Freezer for my garage


 
DanHoo

DanHoo

TVWBB Olympian
Starting to research a new freezer for the garage and looking for opinions.

Chest or Upright? Frost Free or one that needs a defrost?

The garage gets hot in summer, and is in the 50s maybe 40s in winter.

I don't need a huge freezer, yet I'd like to stock up when the price is right.
 
I looked into one this summer on Costco.com and many units have been sold out due to supply chain issues. Check there for reviews if you’re a member (I think you are) and if you have the Costco credit card, and buy with it it’ll extend the manufacturer’s warranty by 2x. And you’ll get a decent price.

I’m still running my 20 year old kitchenaid side by side and haven’t needed to pull trigger yet. I’d likely replace it if needed with someone who’s moving unit when I need to as we need both fridge and freezer spaces.
 
I ordered a chest freezer that will be delivered in two weeks. It’s ‘garage ready’ and will work from 0 to 110 degrees. Chest freezers are more energy efficient and have a lifespan five years longer than self defrost freezers. Also, chest freezers have marginal temperature fluctuations whereas self defrost fluctuate to be frost free. Food in a frost free has a shorter lifespan and can develop ice crystals or freezer burn due to temperature fluctuations. Food in a chest freezer is good for three days during a power outage while food in a self defrost is good for one day.
 
I've had both frost free and do it yourself defrost. Presently I have a garage ready frost free upright and a garage ready refrigerator freezer. I've experienced no freezer burn or ice crystals in either one. I went with an upright freezer due to space considerations vs. a chest freezer.
I have remote monitors in both and can watch the temps in the house with the remote monitor the combo refrigerator does get up to 30+ when in the defrost mode but no adverse effects to the food. All of my stored items are in vacuum bags which makes a big difference
The upright freezer never gets above 20* both are about six years old.
 
If you want the food you store to REALLY last don't buy a frost free (regardless of style upright or chest). They have heating coils to defrost. So every time this happens the temp inside can vary A LOT. I have monitored it and found during a defrost cycle they will go up to as high as 25F! So my long term storage freezer is manual defrost upright. I got at Sam's. I found the same brand in chest style and bought one for my daughter. Yes chest styles are more temp stable (to a point) but it depends more on manual or auto defrost. My issue with chest style is to get something on the bottom you have to take everything out and put it back
 
My brother in law wants me to take his upright but, I have concerns about winters in the garage here, I don’t think it’s a frost free, I’ll have to look. Any insight on the feasability of one in the garage when it potentially gets pretty blasted cold here in Michigan? Larry? Bruce? Bueller, Bueller? Anyone?
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
My brother in law wants me to take his upright but, I have concerns about winters in the garage here, I don’t think it’s a frost free, I’ll have to look. Any insight on the feasability of one in the garage when it potentially gets pretty blasted cold here in Michigan? Larry? Bruce? Bueller, Bueller? Anyone?
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It depends on if it is ‘garage ready’ or made for inside the house.
 
Most manual defrost ones will be fine. Though I have an attached garage so even at the worst it never gets REALLY cold. Almost has never dropped below freezing. Though that may be more attributable to how poorly my house is built. Having bathroom remodeled right now. They put a new vanity in. Well the vanity is square but not the 2 walls. So back of the vanity is mated but at the front nearly 1/4" gap.
When they were up in the attic they found 2 ceiling joists literally not attached to anything. Nearly fell through. Than a floor joist in same area of house the original plumber had cut nearly all the way through and did not brace it. So it had a huge crack and was bowed and it was the one under the shower in the master bath and the tub in the hall bath. Combined with the ceiling joists above it was a wonder the thing did not fall into the basement.
 
Great input so far. Thanks.

My current garage fridge is a 4-5 year old 25 Cu Ft GE side by side that I picked up used about 18 months ago. It's been working great until recently. Lately the refrigerator side's been getting too cold, and twice in the past month the freezer wasn't holding temps. I think I might have over stuffed it with pulled pork and some food may have been pushed up against the back where the evaporator is located causing ice to build up.

