Freezer problem

[Buckman]

Our Ice King chest deep freezer is specifically for outbuildings and has performed flawlessly for the past 8 years. However today OH went get some fish out of it and noticed that it was defrosting. It looked fine when she put some food in last Wednesday, but did not check the lights as they are at the back and out of sight. Luckily most of the meat was still frozen or partially defrosted. A lot of the veg was defrosted but very cold to the touch. Luckily grandson is the manager at the local pub so we were able to use their walk in deep freeze.

I am not a refrigeration expert and on reading the owner's manual it is indicating a fault with the freezer and although a layman I suspect that the compressor has probably given up the ghost which probably means buying a new deep freeze taking into account the cost of a repair and what we originally paid for the freezer. I expect a new compressor will cost and arm and leg plus of course labour costs etc.

If you have a freezer that is suitable for outbuildings perhaps you can offer a suggestion on purchasing a new freezer?

 

[Mr Plodd]

Sounds like its history! At least you don't appear to have lost too much.
Amazing how these things always pack up at the most inopportune time isn't it?

You are wise to ask about a suitable freezer as many "ordinary" freezers designed to be used inside a house will not function correctly in the much lower temperatures common in an unheated outhouse. I am afraid thats as far as my knowledge goes.

 

[Jcloughie]

We have a chest freezer in the garage. We are now on the second one. We only changed because the first one looked tatty.

The first one did about 15 years old and the present one must be nearly that. We have only bought bog standard cheap ones from Currys. It could be that our partially internal garage is not as harsh an environment, but it gets very cold in the winter for sure. I remember, the week we bought the last one, the receipt was entered into a draw and we got all our money back.

Given its age, we may have to think about upgrading.

When I was about 11 my dad bought an English Electric fridge, as he worked there. When I was 14 I set fire to the kitchen with the help of a chip pan. Dad took the fridge back to the factory and it was resealed and resprayed. it looked like new. 15 years later, my mother gave or sold the fridge to a corner shop who kept on using it. It went on forever.

John

 

[otherclive]

Our daughter has a chest freezer by BEKO and it sits in the garage and is years old. But like John the garage is integral and has double glazed windows and upvc doors plus insulated roller door so I doubt it get below freezing. You’ve got me worried now though as we store meat in it. Like three legs of lamb at present as they were in offer.

 

[Dustydog]

As we have aged we find freezers with drawers easier to use than chest freezers. Whatever you want always seems to have migrated to the bottom!
I agree you should check the location temperature range before purchase.
A lot of household insurance policies include freezer breakdown cover It’s surprising just how much value of food can accrue in the freezer!

 

[Buckman]

Our daughter has a chest freezer by BEKO and it sits in the garage and is years old. But like John the garage is integral and has double glazed windows and upvc doors plus insulated roller door so I doubt it get below freezing. You’ve got me worried now though as we store meat in it. Like three legs of lamb at present as they were in offer.

We had two legs of lamb from the special offer plus beef and pork bought earlier in the year when on special. I was more concerned about the meat than the veg.

As we have aged we find freezers with drawers easier to use than chest freezers. Whatever you want always seems to have migrated to the bottom!
I agree you should check the location temperature range before purchase.
A lot of household insurance policies include freezer breakdown cover It’s surprising just how much value of food can accrue in the freezer!

I agree that an upright would be better for us than a chest so considering those also.

 

[Buckman]

Also now considering a tall freezer that we can use inside the home. Samsung offer a 5 year warranty on their freezers.

 

[JB1]

In answer to your question, we have 1x beko freeder and1x fridge freezer I am I heated outhouse, both have worked fine for the last few years, from the research I did at the time Beko was one of the few makes that had units that would work in unheated areas. you have to make sure the model you choose is able to work in grades etc.

 

[Hutch]

Last August the freezer side of our Fridge freezer in the garage, decided it was time to retire, strangely enough I had sellotaped the receipt to the side, 18 years old. Luckily we had enough room in the other freezer to move everything.
When looking for a new one, we realised how big our old one was.
We settled for a Beko, delivered by AO, joined there club thing and got delivery, unwrapped, old one removed, all which are add one otherwise. Biggest problem, was trying to actually SEE -ing the different ones.
Wow have the prices gone up.

 

[Buckman]

Last August the freezer side of our Fridge freezer in the garage, decided it was time to retire, strangely enough I had sellotaped the receipt to the side, 18 years old. Luckily we had enough room in the other freezer to move everything.
When looking for a new one, we realised how big our old one was.
We settled for a Beko, delivered by AO, joined there club thing and got delivery, unwrapped, old one removed, all which are add one otherwise. Biggest problem, was trying to actually SEE -ing the different ones.
Wow have the prices gone up.

For our 201lt freezer we paid £179 in 2015. The same capacity from a known make is more than double that amount.

I suspect that although OH went to freezer on Wednesday, it was probably on its way out then as I think it would take a lot longer than 3 days for the goods inside a chest deep freeze to defrost?

In another thread I mentioned that our washing machine and tumble dryer had Bluetooth and people wondered if it was of any use. If our freezer had bluetooth, when it went faulty and the temperature increased we would have been notified.

 

[GUMPY]

We run one of THESE in our garage
Works well, it's getting close to needing a defrost after 5 years

 

[Buckman]

We run one of THESE in our garage
Works well, it's getting close to needing a defrost after 5 years

Thanks as seems a good buy.

