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Hi lovely people,
I was wondering of someone could help with a solution to this issue we’re having as we store quite a lot of meals for the baby in our outside fridge freezer and, when it drops below 3deg, it stops working.
Now i’ve read enough to understand why this is happening, and i have thought about purchasing a plug-in temp sensor which activates at 4deg and turns on some sort of heating lamp, or thermal blanket, so that the thermometer doesn’t assume it’s cold enough to not run the freezer… but i don’t know what i’m looking for on the unit, or where i should be trying to insulate.
Some fridge freezers seem to have them at the base of the unit, at the back. Others seem to be in the fridge door… i’m at a loss.
My simple question is, how do i best apply heat/insulation and where to my fridge freezer to convince it that it’s about 10deg and should still be working?
I really appreciate any advice you’re able to give me.
Thanks,
Phil.EDIT: Presumably, the fridge can only know how cold it is because the thermostat is located in there? There’s only on/off for the freezer. So, would it be behind where the lamp is in the fridge? SO the cold of the outer metal is therefore over-riding any insulating qualities the fridge has? If i heat lamp was focused on the outside of the fridge where the thermostat sits, would that do the trick?
to understand why its happening you have to know how the system works
The compressor runs and the gas is fed into the freezer first. The gas is a liquid at this point and boils away to cool the unit. The freezer cools until the liquid no longer boils away and its able to continue on to the fridge where it cools there. it continues till the temp of the evaporator in the fridge reaches the desired temperature set by the thermostat and the compressor switches off. Now the unit needs to defrost so the thermostat is set so it wont come back on till the temp in the fridge reaches +2 degrees. If your garage is +1 it will never come on, ever. Result totally defrosted freezer
the only answer is to heat the garage or buy a freezer only
you could make a small room for the fridge, insulate it then you may need a small heater in the very coldest months
Dave
As Dave has said, the thermostat controls both sections by monitoring the fridge temperature, if the ambient temperature is lower than the cut in temperature of the fridge after the off cycle defrost then the fridge freezer will remain off until the cut in temperature is reached in the fridge, on some units this can be as high as 6c, more expensive units have a winter switch on them which when turned on adds warmth to the fridge interior by means of a heater or the interior light remaining on at half power, best option is move it to a warmer environment or purchase a separate freezer.
had the exact same problerm with my sister 20 years ago. she moved to Huddersfield and the only place for the fridge freezer was outside in the cold. she had to open the back door and cross a covered walk way to a small room at the end of the garage. when it started not working properly in the winter she rang me so i told her she needed to heat the room. Her works were something like ” its a fridge, its needs to be cold how can heating it work, thats mad “
if the thermostat was in the freezer it would not happen
Dave
Or change the Candy for a Beko fridge freezer as they are good to go in a garage or shed down to -15 degrees C or so they say 😉
Don
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