Indesit, less than a year old.
Been away for three days and both compartments are cold, there is frosty/icey stuff in freezer compartment, but Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire batters are melted. Peas still solid ish, butter hard ish, juice still cold, but bread thawed out (in freezer).
How do i tell how long it was potentially off for? and when? Do i chuck out all the frozen meat?
Some detective work required...
not sure how long it can have been off for but a tip is to if its in the house turn the heating up a bit when you go away, new fridge freezers turn off in cold weather, or if in a garage or shed put a light on next to the workings this should keep it warmer and stop it going off in cold weather.
That could be what it is - why do they go off in cold weather though?
edit - found [url= http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/freezer-defrosted-can-you-put-a-fridge-feezer-in-a-garage/ ]this[/url]. Everyday is a school day
To save energy apparently.
because the thermostat recons its cold enough?
from what i here about the UK at the mo there wont be many freezers running! save on power just open the door.
32 deg here in NZ yesterday 🙂
I discovered mine doing the thing during the cold spell at the beginning of the month. Minimum operating temperature for most fridges (and fridge freezers) is 16 degrees.
Any room for a separate freezer?
Jon YGM
Minimum operating temperature for most fridges (and fridge freezers) is 16 degrees.
I found this out recently too. It's another example of the hopeless energy rating systems. We bought an energy efficient fridge, but I have to heat an unoccupied house to make it work. 🙄
Never yet met one that didn't work down to 3-4 degrees, and even then most freezers cope outside quite happily regardless. It seems to be only fridge-freezers that have the problem, and then only a subset of them. It has nothing to do with energy ratings etc - if you want to put a fridge freezer in a location it wasn't designed to run, you can hardly blame the manufacturer.
Its not been mentioned explicitly yet apart from in that link...you need a freezer that has its own thermostat. So a posh fridge freezer that has separate temperature dials for both fridge and freezer. Or a stand alone freezer.
I believe a short term fix is to turn 'fast freeze' on as it over-rides the thermostat, though a lot of freezers don't appear to have this button any more.
interesting, my fridge freezer is in the garage, which is pretty cold. Thought it had died as stuff in freezer compartment had defrosted and there were no (power) lights on. Light inside fridge still works, but it isn't making the usual fridge freezer noises (compressor), but maybe its just switched off?
How do I tell if Ive got 1 or 2 thermostats? My fridge has an SN in the serial number, which according to that article^^ means it can go down to 10 deg C. (its definitely colder than that in the garage).
I believe a short term fix is to turn 'fast freeze' on as it over-rides the thermostat, though a lot of freezers don't appear to have this button any more.
Ill try that.
if you want to put a fridge freezer in a location it wasn't designed to run, you can hardly blame the manufacturer.
Reading the manual for our fridge / freezer, it states it designed to work in temperatures above 18degC. And IMHO that it ridiculous. That's a warm house. I have been heating the house when there is no one in it to make the freezer cold, I can't see how you can defend that as being sensible?
My fridge has an SN in the serial number
If it's a Meile / Liebherr, your lucky, we were sold an ST (18 to 38degC), which is apparently what is sold in the UK as standard.
Most fridge/freezers use the fridge thermostat to control their temperature, so if you want to have a freezer in an outhouse/garage it needs to be a standalone device. I found this out shortly after almost buying a fridge/freezer for our garage!
Wow, this explaind why my frridge freezer - that doesn't fit in the house has stopped working in the garage recently ....
thing is assuming it'd be fine I bought a fridge only for the house - now what!!!
Once again STW solves a problem I hadn't even got round to asking yet - a Christmas miracle I tells ya!
[i]How do I tell if Ive got 1 or 2 thermostats?[/i]
I'd guess you will have a dial to set the temperature for the freezer, in addition to the one you will have in the fridge. Two dials=two thermostats.
Just to clarify why the fridge freezers stop working...if the fridge is set to 3 degrees, and the room its in is close to or colder than 3 degrees, the fridge will never or rarely need to fire up the compressor to cool the fridge. The freezer which should be around -18, relies on the fridge thermostat to fire up the compressor regularly. If the fridge doesn't ever turn the compressor on, the freezer will warm up to ambient temperature. This is why organics fridge freezer has the internal light on but isn't making the usual noises...fridge is doing fine thank you very much, it doesn't care that the freezer is warm! Makes you wonder, how many fridge freezers are borderline...running enough to keep stuff frozen but just acting like an ice box rather than keeping stuff properly cold.
So if I was to buy a standalone freezer would that work ok in the garage? I assume so as it'll be 'stated on it's own and rarely at -18 in the garage?
Yep a freezer would work fine. If it was at minus 18 in the garage, it would still work, it just wouldn't need plugging in 🙂