Freezers in Sheds/Garages ?

[Steve]

I have an old Scandinova chest freezer that sits in my (unheated) shed. It does the job very well but is not very energy efficient. I have been looking in to replacing it with a more efficient model, with at least A+ energy rating.

What's bothering me is that many manufacturers now specify a minimum ambient temperature of 10 degrees centigrade, saying that if the temperature falls below that, the refrigeration unit will not run for long enough and the food could, in extreme cases, thaw out.

I live on the east coast of Scotland, so winter temperatures below 10C for prolonged periods are quite common. I've never had a problem with my old freezer so I'm wondering if modern freezers are somehow different and should not therefore be kept in low temperatures, or are the manufacturers just being overcautious?

I was also considering a frost free upright freezer, but that seems to have the same problem.

Does anybody out there know about this stuff?

TIA

Steve

[Chris H]

I bought one of these for the unheated garage. It's only rated as A but it is frost free.

It worked fine over winter when a bowl of tap water froze next to it and worked just as well when temperatures peaked at 36 deg C inside the garage a few weeks back.

Note that Comet do indicate if it is suitable for use in outbuildings (which marks them out as pretty unique) but you can't search for it.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Are you sure that's for a freezer? There used to be such problems with combined fridge/freezers which operated from a single compressor based on the fridge temperature.

I have a 9 year old Hotpoint in the garage (joined to the house, so garage doesn't freeze). I record the freezer and garage temperatures, and checking back over the records, over winter, the garage got down to 4C on Jan 7 02:39, and the freezer is still cycling between -21 and -24 as the compressor cycles on and off.

I would avoid a frost-free freezer. Reliability is significantly lower than a non-frost-free one, and with it being in the garage, you aren't likely to be opening it frequently. I haven't yet needed to defrost my 9 year old Hotpoint non-frost-free one (but probably will in next couple of years).

[Stewart]

We have the same problem as we have a freezer in the garage. Curry's in Kirkcaldy didn't have a clue about the temperature diiference requirement nor did Comet but the staff in Curries, Dunfermline were excellent, knew all about it and recommended a Beco upright. It is not frost free has worked well for 4 years now; it does however had a serious problem with the baskets, they are just not strong enough. Before we had Frigidaire, it was a lot better.

[Robin T Cox]

I can understand that. I moved from Kirkcaldy further east in the Levenmouth area in 2003, taking with me a 3-year old chest freezer and a large new Indesit upright fridge-freezer, which were both installed in the garage for lack of space in my smaller house.

The chest freezer is still working reliably, but the Indesit clapped out after only a couple of years in the garage.

[Java Jive]

I can't comment on freezers specifically, but to get the full picture of the economic and environmental costs of any appliance, or indeed anything, even wind turbine or a nuclear power station, you have to write off the costs, economic and environmental, of both production and disposal of it as an annual 'overhead' over the lifetime of the product.

As long as the thing is working and you are continuing to use it, you are increasing the lifetime of the product, and therefore decreasing its annual 'overhead', both that measured in £s and that measured in Joules or tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere. In most cases, I suspect that will far outweigh any saving through greater efficiency of a replacement product, especially when you consider the comparatively high environmental costs of disposing of refrigeration equipment.

I'd use it until it goes phut, if I were you.

[snip]

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[Andrew Gabriel]

"clapped out" is not a very precise description of the failure mode. ;-) What I would expect to happen is that as the garage temperature drops low enough that the fridge doesn't need much cooling anymore, the freezer will also stop being cooled, and warm up, possibly wrecking the food (and possibily without you knowing). When the garage warms up again, the fridge-freezer would start operating correctly again.

[Andy Champ]

I've just tried and failed to find any links on this.

My belief is that if your fridge or freezer is old enough and crap enough it will use so much energy that it is better for the environment to scrap it and buy a new efficient one.

This is the same argument as for the current car scrappage scheme.

Andy

[ARWadsworth]

The closest match I could find was

So an old clapped out fridge is fair game for swapping.

I do not believe that swapping my N reg Honda (it does 5000 miles a year) for a new car would save energy.

Adam

[Bald eagle]

[Java Jive]

Oops!

La page que vous tentez de rejo>

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[ARWadsworth]

It works in England

Adam

[Java Jive]

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[Andy Champ]

I suspect you and I have French as a permitted language, and that Québecois site is confused. Lets see... remove all the flavours (and flavors!) of French, and it works.

"However, new refrigerators that consume 75% less energy than the ones made 25 years ago. This dazzling progress brings us to the conclusion that if you possess an appliance of more than fifteen years, it is more ecologically more advantageous to simply replace it."

Andy

[Java Jive]

Ok, but ...

1) They don't give any supporting calculation to show that they've written off the economic and ecological costs of production and disposal over the lifetime of the product, the addition of which could change the calculation radically. I cannot stress enough the need to do this. If they're only calculating on the basis of these running costs, frankly that's not good enough, it's nothing like the full picture.

I don't have figures, so am working on vague memory, but IIRC the ecological costs of disposing of refridgeration equipment are comparatively high, because various refridgerants become greenhouse gases if allowed to escape into the atmosphere, and I believe there is, or at least used to be, also potentially some problem with the insulation material from the doors and walls.

2) I'd be surprised that many fridges made 25 years ago are actually still work>

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[Martin]

< snip >

Well, our Electrolux F/F is 28 this year and still working well. Never had a fault...

And despite being made in Sweden, the lights are *not* on all the time... :-)

[hound]

Mine was 2nd hand in 1976 - still going strong (still painted in hippy orange and mauve colours!) Indesit, I think

[Ron O'Brien]

We have two small freezers in a wooden shed at the borrom of the garden. The only problem we have is that they ice up. In winter you are well advised to have the lid open for as little time as possible. Always wipe around the seal before closign the lid - it might be brass-monkeys but any temperature above freezing can/will cause moisture via a degree of defrosting or condensation which will later turn to ice. You then have the problem of opening the lid next time you want to and it&#39;s all iced up and ice expands so it lifts the lid, this then adds to the problem and more ice forms, expands and goes on and on in that way. You also end up with a huge block of ice &#39;growing&#39; on the outisde of the freezer that you eventually have to take a hammer and cheisel too!