… and the food turns to mush. We need an alarm/indicator of some sort to tell us in the house that the power has gone so we can sort it out.
My Google-fu is failing me badly, keep getting burglar alarms or expensive 110db alarms that blow the garage apart.
Any cheap/clever ideas? The garage adjoins the house but don’t really want to drill through and plug in a lamp and wait for it to go out. Want something to happen rather than something stop happening…

Why not sort the supply instead?

That is also party of the solution, there is a separate breaker for the garage and that trips. Suspect it is faulty as there is only the freezer plugged in most of the time but it still occasionally trips. That will be replaced. A remote temperature alarm may be a better idea long term though, just in case anyone left the freezer lid open for example 🙄

Mains relay triggering battery powered sounder/siren? Power the actuator side of the relay on the same socket as the freezer, the battery siren on the switched. When the power goes down, the relay releases, the siren goes on.

But if you don’t know why the power is dodgy, how do you know it’s not going to kill someone or start a fire. Get it sorted.

As above, could be an earth fault on th freezer. If the freezer becomes live and the breaker fails (from over use), it’s going to be far worse than a bit if mushy food.

OK, how can I get the freezer checked? Job for an electrician? Repair guy? Or something you can do with a multi meter and some instructions from someone on an internet forum?

midlifecrashes, would rather a simple commercial unit than something homebrew. I happily play with stuff, following instructions, but never so keen on playing with the mains.

The relay isn’t constantly tripping. Will be fine for anything up to a year, then trip a few times, just often enough to think something need sorting, then it’s fine for ages again. So assuming it will now be fine (without a detectable fault) swapping the breaker and getting some sort of alarm seemed sensible, rather than just leaving it again…

Cabling damage from mice or duff freezer. Alarm is a nice idea but completely missing the pointy I’m afraid.

I had a fault on the upstairs lighting circuit once. Bugger to find. Would trip once in a while but not for any particular reason. In the end, I found the metal back box was contacting some exposed live conductor (someone had ripped the insulation pulling it through).

I found that by going over the entire circuit with a fine tooth comb but the other option is to use a Megga. Not worth buying for a single job so worth getting a decent spark in. You could start by looking at obvious easily accessable locations though. Just make sure that circuit it dead first, then look for carbon in and sockets or junction boxes along the way.

Worth noting that not all freezers are suitable for use in garages due to low ambient temperatures in winter, they may not function.

Sounds very much like both your freezer and supply to the garage need to be checked.
Does the garage have it’s own circuit, or is it part of a house socket circuit? Is anything supplied by the circuit.

If you can’t find anyone locally, give me a call at Eco Electrics. I’m based in Sheffield, but am willing to assist.

Jerry

sharkbait- the alarm is extra to an actual fix but yes, we need to fix whatever is faulty.

Onzadog- only a small circuit and easy to check through (apart from the stuff in the roof space). Would be lovely to find a little easily replaced fault 🙂

paladin- freezer was bought with that in mind but good point.

49er_Jerry- is Matlock out of your normal range? If so do you know of anyone more out this way?

paladin – Member
Worth noting that not all freezers are suitable for use in garages due to low ambient temperatures in winter, they may not function.

Tracker1972 – Member

paladin- freezer was bought with that in mind but good point.

To potentially save anyone who might see this thread hunting high and low for a suitable ‘garage’ freezer, Beko guarantee their freezer operation down to -15deg. C. We bought one, specifically for this reason as most others say don’t put them outside; even chest freezers.

Thing is, my parents have got a freezer that’s been in the garage for years (must be getting on for more than 20 years old) and it works fine, so it can’t do the freezer too much harm….

Beko guarantee their freezer operation down to -15deg. C.

If it stopped working how would you even know?

If it’s an RCD that’s tripping, my guess is you have some damp in the motor coils on the fridge compressor which isn’t helped by it being outside.

Tracker1972, I don’t need too much excuse to head out to the Peaks. Give me a call. Contact details etc in my profile.

On eBay if you know what search terms to use.

I’d still want to get to the bottom of the wiring problem though.

Midlifecrashes- still want to sort the electrics but a 120db alarm might trump a 110db alarm, but is still going off in the garage, fairly antisocially 🙂

49er_Jerry- I may well be in touch soon if there isn’t anything very obvious. Have you any way of checking the function of a circuit breaker?

120db alarm might trump a 110db alarm, but is still going off in the garage, fairly antisocially

you need one of those alrms from ebay, some gaffer tape to attunate the noise and a rechargeable baby monitor 🙂

Oliverd1981- you may joke but a baby monitor that reports the lack of a connection (because the base had no power) may be the best bet!