Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | mlswaar - 1/15/2017 17:04
Would like to get a chest type freezer to put in garage to allow a purchase of a 1/4 or 1/2 beef. 15cu.ft is what I'm thinking about. Recommendations?
My refrigerator/freezer doesn't freeze during winter months due to not running enough. Garage may get down to 32 degrees in severe cold but normally is at 38 to 40 in cold months.
I have not bought a freezer for many years, so I cant add much there, but I might be able to help you with a cheap fix to make your combination refrigerator / freezer work in a cold unheated room.
We have an unheated entry way on our house where we keep an upright freezer and a refrigerator freezer combo.
In winter we had the same problem, the freezer works fine, but the combo refrigerator / freezer will not run in cold weather because the thermostat that makes it cool will not run when room temp is 35 degrees or colder. After a few days of not running, the freezer portion warms to the same 32+ degrees, allowing frozen things to slowly thaw. I have had meat go bad in it from this lack of freezing. Also have had refrigerated things freeze in the refrigerator portion.
This fall as the temps got cold, I got to thinking about this years old problem.
I thought, If I could somehow add a little heat to the refrigerator compartment to get it above the thermostats 35 degree turn on temp, it would force the compressor to run and freeze the freezer compartment, while keeping the refrigerator compartment warm enough to keep refrigerated things from freezing.
I went looking for a cheap / simple way to add a little heat to the refrigerator compartment. When I opened the door, the little refrigerator light came on, my thoughts, Hey!! , a light bulb is a heater !! What if I fixed it so that little light does not turn off in cold weather ? I looked at the door light switch to see if there was an easy way to add another switch to bypass the door switch to keep it lit with the door closed ? There is no easy way to access the switch wiring and add another bypass switch, but on this old Whirlpool refrigerator / freezer has a rib on the plastic door shelf that pushes the switch when the door closes and turns off the light. I cut a small hole in the plastic door shelf so it does not depress the light switch, so now the light stays on all the time. When I want the door light to turn off in warm weather months, I put a piece of duct tape across the hole and the light turns off as intended when the door is closed. I started with the original 40 watt bulb which worked good, actually too good, the refrigerator would run every 3 hours, more than necessary to keep things frozen. I found a 15 watt appliance bulb and tried it, not enough, the refrigerator would only run once per day or not at all. I went back to the hardware store and found a 25 watt bulb, the 25 watt is the sweet spot, refrigerator runs every 12 hrs, refrigerator compartment stays slightly above freezing and the freezer compartment stays in the 10-20 below 0 range, perfect, problem over and cost just over $1.
Edited by Jon Hagen 1/15/2017 23:41
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Chest type freezer?
