Freezers in the garage

[wotnobivvy]

My freezer in the garage has gone kaput after 10 years. I was looking for a replacement, and on the Comet web site they state against more than one freezer that modern ones MUST NOT be kept in unheated buldings. Have modern freezers changed so much they need to be kept warm. Have any members bought one recently and stored it in the garage without problems

[lutra]

Ive not had a problem with chest freezers (Ive got a 3 year old one thats been working fine out there for 3 years), but modern fridges and fridge/freezers seem to pack up the first time it gets cold. Some sort of cut out that doesn't uncut when the weather warms up again.

Edited February 12, 2011 by lutra

[chesters1]

yes i'v noticed that warning as well ,perhaps just a ploy to make you pay more for a suitable one that can

what it is is fridges need a difference between their hot side and the cold side to work ,i presume modern fridges because they are more "efficient" are more fragile as metal wise and certainly motor wise would be on the very bottom of work load design,having to run in adverse conditions would kill them very easily i expect

most old ones are fine ,i would never if possible buy a new fridge or freezer our fridge was born in the 50's works in any temperature and hopefully will for decades to come .certainly not "efficient " but if you bring into the equation how much i would have spent buying a new one every few years i dare say its not that bad money wise and certainly in eco terms extremely friendly.

our freezer is 30 years old and has worked everywhere so i guess its this strange urge people have to be "green" that short term seems fine but long term results in millions of freezers dead before they should be.

i would plump for a working old freezer for a few quid and take a chance before forking out hundreds for a modern bit of tat ,or get a quote to fix your old one theres little to go wrong just one moving part ,some pipes and a bit of gas.it maybe worth a trawl of the web to see if theres a fix for it ,our freezer caught fire after coming out of storage but a £13 bit of electrics that fire up the motor made it fine and has been for 11 years since.

if its trying to freeze sometimes just cleaning the radiator on the back and checking nothings dropped into it slowing air flow is enough to get it working properly

Edited February 12, 2011 by chesters1

[Zigs]

Ours went down while it was in an unheated part of the building project, I was told the same thing by comet. They die if it drops below freezing.

 

You'd need to build it an insulated cuboard. The heat from the back should keep the frost off in that.

[Ken L]

It's definatly a problem with fridge freezers. When we had the cold snap, the air temp in my utility room was lower than the thermostat setting in the fridge compartment. As a result, the compressor shut down and the freezer section started to slowly defrost.

Not sure why a pure freezer should have a problem but have noticed that some like this are advertized as suitable for outbuildings.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Ken L

[jason.p]

That explains something I hadn't realised. We'd kept some bread and milk in my bait fridge freezer in an outbuilding which we used as an overflow over Christmas. Some of the bread had gone off, so I suppose the minus 17c we had must have stopped it and not started again until it got back up to a high enough temp for it to kick in again, and during that time it had defrosted for a few days. Luckily it must be an older type, cos it seems to be OK now.

(even more luckily, no bait was harmed )

[chesters1]

i expect just restricting the air flow allowing an area around the radiator to heat up could work in freezing temperatures ,the same idea is used in caravans where special plates are bought to cover the external vents in winter stopping the airflow thus heating up the rear of the fridge a bit.

you could also think about heating the garage ,in our last house i extended the central heating into the garage which had a thermostat set on freezeing so it only got hot when the temperature dropped as i had fish tanks in the garage ,cheap to insulate as well nowadays as lagging is almost given away

Edited February 12, 2011 by chesters1

[corydoras]

My freezer in the garage has gone kaput after 10 years. I was looking for a replacement, and on the Comet web site they state against more than one freezer that modern ones MUST NOT be kept in unheated buldings. Have modern freezers changed so much they need to be kept warm. Have any members bought one recently and stored it in the garage without problems

kitchen refrigerators with freezers are designed to work at temperatures typical to room temperatures. The temperature sensor for the refrigerators are calibrated to reference to room temperature so the refrig compartment is cold and the freezer is freezing. Placing the kitchen unit in the garage is okay but when the temperature goes below the refrigerator low set point (approximately 37 degree F), the freezer loses reference to the temperature sensor and shuts off the compressor preventing the freezer section from reaching the cold setting for the freezer (approximately zero degrees F).

[Chris Plumb]

That explains something I hadn't realised. We'd kept some bread and milk in my bait fridge freezer in an outbuilding which we used as an overflow over Christmas. Some of the bread had gone off, so I suppose the minus 17c we had must have stopped it and not started again until it got back up to a high enough temp for it to kick in again, and during that time it had defrosted for a few days. Luckily it must be an older type, cos it seems to be OK now.

(even more luckily, no bait was harmed )

 

 

I had a similar thing happen this winter - my bait fridge packed up last year - so was replaced with a new one - cheapest Argos could do! However it packed up in the cold and some soup which wifey had put in the ice box defrosted - straight into my maggots - result - nearly 6 weeks late they are still turning up - I dread to think what will happen when it gets reallt warm and they all turn!

 

 

C.

[Anderoo]

I've been meaning to get a little fridge/freezer for the small outhouse I keep my tackle in, so this is very helpful. I suppose if you know severe weather is forecast you could just turn it off and then switch it back on again when the temperature rises?