Maybe the cool garage high 40s, low 50s is contributing to the defrost not defrosting entirely. An appliance repair forum suggests it might be a bad thermistor, but I'll need access the back of the unit to test / replace which is a chore in its current location.

Yesterday I emptied it out and manually defrosted the freezer for several hours, then re-loaded it and today it seems OK. I'll keep an eye on it and do some shopping just in case.
 
I don't have one in the garage, but I have an upright in the basement. I feel it's better then a chest if you ever have to move it, and much easier to get what you want out. You can probably stuff more in a chest freezer, but I will always have an upright myself. Since you'll have it in the garage depends if you want to use vertical or horizontal space the most.
 
Jeff Boudman said:
It depends on if it is ‘garage ready’ or made for inside the house.
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Thanks Jeff but, I guess I will need to pull some model information to find that out, it’s too big to get into the basement and there will need to be some serious “redesigning” in the garage to make room. I’m less worried about the times when it’s really arctic cold than that zone from below 40 down. When it’s -20, I wouldn’t think it’s going to make much difference or am I mistaken?
I have had frost on the inside of the (detached) garage and ice on the floor from time to time. It’s just the kind of thing that happens in Michigan.
 
My current garage fridge is a 4-5 year old 25 Cu Ft GE side by side that I picked up used about 18 months ago. It's been working great until recently. Lately the refrigerator side's been getting too cold, and twice in the past month the freezer wasn't holding temps.

Dan -- maintaining two separate correct temp zones in a garage is a very tricky task. Especially for modern units. The 40 year old fridge/freezer your parents had worked fine in the garage. But today's energy efficient indoor models really can't handle the garage environment. So to work correctly, a fridge/freezer combo absolutely needs to be garage ready. Having a single zone unit in a garage is a much simpler proposition.

There's tons of good cheap garage ready (0F to 110F) chest freezers around these days. I just got a 7 cu foot for my very cold mountain garage from Home Depot for like $225. You absolutely must have garagr ready if you have very low winter temps.

In CA, you could probably use a regular unit in the garage. You'd just burn more power in the summer.

My issue with chest style is to get something on the bottom you have to take everything out and put it back

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DanHoo said:
Yesterday I emptied it out and manually defrosted the freezer for several hours, then re-loaded it and today it seems OK. I'll keep an eye on it and do some shopping just in case.
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Pro tip: Set up a fan blowing air into the open freezer when defrosting. I have a small floor fan designed for drying wet floors. I tilt it up a bit and put it on high. Within two minutes the ice in the freezer is dripping. It seldom takes more than 30 minutes to melt all the ice.
 
My mom used to curl her hair with it in the 60s. Maybe 50s too?

I used it to dry snow ski boots in the 70s and 80s
 
DanHoo said:
I used this very, very old hair dryer.
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Never tried that but I have always just brought a large pot or small stock pot of water to boil and then put it on some hot pads in the bottom of the freezer and close the lid for about 10 minutes. Manual defrost, of course...don't need to defrost the whole thing, just soften the ice so it falls off the sides in big chunks.

We have a chest type freezer we bought at Sears, a Kenmore 15 (15 cu. ft.?), maybe 25 or 30 years ago? It was a floor model or maybe a scratch and dent, something like that. We bought it on a whim. When the kids were growing up and a family of 5 we've never managed to fill it up. It measures about 38"x23"x29"dp internally. This is the first I've ever heard about a freezer being garage ready but that may be something needed in the northern part of the country where it freezes. It's been in the garage since the day we bought it. We've never had a bit of trouble with it, knock on wood.
 
LMichaels said:
If you want the food you store to REALLY last don't buy a frost free (regardless of style upright or chest). They have heating coils to defrost. So every time this happens the temp inside can vary A LOT. I have monitored it and found during a defrost cycle they will go up to as high as 25F! So my long term storage freezer is manual defrost upright. I got at Sam's. I found the same brand in chest style and bought one for my daughter. Yes chest styles are more temp stable (to a point) but it depends more on manual or auto defrost. My issue with chest style is to get something on the bottom you have to take everything out and put it back
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This!
 
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