Home › Forums › Public Support Forums › Help And Support › Fridge And Freezer Forum › Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
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David123.
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March 17, 2010 at 8:27 pm #273006
kwatt
KeymasterRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
Martin wrote:So “Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ? The answer is that if you can squeeze it in amongst the junk you have in there already then it should work perfectly well. ๐
Sorry Martin for having to point this out but that advice is plain wrong.
We don’t all live in Hampshire, there are those “places up North” you know. ๐
The average standing temperature in many areas of the UK can fall well below zero in outbuildings and trying to use a device designed to operate between 10รลกC and about 30รลกC will cause issues, end of story. I can assure you it will, I’ve been to scores of refrigeration products with this sort of problem from damp, cold basements to unheated kitchen extensions to outbuildings where chest freezers “sweat” and leak water in cold weather and struggle to maintain temperature during hot summers.
Extremes of temperature will and do adversely affect refrigeration units regardless of the format.
Single compressor fridge freezers are utterly unsuitable for the environment.
Larder fridges might be okay, but you can get condensation on the outside of the cabinet in both extremes and either upright freezers or chest freezers can suffer likewise.
As Alf has pointed out in these forums previously, you can get lucky and it might work okay. No guarantee how long they will work for and there’s no guarantee how well they will work and this is why most warranties are voided when the products are, as the manufacturer sees it, mis-installed in this manner outside the parameters for which the product was designed for use in.
As Don said, you only know when it all goes South on you.
K.
April 3, 2010 at 9:39 pm #273007madrat
ParticipantRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
It says on the following web site that some BEKO’s are sutible to use at -15.
April 3, 2010 at 11:16 pm #273008kwatt
KeymasterDid you not read the discussion madrat?
Beko may well claim that, whether or not the claim holds water is open to debate if you read back.
I’d love to know how the fridge turns into a heating compartment to keep the fresh food from freezing at -15รลกC or how a single compressor unit manages this feat.
Unless of course Beko have found a way around basic psychics that they’re not sharing.
K.
April 4, 2010 at 11:39 am #273009madrat
Participantyes I did read the discussion, but if they are advertising it as fact, ether it must work or they have a large fund to pay for all the clames they will get.
April 4, 2010 at 12:01 pm #273010kwatt
KeymasterRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
Lots of manufacturers claim lots of things and bucketloads of them simply don’t work or will only work on fine day, when the prevailing wind blows in the right direction and the sun is only so high in the sky.
Basically, people are lied to or badly misled if you like, by marketing bumph. ๐
K.
April 4, 2010 at 12:17 pm #273011madrat
Participantso they are leaving themselves wide open to law suits for false advertising
April 4, 2010 at 4:49 pm #273012kwatt
KeymasterOnly if someone actually takes them to task on it.
TBH I get sick to death of looking at manufacturers making claims which, to be as polite as I can be, are utter rubbish or very misleading. Just in the past couple of weeks we have, on here alone, LG cheating with energy labels and got caught, Electrolux claiming humungous savings, Gorenje inventing a new thing that was already there and Panasonic doing the same as well as lobbing in a few “green” arguments along the way, most of which won’t stack up if you inspect them closely. That’s in under two weeks and that’s only the ones I bothered to publish.
And the crowing glory of this is this article from December where DEFRA PROVED that a whole bunch of energy labels which are supposed to be correct and tested under EU legislation, aren’t. You’ll see some pretty big names in that list and many of the products simply are not tested. Even when they are the results can be, will we say, dubious.
So, if a manufacturer can claim that something as basic and simple as the energy label is something it’s not, the question you should ask is, what else will they make false claims about?
You can also complain of course to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK. If they actually care and take any notice and, usually they will need scores of complaints to do much of anything, the worst that’s liable to happen to a manufacturer is they get a slapped wrist and perhaps a small fine. What they sold due to the claims is liable to exceed the fine/s by some considerable margin so, they don’t care.
The reality of it is simply this, you have to make up your own mind whether or not you’re being told the truth by actually researching what you buy. If you don’t and the product doesn’t do what you want, pretty much regardless of what it is, you’ve likely very little chance of any recourse.
We try to help people navigate through that, if they will listen of course.
And, to end as I started this post more or less, even if you did disprove the claims are you really, as a customer, going to take them to court over it and go up against ยฃ400+ an hour QC’s and the assorted “experts” that will tell the court that you’re wrong and they’re right?
I don’t think so.
K.
April 4, 2010 at 7:25 pm #273013madrat
ParticipantYour rite, people very rarely take a big company to court, however groups of people do and places like this and watchdog can get people together.
If these claims are wrong then they are also fraudulent.
April 4, 2010 at 11:23 pm #273014kwatt
KeymasterRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
They do yes, but not usually in the UK. Class actions are rare here. In fact, the the best of my knowledge, they are rare in Europe.
Unless argued well and with a lot of evidence such an action is liable to prove fruitless.
TV shows want a whizz bang result or something they can really get their teeth into, a few people with an appliance that isn’t quite right doesn’t figure into that until it’s at the epidemic stage. You need hundreds of complaints, not just a few disgruntled owners.
