost. But after doing my research, I discovered all automatic defrost was, was a timer built into the refrig, which periodically turned off the refrig, which allowed the frost to melt into a drip pan located directly under the cooling coils. Ok, I can make it automatic with a timer plugged into the wall but when I checked our refrig, we had no drip pan?  I checked all the cabinets around the refrig but could not come up with it and neither my wife nor I could ever remember seeing a drip pan for the refrig.

 

Ok, I will just buy one as parts are available for just about any appliance you can think of, somewhere from somebody but when I checked my local appliance parts store Trebles, they said that it was no longer available from the manufacturer and when I checked the Internet, I came up with the same search results: not available.

 

So what to do? I will make one. I took the lid off a Rubbermaid plastic storage container and although the depth of the lid was correct, it was too wide to slide into the refrig in the slot built into the refrig sides for the drip plan. So out came the box cutter and I cut a hunk out of the lid and then glued the end back on the major piece and the sealed it all with silicon caulk.  Not too cosmetically pleasing but it did fit the slot and would hold water and so I left it like that for several days and tested my automatic timer defrost solution.

 

Then several days later, I was at Home Depot to buy something for another project and as I walked by the paint department, I had this thought. I wonder if there are any paint trays, like painters use to hold paint for a roller which might work as a refrig drip pan? So, I found a tape measure to use and went into the paint section and found lots and lots of metal and plastic paint trays to survey and measure. And there, among the metal and fancy, where these $.59 cent plastic, one time use, paint roller type trays, which were the identical dimensions of the tray I needed. Because the throw away trays are flimsy in construction, I splurged and bought 2 and figure 2 together would be a little stronger in the refrig than just one on its own.

 

And for sure, when I got home, the painter tray slide right into the refrig drip plan slot and is ever so much more cosmetically pleasing than the tray I made out of a lid.

 

The bottom line of this shared knowledge is that if your are ever in a situation where you need a tray you might want to check out painter’s trays at your local hardware store. Perhaps you will find one, which identically fits your needs.