Freezer in the garage - is it ok?

savemoney

Chest freezers are suppose to be for garages but I do have a large upright frost free freezer in there

Pink.

Hi poohspals,

I have had both a chest freezer and fridge freezer in my garage for over ten years with no problems.

There is some information that may help on these threads on the In My Home board:

Fridge-Freezer for unheated garage

Chest freezer to go in garage

Freezer in a shed...

Pink

lala1974

Hi

Our "overspill" freezer is in the garage - great for storing the batched foods! No problems at all with it.

Lala

Bennifred

Agree with all the other posters - large chest freezer in garage for over twenty years, no problems!

naijapower

I have used my chest freezer in the garage for 6 years and havent had any issues.

In my opinion, the colder the garage, the less work the freezer has to do. Simply set for the lowest power and energy setting.

It is a similar principle with heating and airconditioning. You simply reduce the setting when it is too hot (heater) and increase airconditioning when it gets hot etc

apples1

poohspals wrote: »

We've just bought a chest freezer to go in the garage so i can make the most of batch cooking and baking etc. However, when i was telling a friend of mine she said that she has had to bring hers into the conservatory because it is too cold in the garage - has anyone else had problems? Don't dare switch it on - let alone start to fill it. Anyone got any advice?

The food in our garage freezer starts to defrost slightly (just round the edges) when the weather is really cold. It could esily go unnoticed as when the weather warms up it freezes completely again. In the recent v cold weather it did it again even more so as prolonged cold spell and it worried me as I use it for batch cooked food for the children. I decided it was unsafe and have ditched the lot.

Just ordered a cheap (smaller) freezer to squeeze into our utility room. I would not recommend a normal freezer for use in cold garage.

Primrose

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there has been a problem with some of the more modern frost-free freezers being stored in garages because they were too cold for them to function properly but I'm not sure where you can find out specific information about which types are affected. Googling "reliability of frost free freezers in garages" or something similar may give you some links.
We've had an elderly "definitely not frost free" upright freezer in our garage for 30 years during some very cold spells without any problems.

OrkneyStar

Is the problem not more associated with fridges, rather than freezers, in cold areas ? Something to do with the outside temp being so low and interfering with the cooling mechanism ? Apparently each fridge has an operating temperature range- may tell you in the manual ?

joesaunt

apples1 wrote: »

The food in our garage freezer starts to defrost slightly (just round the edges) when the weather is really cold. It could esily go unnoticed as when the weather warms up it freezes completely again. In the recent v cold weather it did it again even more so as prolonged cold spell and it worried me as I use it for batch cooked food for the children. I decided it was unsafe and have ditched the lot.

Just ordered a cheap (smaller) freezer to squeeze into our utility room. I would not recommend a normal freezer for use in cold garage.

This has happened to mine and my friends this year. It has been much colder than usual. Both of us have claimed from our household insurances and were given the tip of wrapping an old duvet or blankets around the freezers in the winter, it protects the elements and the gases.

seraphina

Modern fridges and freezers use a different coolant, which is more environmentally friendly than the old ones. This new coolant isn't designed to work in extremely low temperatures, so newer fridge freezers are less likely to work in outbuildings/garages than old ones.