Fridge problems

firrybabe

My fridge-freezer has been playing up.

The engineer came out and said there's no fault, the problem is the ambient temperature as the fridge is currently in the lean to (on a temporary basis) and not in the main part of the house. The appliance is purely for in house use, and with it being in the lean to and not in my main 'house' it will not work efficiently.

Can someone please explain this to me ? I am quite puzzled and cannot get my head round it.

The previous house residents used to have a freezer in the lean to and that never experienced ambient temperature problems....

Also has anyone had a similar problem ?

Thanks

flea72

i think its because in the lean to you can have extremes of temperature over a 24hr period - so overnite its really cold, so the fridge/freezer doesnt have to work much, then during they day it can get really hot, and the machine has to work overtime, to maintain the right temps

can lead to lots of ice buildup in the freezer/back of the fridge

the previous owners freezer, prob wasnt so bad because it was set to one temp, a fridge/freezer has to try and maintain two different temps, and if the ambient temp is all over the place, it has trouble keeping up - also if it was a chest freezer, they are usually designed to not be kept indoors, so are used to coping with sudden changes in air temp

quoia

Is it very hot in your lean-to ?

On the back of your fridge/freezer is a "radiator" that is attempting to disperse the heat that it has "sucked out" of the cold inside.

The hotter the surroundings (ambient temperature) the harder it has to work for 2 reasons.
1. Its hotter so it has to reduce and maintain a greater temperature difference. Zero inside but 25 deg outside takes more work than 15deg outside.
2. The "radiator" on the back works much better the colder it is. If the room is "cold" the hot radiator loses heat easily. If the room is "hot" the radiator is less efficient !

dougk_2

My experience is that chest freezers are far better suited to conservatories and lean to's - this is possibly because they are "sturdier" and more substantially built than upright freezers. Did the last owners have one of these?

squeaky

quoia wrote:

1. Its hotter so it has to reduce and maintain a greater temperature difference. Zero inside but 25 deg outside takes more work than 15deg outside.
2. The "radiator" on the back works much better the colder it is. If the room is "cold" the hot radiator loses heat easily. If the room is "hot" the radiator is less efficient !

Agreed in full. It is also a good idea to have plebty of space behind the freezer to allow air to circulate and take the heat away from the radiator. It is also a good idea to dust the radiator and finally it'll help if you can site the freezer somewhere where it gets as little direct sunlight as possible.

HTH

chrisw

Fridge/freezers tend not to like room temperatures below about 10c. I think it's because in the majority of cases the thermostat is in the fridge and by cooling the fridge, it automatically cools the freezer. If the room temp is too cold, the motor doesn't run long enough to keep the freezer part cold. The expensive fridge/freezers have a thermostat in each half and don't tend to suffer this problem.

firrybabe

Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

The fridge freezer isn't in direct sunlight, and isn't in a draughty place. The back of it is clean and clear for air to circulate.

Thing is it worked for a few days then I woke up one morning and it had completely defrosted (freezer), it then came back on and worked intermittently. Is it common for this to occur ?

Guess I'll never make a fridge engineer.....