People who move to Uruguay from consumer societies tend to get frustrated and complain about the lack of variety, and generally poor – no, make that piss-poor – quality of consumer goods. With reason.
We bought the refrigerator on the right new, the one on the left used from someone now a friend, who we now know spent a great deal of time and effort getting it repaired before selling it (he was leaving the country). Both are products of Bosch, a brand I had considered quality. No longer. Three of the door shelves have on the new one have broken, and it has been the object of a repair visit before.
Last night it stopped working. This morning it started working again, but not before we had brought the other from the casita (little house), and transferred all the contents. And called the repair people, fortunately not early responders so I was able to cancel.
But seeing them side-by-side reminds me of one of the oddities of this limited marketplace of 3.5 million people. Notice how both doors open to the right? So does virtually every other refrigerator sold in Uruguay. Can the hinge side be switched, as in North America? No. Same as with virtually every refrigerator sold in Uruguay. On ours, we could switch the hinge side, but without a way to move the handles, it would be just a bit awkward.
As a result, we designed our still-unfinished kitchen in the campo around a refrigerator whose door only could open to the right. Strange to imagine someone up north doing the same.
I could ship you a refrigerator I suppose. I'll have to say those made in America usually work twenty years before needing repair.
LOL…shipping cost would probably be north of USD 2000, customs duty 50% of whatever the bureaucrats decided it “should” be, and then I'd need as significant 120-240V transformer, and who knows what running a 60-cycle compressor at 50 cycles would do. Aside from that, great idea ;-)Not far from us is s guy who sells refurbished North American refrigerators, because the quality is so much better. The one we bought new here burbles all day and night, which he considers a design flaw, but apparently manufacturers consider normal.I should ask him about the voltage and cycle issues.
Your refrigerator should've come with a metal piece that allows you to change the rotation of the door to open to the left. Mine had one and a guy I use to date said he was going to change it… He left before doing it, leaving me with the wrong side of the door.
Oh my gosh, I just looked more carefully, and you're right. (Leaves us wondering how I got the contrary idea; I've switched them before.) I'll get the kid to help me with ours, maybe when the weather gets a little more pleasant, then we can come out and change yours for you as “experts.”And bring you a yappy little dog to educate 😉
Oops, have to retract that – added note in the blog. The reason I had the idea they aren't reversible lies in the lack of provision for putting the handles on the other side….