Freezers from Refrigerators for Dummies

Upright freezer

In our day-to-day searches of the internet (which mainly consists of following links within eHow.com, we'll admit if pressed) we often run across excellent examples of the syndrome we like to call "Type 2: expanding a valid answer into the realm of dumbassery."  By that, we mean answering a question correctly, then veering into an explanation that makes it obvious that you know squat about your topic. Few online purveyors of "answers" are better for finding Type 2 answers than eHow.com (which is why we spend a lot of time there) and few of eHow.co's contributors are better at spreading the bull around than the one and only Naima Manal. Here, our good friend Naima (six-time winner of the Dumbass of the Day) pulled off a classic Type 2 in the post "Can You Use an Upright Freezer as a Refrigerator?"¹ at Hunker.com.

Though we didn't bother to look it up, it's pretty likely that Naima's initial answer — "Yes" — is correct. It's once she gets past the initial answer that Manal wanders, as she usually does, into bullshit territory. Take, for instance, this line from her introduction:

"Rescue an unused upright freezer from ending up in a landfill by converting it into a refrigerator..."

Naima's all over the internet (HubPages, eHow, LiveStrong, Blogspot...) telling people to save money – yet she would toss an "unused upright freezer" in a landfill? She's never heard of the Salvation Army? CraigsList? Idiot. So... once she says yes, she explains that all you have to do is put a different thermostat in the upright freezer to turn it into a fridge. Her instructions for this task: "Remove the freezer thermostat and sensor from the unplugged unit. Connect the refrigerator thermostat to the compressor wire and follow the rest of the installation instructions..." Wow: now that is HELPFUL Naima – NOT! ...more abnaimal stupidity ensues: "...Condensation readily forms inside a converted upright freezer since its coils form the food shelves..."

That configuration isn't very likely in a consumer appliance, Ms Manal. Oh, and finally, she instructs her readers to buy a new Frigidaire Convertible Upright Freezer to All Refrigerator instead of performing a conversion. Yup: for someone trying to save a few bucks by repurposing an old, unused freezer, she suggests forking over as much as $1,500 for a brand spankin' new appliance. Presumably, this means that the unused upright freezer will end up – you guessed it – in a landfill.

Given content of this quality, it's no wonder our staffers keep an eye on eHow and its wondrous crop of incompetent freelancers. With rubbish like this, we're assured of a near-inexhaustible stream of Dumbass of the Day candidates!

¹ The original has been sent to Leaf Group's cleanup team, but you can still see Manal's version using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/info_12174729_can-use-upright-freezer-refrigerator.html

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