Hi,
We have a 10-ish year old Zanussi Freezer which we would like to relocate outside (under shelter but open-air...and therefore susceptible to low temperatures from time to time.).
The manual states: "If the room temperature falls below freezing point the freezer will not function as it should".
Can anybody explain the above statement in more detail, please? I really do not understand why a modern freezer shouldn't work when outside.
Thanks,
David
I've seen this on a fridge with icebox. Basically the thermostat is saying "it's cold enough" so the fridge compressor hardly ever starts. That means that although the fridge portion may be cold enough (because the thermostat says so), the freezer doessn't (because it relies on the compressor running for the main fridge). A seperate freezer unit may be fine though.
See mucho discussion of this in the archives of this ng: or
IIRC the problem is primarily when you have a combined fridge freezer with only one thermostat / compressor - ambient temp falls to below normal fridge temp (~4 deg C), so the thermostat shuts the thing down regardless of the fact that the freezer section still needs cooling.
We have separate 'overflow' fridge and freezer in our garage - I think both have warnings against such 'abuse' - but both have work fine for several years.
David
Same here. In a shed with an open window so that it doesn't get too hot.
Mary
Whether it works or not, if sited outdoors, condensation will accelerate rusting of the cabinet. May not matter in view of its age.
We've got a 35 yar old Electrolux chest freezer, it spent it's first 10 years in the house, then 12 years in an outside (brick) shed, we moved house and was going to bin it but decided at the last minute to 'run it into the ground', IE keep it until it fell apart, it's been in this shed for the last
13 years and is still going strong, obviously the lid has had to be painted with white gloss paint a few times, but I can't say it's ever 'not funtioned properly', neither in the depths of winter nor in the recent heatwave (or the one in '76!)
Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to!
We run everything into the ground before we replace it. Including each other!
Mary
The message from "Vortex" contains these words:
The thermostat is in the fridge compartment. If the exterior temperature is so low that the fridge bit doesn't feel the need to come on the freezer won't get cooled either.
This is because the freezer doesn't have its own thermostat.
Some fridge freezers do. Your doesn't.
To be clear it's a pure chest freezer, with no fridge attached!
David
Yes I looked in the archives but nowhere could I find a succinct and plausible explanation as to why freezer operation should become dodgy specifically below 0C.
AFAIK the boiling point of ammonia (used in CFC free freezers is about -30C) so I can imaging ambient temperatures in this order will cause problems.
Since it is/will be an "overflow" freezer we'll put it outside and see what happens this winter.
David H
Does it have a frost free feature? These at least require the freezer to do some cooling also the tubes that pipe the waste water away will freeze up. I think its the waste water pipes freezing up that would be the problem.
It's not really relevant to talk about the boiling point of refrigerants without saying something about pressure - the way a fridge works is by
*changing* the boiling point of a liquid. Besides, I very much doubt your freezer has ammonia in it - the CFC-free ones use hydrocarbon-based refrigerants. Ammonia is used in industrial plant and absorption fridges.I suspect that one reason for the caution about extreme temperatures is that domestic fridges/freezers use a capiliary tube as an expansion device, rather than the more sophisticated thermostatic devices used in commercial plant. Because the capiliary is just a fixed flow restriction rather than a proper temperature/pressure regulator, it's specified on the basis of fairly narrowly constrained pressure/temperature conditions throughout the plant.
A very cold condenser will give low high-side pressures which might be outside those for which the capiliary was designed - it can also cause an excessive proportion of the charge to hang around within the condenser.
All they're really saying in the instructions is that they designed the freezer to perform to specification with a certain external temperature range, and that outside that range it may not meet the spec.
Will
Thanks Will,
Given the minimal number of days/nights when temperature is sub-zero I think I will prove empirically how things work.
Also I have a good excuse to research some kind of recording digital/usb thermometer!
david
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