If I had a pound for everyone that mentioned Watchdog in a conversation about a poor appliance or lack of spares I’d have retired some time ago to warmer climes that we have in the UK. ๐
A lifetime in service will do that to you.
You see what happens is that, as the poor saps that have to fix the problems, we often get complaints that the machine doesn’t do whatever. We can’t help that, as I often remind people, sure, we can fix it but we can’t make it any better, we can only ensure it does what it’s supposed to do.
All too often that’s not what the owner actually wants. What they want is for the machine to do what it was advertised to do or, alluded to do.
Classic example is a washing machine that takes two hours or more to wash. Owner thinks there’s a problem with this when in fact there isn’t any fault at all. It just takes that long to hit the energy requirements yet, somehow, it’s the machines fault that it takes that long to wash with that minimal power use but, in the eyes of the owner it’s a fault with the product. It’s not at all, it’s a simple case of the person buying the whizz bang, super duper, planet saving and tree hugging machine not actually thinking that, somewhere down the road, there’d be a compromise to get that.
Or that a machine that costs less than a few hundred pounds will somehow, magically, last for years and years whilst being pounded with normal family use.
We then tell people the truth and that if you want to have your cake and eat it you have to pay for the privilege and own an ISE10 or Miele machine. But loads of people don’t like that outcome as ยฃ800 or whatever it costs is more than the ยฃ400 Beko, Panasonic, LG or whatever else is being punted as the saviour of the world this week.
Same when we tell people that Liebherr make the best fridges. First thing is… oh that’s expensive! Well, yes it is when you compare it to the other rubbish out there but over the lifespan you should get it’s cheaper and a whole heap less hassle, designed better and so on.
What you will notice however is that a lot of the pukka quality manufacturers don’t make stupid claims about saving you half your electricity bills or whatever. They let the product speak for itself in general. They don’t have to do any more.
This is all about educating people to see past the hype. If people do that there’s no need to have a fight about it after they’ve been suckered.
K.
April 5, 2010 at 11:24 am #273015madrat
ParticipantWatchdog did have some success,
Remember the hotpoint washing line of shame.
The hoover free flights (led to a court case and the little man won)
Indasit dishwashers that liked to start fires.
There were results in all these cases, even if it was only a public apology. but some cost the company involved big money.
You are rite, people believe what they are told but personal if I had a Beko freezer in a garage and it didn’t work I would pursue it until I got the result I wanted.
April 5, 2010 at 11:46 pm #273016kwatt
KeymasterRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
Limited success on limited, acute, subjects is not what I’d define as being a result.
Having to take a company to court because they tell porkies, isn’t a result. Even if you do win.
Getting some poor sap on a TV show telling us that the company is “sorry”, isn’t a result.
Glorification of this on TV isn’t what I would regard as a result.
A result is not having the problem in the first place or, a resolution to the issue without having to resort to legal action or anything close to being that drastic.
To accomplish not having the problem in the first place you have to design good products and provide adequate back up for that which will, almost invariably, mean that the business that does so has to charge more in order to ensure that.
But people want to buy the cheapest possible.
Catch 22.
I’d much rather have the truth, even if it’s not what I want to hear as at least I then am fully aware of the compromise/s that I’m making. And, therein lies much of the problem with a large number of products, people want to believe the bull being peddled, then get cross when they figure out that it was bull after parting with their hard earned cash.
And after all that, is it worth fighting about? For a couple hundred quid?
The key, in my own opinion, is knowledge. Not fancy notions that you can fight what are in many cases global corporations as, you won’t win taking businesses like that head on, you’ll just get trampled. But, if you are smart, do your homework and, buy smart, you can beat them.
K.
April 6, 2010 at 2:43 am #273017gandh1
Participantmadrat wrote:I would pursue it until I got the result I wanted.
this isnt me being sarcastic, but genuinely interested as to what that would be ?
if its for a machine that would work in below ind. std temps, remember, lawyers are paid to be smart, and also have internets and maybe this sounds fanciful, but if such a case was to enter a court it would not be difficult to track this thread down, connect you to it, use it as evidence that you had doubts to the validity of bekos claims, and therefore probably be able to get your case thrown out on a technicality or even worse, untruth, if you used naivity of manufacturers claims.
this is all of course, hypothetical ๐
April 6, 2010 at 3:03 pm #273018madrat
ParticipantThe result I would want would be a full refund and the cost of the food I lost in the freezer. But as I don’t have a garage or a separate freezer to put in it this is all conjecture
August 28, 2010 at 11:12 pm #273019Sensemaya
ParticipantRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
Read this thread with interest.
I need to replace old Norfrost freezer in my garage. It’s had it.
http://www.easyequipment.com/Chest-Freezers-s/156.htm
Either the SZ181C or SZ248C. Just emailed the company because the only difference is the litre size and I want to know why.
But are these a safe bet?
Thank you once again -Dryer is working a treat.
Edit: One is 720w and the other is 920w. Time of night!!!
8)
August 29, 2010 at 7:08 am #273020spimps
ParticipantRe: Are Chest Freezers no longer suitable for Garages ?
Safe bet ๐ contradiction in terms as far as purchasing electrical goes.
Vestfrost are decent a product,at a reasonable price.Would be my recommendation.
Polar stuff is very basic but cheap. -
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