Fridge Freezer/Freezer Problems :(

Lizbetty

Hi everyone

I hope you can help me. I have two problems at the moment. The first one is that the frost free freezer in our garage has had the warning light on and has been a bit flaky for a couple of days. There's quite a bit of food in there, mostly faggots, frozen veg and quorn mince (no chicken or other things that might be super dodgy). The quorn mince feels quite solid as if it might've defrosted and there's quite a bit of ice at the top of the freezer - I'm not sure what's happened to be honest. The garage is my husband's domain (it's a horrendous tip) and so he was the one who noticed the red light was on.

I'm worried about eating whatever's in it - it's frozen now, it's pretty full and hadn't been opened and so it would have been stayed frozen for quite a while (but then there is ice in the freezer and it is supposed to be frost free so I may well be wrong..!). I'm loathe to chuck it, in all honesty, I'd eat it. I'm just wanting someone to say 'oh! So would I!' We have two kids and I don't want to make them poorly.

I think the freezer needs defrosting and the reason the red light is coming on is possibly because it's gone below temperature, ice has formed and is affecting the fan. Which means we have a lot of food to move to our kitchen fridge freezer so we can defrost it and see if that works.

Now this is the second problem. Where we'd move it to. Our kitchen has a fridge freezer that is about 10 years old. The fridge is fine. The freezer drawers however broke within a couple of years of owning it (it's a Samsung, I'm avoiding them like the plague as my sister's freezer did the same) The freezer has drawers which are now stood on wooded shelves which my husband has screwed in there, the drawers are broken and don't open properly despite the woodwork, and so we can't fit much in at all. There is no bottom drawer as it was beyond hope and so we have to balance stuff on the bottom of it (which usually all slides out when you open the door).

I've put my foot down and said it's time for a new one as I weep every time I try and get anything out/put anything in it, it's such a struggle.

I wonder if anyone could suggest a really good capacity fridge freezer with a width of 60cm max? Really really tall would be great. But our kitchen is such a pain in the rear and 60cm really is the max width as the (odd shaped) slot is between a wall and the washer.

I've googled myself to tears and looked in the local electrical places but the shops nearby have a limited selection and it's difficult to judge the size of the ones online, I remember reading on Which ages ago (£1 trial..) that the capacity they state online in the spec is really inaccurate as well, and so I'm cautious about going by the capacity they state.

Sorry for the massive amount of words, I know I'm not very concise at the best of times. I only hope that someone can help me make some decisions on this. We have a lot going on at the mo (house up for sale amongst other things!) and my rational head has done a Worzel and has been put on the bonfire I think.

Thank you everyone xx
Love Lucy

ps I figured this might be Old Style forum as we probably have the same needs as other old stylers in that we use a lot of fresh stuff as we cook from scratch. I might be wrong though, sorry if it needs moving. x

lostinrates

I was agreeing wit you about the new fridge freezer right up until you said the jouse was for sale.

There is an unwritten law of fate that if you buy a new fridge to fit your gap now it will be the wrong size for the new house's kitchen. I would be tempted to defrost your garage freezer asap , and just quit using the kitchen one until sold.

Even if you decide otherwise..i would still check the function of the freezer before making a fridge/freezer decision.

Lizbetty

:rotfl: Ah yes. My husband has been saying this, too. The house has been up for sale for 6 months now with only one serious sniff, and the couple who have shown interest have their house up for a third more than it's worth Everything seems to be on hold until we move, but it seems it could be a long haul thing, unfortunately.

I have thought about two excuses to get a new one now - the first is that it will make the house sell if we do, and the second it that we can sell the fridge freezer if we decide to get a different one when we move. (The third excuse, which I forgot about, is that it will save my sanity too. Or stop it getting worse anyhow. Wooden shelves are a sure sign that your freezer needs to go :rotfl: )

But yes, I agree with what you said. That always happens to us. x

maman

I wonder what your plans are when you move. Are you hoping to get all your frozen stuff into the kitchen or will you still have a garage/shed for overspill? Do you have a particular freezer in mind for when you move?

I don't suppose the food in the garage will have come to any harm. As the weather's not brilliant, you could empty that freezer and put the stuff in a cool box or wrapped in newspaper while you defrost PDQ. I use trays of boiling water to defrost mine.

If you need to buy something temporary, I have two cheapo (£169) freezers (55cm wide), Frigidaire from Curry's. One is 4 years old and the other about 5 and I've had no problems at all with them. You might even be able to buy two and stack them above each other?? I know you can do that with washers and fridges.

Lizbetty

Maman, thanks for that. I've just been out in the garage after planning the emergency defrost and found pools of something (possibly plum sauce..) in the freezer, and so I'm really worried now about the meat in there. A lot of it is things that were up to their use by dates that dh has bought and so were probably on the turn. Executive decision has been made to bin the meat.

Verdict's still out on the Quorn - I know that it does say don't refreeze after defrosting on the packet, but part of me thinks it would be ok as it's not meat. And then I read about it being a mould grown on egg whites, which made me a bit less confident about eating it. What would you say?

While I was checking the kitchen fridge freezer I noticed the freezer bit (the one with the wooden shelves) was making a whooshing sound that it's never made too.

Dh is on his way back. I've seen a Beko fridge freezer that's ok and reduced quite a lot. Will probably end up getting that as I'm panicking slightly now.

I'm not sure what the set up will be when we move to be honest as it probably depends where we end up - we would have had the one in the garage still and hopefully gone for something bigger in the house, maybe a tall fridge and a smaller under counter freezer.

Just what we could do without at the mo really but I suppose it forces my hand a bit.

Bah. I feel a bit sick about it all.

Although not as sick as I would feel if I'd eaten one of these 45p out of date lamb and mint burgers, mebbes!