every good garage deserves a fridge. However, there is no heat in my garage. I know you're not supposed to operate a fridge at low temps, but if I unplugged it for the winter would it fire up OK in the spring?
nate
I suggest keeping the beer in the kitchen frig and save the space in the garage for other things. It also will be cheaper than trying to run a frig out there. In the summer it will be running full time and running the meter all the time. Just keep an ice cooler out there for the really hot days when you don't want to keep running in for a cold one.
I don't see why not....Alot of summer places have them around here and they seem to make it through Maine winters....
I've had one in the barn for years. Keeps the soda pop from freezing somehow. I leave it run always.
If that was a problem they wouldn't store brand new units in unheated warehouses for months on end, would they?
Joe
Sure, but the contents might freeze.
Me too, unplugged, with a Thermocube freezestat and a trouble light in a bottom drawer to keep carrots from freezing. To keep ice cream from melting, plug in the fridge and turn on the light with a freezer thermostat when the freezer compartment warms to 20 F.
Nick
You can run a frig in a cold garage. You need what is know as a "garage kit." This fools the frig into thinking it is in a warmer room. However, I have shut them down in a summer place I had. Just prop the door open slightly so it drys out. A good opportunity to clean it out, etc. Never had a problem.
"professorpaul" wrote
No problems here either and no fancy 'garage kit'. It helps warm the garage a bit to protect the pipes.
It's true they dont run as 'efficiently' in a garage in the cold, but chest freezers often come with settings to handle it. Thats what I have. A big chest freezer.
They make cheap fridges (and freezers too) specificaly for low ambient use. We have both, and they operate way cheaper than the old units they replaced.
st
What have heard is that the 'freezer' section of the fridge (if so equipped) may not get cold enough to keep goods frozen?
The explanation seems to be on the lines of; the fridge doesn't run very often during the cold winter. The thermostat is usually in the 'cooler' part of the fridge (not the freezer).
Therefore the freezer compartment doesn't get enough cold air to stay frozen; even though the main part of the fridge is switching on occasionally whenever it gets warm enough to do so in the cold garage.
Made sense to me, and we had two old monsters working that way for few years in a cold unheated attached storeroom. The defrost didn't work on either of them but they performed keeping food cool until we eventually scrapped them.
Thanks to all for the replies. I probably wouldn't be *using* it when it's cold, I just was concerned that the compressor being physically exposed to freezing temperatures (actually, especially if not operating) might cause it to seize up earlier than normal.
On the subject of fridges, I was pleasantly surprised today. SWMBO and I went fridge shopping yesterday and ordered a new fridge to replace the old POS. Unfortunately anything over 18 ft^3 requires removing a cabinet above the fridge. Took it down and found that the wall is in good shape and didn't have any holes, cracks, etc. other than the screw holes used to mount the cabinet (whew.) Got spackle in 'em now and when that dries I'll sand down the whole wall and skim it with drywall mud. Sometimes you get lucky.
I hope this fancy new fridge lasts as long as the old one... I think we just paid more for a fridge than I did for my 944. Granted, it's kind of a beater, but still. According to my Kill-A-Watt though it should cost us about half as much to operate as the smaller old one though... didn't get a chance to really sample over a long period of time though as the power went out one night this week. First time I checked I got a rate of over 900 KWh/year, today when I unplugged it to move it average rate was over 1000 KWh/year
nate
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