Fridge/freezer defrosted!!

Eldi_Dos

FlaatusGoat said:

I have a second fridge that I keep in the conservatory as an overflow. After the recent cold spell, I've noticed the stuff in the freezer has defrosted. I've warmed the room back to 15-16c and the freezer is still defrosted/defrosting! Is there some way to reset it. It's a fridgemaster, not sure the model no.

One possible explanation is that the ambient temperature has fallen overnight to colder than inside the fridge section, this will lead to fridge shutting down and if there is only one compressor the freezer section as well which can lead to food in there partially defrosting before temperature rises and fridge kicks in again.
One thing you could try is put bottle of lukewarm water in fridge and see if it resets itself.
Although possibly the temperature has risen enough for problem to have resolved itself.

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

I suspect each model will be different. It's worth reading the instructions that came with it - or found on-line.
It might only, or largely, apply to F-F F/Fs.

It applies to any fridge, freezer or fridge-freezer which hasn't been designed to operate at whatever ambient temperature is occuring.

As you say, the manufacturer's instructions should be read to see what ambient temperature range the appliance is designed to operate within.  If the temperature of the room goes above or below that, it is essential to do something about it (e.g. add heating or cooling to the room) otherwise the food may be unsafe to eat.

Section62

FlaatusGoat said:

I have a second fridge that I keep in the conservatory as an overflow. After the recent cold spell, I've noticed the stuff in the freezer has defrosted. I've warmed the room back to 15-16c and the freezer is still defrosted/defrosting! Is there some way to reset it. It's a fridgemaster, not sure the model no.

I think it is unusual to need to 'reset' a freezer - the most likely problem is it takes the typical freezer a very long time to reduce the temperature of a well-loaded cabinet.

One of the specifications for a freezer is its freezing capacity in terms of kg/24 hours - the kg number for typical domestic freezers is not that high, say 20 kg/24h.

Although the food in the freezer is still cold (/chilled) it takes a lot of work for the freezer to bring all of it back down to the required 'frozen' temperature... it could be as much as days before everything is fully frozen again.

Equally, it also indicates that the issue has probably been occuring for some time - which means it is critically important to view the food as being likely to be unsafe to eat now.

Also worth noting that the full freezing capacity of some appliances can only be achieved if a 'superfreeze' button is operated - without that the freezing process can take longer.

SusieT

No help to you right now, but for the future it may be worth getting an oil filled radiator and plugging it in to a temperature type timer, as rather than coming on at a set time, it will come on if the temperature drops below whatever you set. That may solve the problem in the future, but as i said, no help right now, and may be an expensive workaround with the current electric prices if there were to be a prolonget cold spell, so I would suggest if there were to be a week or more of cold weather it would be better to either bring the FF inside, or, try to move the contents inside if that is a possibility.