OT: Fridge/Freezer for garage

I am no expert but if it is a single compressor unit then I suspect the answer is no. As far as I know there is only one manufacturer of non-commercial freezers that are suitable for garage use in that they will operate down to -10C and that is Beko, I think that also applies to their fridge/freezers but you would need to research that.

Richard

What would be the failure mode running it out of spec? It likely won't be able to maintain the rated temperatures, but the OP is just going to be storing sterile drinks in it, not pate or baby milk. If the temperature is out of spec, for sealed bottles it won't cause any health hazards just the drinks might not be as cold.

Is it likely to be fire hazard, for example, and how would that happen?

OP, does it say what kind of refrigerant it uses?

Theo

I had a quick scan of a few Beko fridge/freezers all that I looked at are good enough to -15C which should be good enough for most of the UK with only the Scottish Highlands likely to get much lower.

Richard

Google AI says Beko freezers with Freezer Guard Technology can operate in ambient temperatures as low as -15C. However, the fridge compartment in most Beko models is not designed for low temperatures, and it is not recommended to use it in ambient temperatures below 10C (static models) or -15C (frost-free models). In low temperatures, the fridge compartment may freeze food, while the freezer compartment with Freezer Guard will continue to work correctly. [/quote]

Your wine/beer is likely to freeze, expand and burst a bottle/can with low temperatures.

However, is an unheated garage attached to a dwelling likely to get to a temperature below 0C? Some heat will leak from house especially if the fridge/freezer is positioned on an internal wall.

Also consider the upper operating temperature in summer conditions in an unventilated garage perhaps with a roof construction that traps heat from the sun.

Yes. All that’s happening is that it stops refrigerating when your garage temp drops to the normal fridge temp.

This will as a side effect stop the freezer cooling, hence making the freezer unsafe to use (from the food preservation point of view). You beer/wine won’t come to any harm.

The freezer isn’t “energised” as your fridge/freezer only has one stat and one compressor. If your fridge stops going below 4°C say because the garage is cold, everything stops. There is no separate circuit or compressor for the freezer.

Tim

We run a domestic fridge freezer in our integral garage. It has been in there over a decade - since we had a new kitchen. It has an alarm if the freezer temp rises out of the safe zone. It has never gone off, even in the really cold winter a year or two back when our heating failed. The garage isn’t heated but gets some heat from the shared walls I expect.

At the moment. The outside temp is 5 C, the garage temp ( I have a sensor in there ) is 11 C. Freezer is at -18C

We also have a cheap chest freezer in there. Never had a problem.

In our previous house we had a similar cheap chest freezer in a shed. Never had a problem.

I think we bought the first chest freezer around 1990. Replaced it maybe 8 years ago due to seals failing.

The only fridge freezer that will work properly in an unheated space is one with dual compressors. I bought a fridge freezer for my kitchen about 30 years ago, and it is still working. It had a compressor for each function and controls for each function. I can turn the freezer off to defrost it without affecting the fridge. It would be perfectly happy in an unheated garage.

By contrast, my sister-in-law had a fridge freezer with a single compressor, and when she took a winter holiday and I popped round now and again to keep an eye on things because she lived a 5-minute walk away from my house, and she had let the house get cold, the freezer started to defrost because the temperature in the fridge determined when the compressor ran. I ended up turning the fridge temperature to as low as it would go, and that restored the freezer function.

In your situation, if you don't want to use the freezer, then the fridge part will work OK in the garage.