On Sat, 28 Jan 2017 13:26:10 +0000 (UTC), Maurice
wrote:

Just had Indesit/Hotpoint engineer to mend a 6-month-old fridge freezer
that had stopped working.

He checked that it did work if power connected directly to compressor,
and then advised me that it wasn't designed to work if ambient temp
10oC, adding "But they don't tell you that when buying"!

Considering the target temp for a freezer is -18oC, it seems an odd
deign point, even though this one is in a garage whose ambient temp was
around 5oc.

He said he would order a new freezer thermostat (as "it didn't seem to
be working properly") and return to replace it.

[The previous fridge/freezer had been working for years in same
garage.]

Fridges and freezers have a climate class which specifies the
acceptable temperature range. But most only go down to 10 degrees C
ambient.

I used to have an old chest freezer in an outbuilding in the 1980s,
and that worked fine even in winter, but perhaps things have changed
since then.