Chest Freezer (Frost) Question

[Charles Spitzer]

why would that reduce it? the frost comes from humid air that comes in when you lift the top.

[Tim Fischer]

Never heard the newspaper thing. What we used to do is fill up gallon milk jugs with water, and put them in. The frozen water acts as a buffer/ballast, and I would think it would work a lot better than newspaper (and not be nearly as messy).

As we filled up our freezer with real food over time, it was easy to pull out a milk-jug or two and recycle it.

-Tim

[Mike]

I own a small chest freezer (NOT frost free) and its half full with food.

I'm getting frost/ice on the inside walls of the freezer above the food level.

I heard several years ago that crunched up newspaper can be placed in the freezer to fill the remaining space, but as I had a frost free at the time I didn't pay much attention to this advice.

Obviously I've got to do a proper defrost at some stage but can anyone verify that newspaper can be used to fill a freezer and hopefully reduce the frost buildup ?

Thanks.

Mike.

[Goedjn]

Anything that displaces air will work. The less air volume, the less water vapor their is to deposit as frost. I'd use 2 liter bottles mostly filled with water. (Don't put them all in at once.)

[Pop]

We use styrofoam; there always seems to be a good supply of it around and it works well. We also keep a wide cup of calcium chloride open in it to soak up the water; change it when it gets soggy.

HTH, Pop

[PipeDown]

The newspaper should work but you will need to pretty much fill all open space. It will act like insulation by trapping air (which is initially dehumidified in the freezer) and held there by the folds preventing new moist air from entering.

Bottles of water won't be able to fill the whole space as well as crumpled paper but the thermal mass of the frozen water will help keep the freezer cold causing it to run less after you open and close it. Also the reduced air volume will leave less frost behind.

[Bob]

You could save energy by using empty bottles.. Freezing water takes significant energy.

Bob

[Goedjn]

I considered that, but I'm always afraid that stuffing in too much insulation will restrict air flow to the point where I I have warm (well, less cold) spots. If you're doing successfully, then that's apparently a non-issue, though.

[Goedjn]

Yes, but KEEPING them frozen doesn't, so there's a small extra investment in using water, yes. On the other hand, there's several liters of ice in there that will help keep everything else from thawing during the next long-term power failure, and it's drinkable water-ice, in case you're somehow cut off from normal methods of obtaining drinking water. Also, depending on a number of other factors, more mass means longer cycle times for the compressor, because it takes longer to cool down and to warm up. This *SHOULD* result in less wear on the moving parts, although that's just my theory.

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