The freezer in the garage or outhouse thread - successes and failures please?

cyclonebri1

lstar337 wrote: »

It may be that the lower temps don't actually damage the freezer, but they do harm the efficiency of the product.

All of you using them in the garage could be paying twice as much to run it as you would if it were in your kitchen. Whether that is a priority or not is down to the individual.

Just because something has a recommended operating temperature range, doesn't mean it will catastrophically destroy itself the moment it strays outside that range.

I absolutely disagree with you, the freezer is battling to keep cool in an environment at 21 deg 12 months of the year indoors.

If the ambient is lower then so are the running costs.

Example for you.

We got a single upright freezer from my wife's employer a month or 2 back.

Brand new Aplus rated. Shop soiled, they'd lost the accessories etc.
It was going for a song so she bought it and we put it in the utility room, she figured it would save the trip to the garage.

Now it's not warm in there but the thing was running 90% of the time just to keep the internal temp at -17. I don't like that at all

It got relegated to the garage and is now running about 50% of the time.

Checked with the energy meter we were supplied with.

Since put out of use and sold:money::money:

Doc_N

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

If the ambient is lower then so are the running costs.

That's what you'd expect in an unheated garage, isn't it?

I still can't understand why almost all manufacturers warn you against keeping it anywhere that falls below 10C (as pretty well all garages will in winter) and invalidate your warranty if you do. It must presumably damage the freezer in some way, but I struggle to see how.

lstar337

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I absolutely disagree with you, the freezer is battling to keep cool in an environment at 21 deg 12 months of the year indoors.

If the ambient is lower then so are the running costs.

Example for you.

We got a single upright freezer from my wife's employer a month or 2 back.

Brand new Aplus rated. Shop soiled, they'd lost the accessories etc.
It was going for a song so she bought it and we put it in the utility room, she figured it would save the trip to the garage.

Now it's not warm in there but the thing was running 90% of the time just to keep the internal temp at -17. I don't like that at all

It got relegated to the garage and is now running about 50% of the time.

Checked with the energy meter we were supplied with.

Since put out of use and sold:money::money:

I completely agree with your logical train of thought, I assume exactly the same. It fits with the basics of a heat pump system.

However, the manual of our FF seems to suggest that ambient temperatures below a certain level are not good for efficiency and/or the lifespan of the product.

Since they have no reason to lie, I assume their is some reason why keeping it in a garage is bad for it.

cyclonebri1

What's the ambient figure they quote as a minimum? 5deg I believe,
when was the last time that happened in any closed garage. Even overnight dips to that temp which may happen on occasion won't drop the temp in a garage to anywhere near that.

Case closed as far as I'm concerned;);)

Doc_N

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

What's the ambient figure they quote as a minimum? 15deg I believe,
when was the last time that happened in any closed garage. Even overnight dips to that temp which may happen on occasion won't drop the temp in a garage to anywhere near that.

Case closed as far as I'm concerned;);)

The figure is invariably 10C.

wealdroam

The first paragraph of WestonDave's post, post#6, provides the answer to this conundrum.

There is absolutely no reason why a freezer should not work perfectly well in an unheated garage.
Indeed, as cyclonebri1 said, it will be more efficient in a cooler place.

Likewise, there is no reason why a fridge should not work perfectly well in an unheated garage.

The problem arises with combined fridge-freezers that only have one thermostat serving both the fridge and the freezer.
As stated in post #6, if the temp in the garage stays below the thermostat cutoff point for any length of time, there is the possibility that stuff in the freezer section will thaw. The food in the fridge compartment will be maintained at the correct temperature.

cyclonebri1

Doc_N wrote: »

The figure is invariably 10C.

Ok, I can accept that, BUT, can you tell me what goes wrong below that temp, (I think I already know to be honest )

Doc_N

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Ok, I can accept that, BUT, can you tell me what goes wrong below that temp, (I think I already know to be honest )

I wish I could!

But every single manufacturer of domestic freezers (and not just fridge-freezers, which I could understand, because of the way they function) sold in the UK, apart from Beko, stipulates a minimum ambient temperature of 10C for the warranty to be valid.

I don't understand why that is, but I'm sure they're saying that for a reason. It would be pointless otherwise, because it just loses them sales to Beko.

I even contacted one company (Liebherr, who supply Miele with freezers) about it, telling them that I needed a freezer to go into an attached garage that occasionally went down to between 5C and 10C. Their response was quite specific - their freezers would not be suitable!

cyclonebri1

:T:T:T:T:T And that's without being sarcastic.

My experience is that they carry on working, but

There is another aspect, most folks don't put a new freezer in the garage, they put their old one in there, or, like me, they buy a 2nd hand freezer for garage use.
Either way it doesn't matter, there is no warranty in place to worry about. ;)

pollypenny

We bought a Beko freezer, having had our old freezer stop working for most of the winter.

It' s been fine for these last two horrid winters.