I put mu ear against the freezer and could hear the compressor running so issue may be with thermostat. However I doubt if changing the thermostat would be cheap that is if it is the thermostat and then having to replace the freezer anyway.

 

[Beachball]

At present we have a Haier chest freezer it been in our garage for a few years so far works well but next time probably look for a upright freezer with draws it would be easier access

 

[GUMPY]

On one of my freezers I ran an external stat like THIS
I have one in the workshop somewhere 🥱

 

[Jcloughie]

I use one of these on the chest freezer. The probe drops inside and the wire is trapped in the seal. The read out is fixed to the wall and permanently on. A coin type battery lasts for years.

It won't help the OP. but gives reassurance when the freezer is operating. and it costs less than £2.5



John

 

[otherclive]

I use one of these on the chest freezer. The probe drops inside and the wire is trapped in the seal. The read out is fixed to the wall and permanently on. A coin type battery lasts for years.

It wont help the OP. but gives reassurance when the freezer is operating. and it costs less than £2.5

John

John
The link hasn’t come through on my phone. Could you repost please.

 

[Buckman]

I use one of these on the chest freezer. The probe drops inside and the wire is trapped in the seal. The read out is fixed to the wall and permanently on. A coin type battery lasts for years.

It wont help the OP. but gives reassurance when the freezer is operating. and it costs less than £2.5

John

The problem with our chest deep freeze is that you cannot see the operating lights when standing in front of it so it is possible that when OH went to the deep freeze in Wednesday she did not see that the red light was on permanently.

 

[Jcloughie]

John
The link hasn’t come through on my phone. Could you repost please.

Sorry, it was a picture but I forgot to include it. It is there now. They are available in many places. And amazingly accurate.

THIS LINK may work from Temu.

John

 

[Jcloughie]

The problem with our chest deep freeze is that you cannot see the operating lights when standing in front of it so it is possible that when OH went to the deep freeze in Wednesday she did not see that the red light was on permanently.

You would think a freezer, or even a fridge would sound an alarm if the temp rose up a bit. A simple thing to do with technology today. But manufacturers do stupid things. Our LG American fridge freezer is connected to the internet! I can raise or lower the temp or set fast freeze from my phone. WHY!!! It would be useful if it sent me a warning message if the temp rose. But no, it cannot do that.

John

 

[otherclive]

You would think a freezer, or even a fridge would sound an alarm if the temp rose up a bit. A simple thing to do with technology today. But manufacturers do stupid things. Our LG American fridge freezer is connected to the internet! I can raise or lower the temp or set fast freeze from my phone. WHY!!! It would be useful if it sent me a warning message if the temp rose. But no, it cannot do that.

John

Our Bosch fridge freezer does sound an alarm if the door is open to long, or if the temperature drops below its trigger point. Does it fir fridge and freezer.

 

[JTQ]

Our Bosch fridge freezer does sound an alarm if the door is open to long, or if the temperature drops below its trigger point. Does it fir fridge and freezer.

Ours does but when it rises above the set point .

 

[Jcloughie]

Our Bosch fridge freezer does sound an alarm if the door is open to long, or if the temperature drops below its trigger point. Does it fir fridge and freezer.

Ours has the door alarm, I don’t know if it has a temp alarm. Have to have a look. But it does not have the capability of sending a notification, which would make sense for a ‘connected’ device.

The fridge and freezer temp is displayed. But the very basic chest freezer in the garage does not, also like buckmans, the warning lights are not very visable. Hense the addition of the cheap digital display fot that one.

John

 

[otherclive]

Ours has the door alarm, I don’t know if it has a temp alarm. Have to have a look. But it does not have the capability of sending a notification, which would make sense for a ‘connected’ device.

The fridge and freezer temp is displayed. But the very basic chest freezer in the garage does not, also like buckmans, the warning lights are not very visable. Hense the addition of the cheap digital display fot that one.

John

Ours has no notification capability. But to be honest in our married life we’ve never had a loss of contents through failure. Even if it sent a notification there’s no guarantee we’d be about and close enough to act. That’s why we have insurance that covers the contents.

 

[Jcloughie]

I did get a notification with our first cheap chest freezer. We were having an extension built above and to the side of the garage. We had taken the caravan to Belgium. We were enjoying a river cruise on Monday and the builder phoned. The electrician had had the power off on Friday and forgot to put it back on.

Not much I could do, but my son went around and rescued a bit and dumped the rest. The builder paid compensation.

It just seems odd to me that I can do useless things on my LG fridge freezer, but it fails on something that might be useful.

I think that if the temp had risen by just 2 degrees and there was a warning notification. There would be some hours that could be usefully employed.

There are third-party products.

Amazon.co.uk

John

 

[Buckman]

You would think a freezer, or even a fridge would sound an alarm if the temp rose up a bit. A simple thing to do with technology today. But manufacturers do stupid things. Our LG American fridge freezer is connected to the internet! I can raise or lower the temp or set fast freeze from my phone. WHY!!! It would be useful if it sent me a warning message if the temp rose. But no, it cannot do that.

John

In our case as the freezer is an an outbuilding at the bottom of the garden, we probably would not have heard any alarm however we did "visit" the freezer at least twice a week.

We have now bought a Samsung upright freezer which we can put in the small room in our home. Should arrive tomorrow afternoon.