Buying a Refrigerator for a Garage

[Michael]

Any things I need to make sure if I want to buy a refrigerator to put in my garage. The garage is inside the house, but it is not very well insulated and gets pretty cold in the winter (water bottles will freeze) and gets real hot in the summer.

I have heard that certain types of refrigerators have problems, but I have a bunch of neighbors that have refrigerators in their garages in my same type of house and say that they work fine.

Any hints to pick a good one? Someone once mentioned about making sure that it had separate temperature controls for the refrig. and for the freezer or something like that. Not sure of the details.

Michael

[Greg]

The best description I have heard of the problem is that if it is colder than the fridge temp setting the compressor won't run and the freezer unfreezes. Of course if it is really cold for a long time everything will freeze even if the fridge is unplugged

[Joseph Meehan]

That is a very poor place for a frig. They have no way of keeping the food in the frig above freezing in the winter. They generally can't be set to maintain the proper temperature in both the frig and freezer for both summer and winter. Many can be damaged when used in those temperatures.

You will see some vending machines outside in winter and summer, but they are very expensive and designed for that use. You would not want to pay what you would need to pay for a frig that would do what you want even if you could find one.

[Art]

Consumer Reports recently rated a refrigerated made for the garage. Has a heater built in. They were not impressed. Very expensive too. Check recent issues at your local library.

[Wayne]

[e-mail] (Michael) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Friends of ours in Ohio bought a "non frostfree" fridge for the garage. In the winter they wrap the sides and top in an electric blanket set on "low". They've never had a problem.

[bumtracks]

Florida here doesn't have any freezing winter problems, and summer weather doesn't seem to bother a garage fridge. The more beer a garage fridge contains the more static stored energy it will have. Several cases of beer may actually even lower your overall power bills - really!.

[Greg]

I know what you mean (Lee County here) I keep the fridge full of beer and the freezer full of bottled water. Great hurricane insurance.

[SteveB]

Not sure where you live, but here, used refrigerators are less than $100, and mostly in the $60 range. Unless you want the expensive ones. For a garage fridge, I like the $75 ones that you just shoot when they quit working.

YMMV.

Steve

[George Wenzel]

If the garage temperature gets below freezing, it'd probably not be a great idea to have a refrigerator there. Fridges are designed to cool things, not to warm them up. If the temperature is below freezing in the garage, the stuff in the fridge will freeze also, unless you have something present (another poster mentioned an electric blanket) to keep the fridge above the freezing point.

Regards,

George Wenzel

[Red Neckerson]

"SteveB" wrote

I'll second that!

I have one that has been in my (unheated) garage (in the mid-East where we get temps in the teens sometimes) for the past 10 years and it is still going strong! I keep beers and sodas in it and I bought it used for $25. If it ever craps out, I'll just toss it and buy another used one. Look in your local paper for people that are moving OR updating their kitchen. They may ASK $100 or more, but call them and give them your phone number and ask them to call you when they DON'T sell it and tell the you will come and "take it off their hands" for them. It's in your garage. Who cares if it "looks" good or not. Even if it doesn't, spray paint works wonders.....

[Jed]

I live in Massachusetts, so I had a chance to experiment with my fridge in 0 degrees and below (it got to -25 with windhchill last winter, so 0 degrees was a safe bet for inside my garage. The key for me is that we put our old fridge out in the garage when we redid our kitchen, so I couldn't care less what happens to it. Bottom line? I kept Heinekens in it all winter, and they were icy cold all winter long and never frozen. There is nothing better than an ice cold Heiny! It's all about the beer.

Don't go out and buy a new fridge for your garage. Find a piece of crap used one and be happy (and stock with plenty of Heineken.

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

If your going to buy a frig. for the carport , i would say get you a Whirlpool or Roper cheapest they make and have a static type condenser coil on it. This means it has a big coil / radiator on the back and not a fan motor type blowing through a coil under it. All the cheap refrigerators will come with the coil on the back and you might even look for a NON- frost free with no defrost system on it for they seem to weather well in the bad weather or hot area of the carports. Also try not to get the ones that are energy Star Rated with a green sticker on it for the more efficent it is, the more likely it may screw up in a very cold area and in cold weather. You want the one that says Energy Hog where the Energy Star rating sticker would be stuck on it.

OR Buy you one that was made about 20 years ago with a Energy Hog sticker on it. The more energy that it waist will cause heat to be put into the system and help in freezing weather. This is the reason that very old refrigerator work best on carports.

Now I said Cheap and not trash equipment and try to go with Whirlpool or Roper. Now if you want a refrigerator so you can have to work on it ever so often. Get you a Frigidaire.

TURTLE

[willshak]

I have had a refridgerator/freezer in my unheated attached garage for 15 =

years. It used to be in my kitchen until I redid the kitchen. The garage =

is insulated from the rest of the house (two walls and ceiling) and the=20 outside walls, and is sheetrocked on all walls and ceiling. I have two=20 wooden 8' overhead garage doors and two double hung, double gazed,=20 windows. I live in NYS where the temps often go into the teens, or=20 lower, in winter. The garage is never below 40=BA. Since I redid the=20 kitchen, the kitchen refridgerator has had three service calls (extended =

warrantee), but the garage refridgerator is still running strong without =

any problems. Last year, I put a chest freezer in the garage too. =20

[Scott Packard]

I know you're a pro R. N., but for the non-pros out there it's difficult to move an old refrigerator in a truck. The springs in the compressor become brittle after use and may break during transportation (google for hydrogen embrittlement, and the hydrogen is from the refrigerent oil). Also, transport upright only. Other than that, knock yourself out. They're really made to be operated in a warm environment, but there are thousands that sit in garages and they seem to work.

Regards, Scott

[avoidspam]

Where in the mid-east do they have temps like that?