We have just swapped a found to be too small vertical freezer with a relative, for a slightly larger one. When the door closes, it seems to produce (in addition to the magnetic seal) a bit of a vacuum too. The door seals seem to scrunch up over a few seconds and door then becomes very tight to open.
Is this my imagination or do some really do this?
Hmmm.
Mr Pounder explained :
I've never come across it before. So it is a side effect then, rather than a deliberate effect?
I think it is just one of those things. I've noticed this on a lot of commercial freezers.
I always put this down to the fact that cold air takes up less room hence when you shut the door and if the seal is good the cooling down would shrink the air inside. Maybe I've been missing something all these yars!
Brian
With machines that do this, put your finger on the rubber seal when opening, pulling on it breaks the vacuum
NT
In message , Mr Pounder writes
It all depends on how air-tight the door seal is. After closing it, my first freezer (a chest freezer) was essentially impossible to open for several minutes.
The 'cure' is quite simple - arrange for the door to leak a little. For example, you could try trapping a piece of string or twine between the rubber seal and the body.
Ian Jackson :
My understanding is that you get condensation on the sealing surfaces while the door is open. If you close it and try to open it straight away, the moisture enhances the vacuum effect. After a few minutes things go back to normal.
Could be a load of bollocks, of course.
I'm sure it's that. Amazingly, our Electrolux freezer stills does this even though it was bought almost 20 years ago and has survived a house fire. I'm amazed how good the seals are. Do they still make them this well?
"You may notice that the door of the freezer sometimes refuses to open again directly after having been closed. If this does happen, wait two or three minutes for the vacuum to equilibrate"
Regards
Syke
'That's the first time I've come across "equilibrate" - which does indeed exist as the verbification of "equilibrium". I must try it one my friends!
Presumably a good door seal helps to minimise the flow of moisture-bearing air into the freezer, and hence minimise the build-up of ice inside. However, are frost-free freezers equally airtight? Mine has a container at the back which collects water when it's in the defrost part of its cycle, so presumably it isn't designed to be airtight?
Yes, I think it's probably a translation from German. I agree, it doesn't sound right- I would have preferred "equalise" myself.
Regards
Syke
Are not all fridges/freezers more difficult to (re)open for around 2 minutes after closing them.
Same here. If the seal is air tight then when the door closed no more air will get into the freezer.
Assuming it's an upright freezer, when the freezer is opened cold air will flow out and be replaced with air at room temperature. When the door is closed the trapped room temperature air will be coolled and contract resulting in lower air pressure in the freezer than outside it.
Our upright Bosch freezer does this. The handle is actually a lever that pivots when pulled to give extra leverage when opening the door so it's a problem Bosch knew about when they made the freezer.
No it would be really uncool, as then you would get a massive amount of spam flooding your inbox in less than 20 seconds
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I have always noted the Door Sticks-effect and I always knew the reason for it:
I have another problem. The temperature in my freezer sinks and is now -13 deg celsius. It should be -18 deg celsius.
Why do we have freezers? I would like to scrap the box and get one that make use of ionizing radiation. I think it would consume less energy.
Would it be a suitable alternative? Are viruses and prions a problem, and do freezers solve that problem?
Mine actually mentions this in the book and says that the vacuum disappears into thin air after a couple of minutes. The door is hard to open initially - so much so that when some friends were staying here I warned the lass not to try. Due to the way the door has to be held to open it, there's a fair chance of breaking a slim finger - my fence-posts are strong enough, but have been bruised.
Is it a frost free lump of s*it? It may be on defrost cycle.
Some foods come out tasting burnt or with off flavours.
The doses required are such that it takes an automatic plant the size of a bus depot to operate safely operating under "Windscale" type security.
However, It can usefully render pests and vermin sterile and thereby increase the storage life of some foodstuffs a bit.
Eat your food fresh.
Not if you boil your food in caustic potash for 24 hours before you eat it.
He who asserts must prove and It's hard to prove a negative. I think we might all get Mad Sardine Disease !
To some extent yes. IME most of the food in a domestic freezer is rendered inedible so gets binned.
That's safe enough.
DerekG
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