"Mr Pounder Esquire" wrote in message
...
Rod Speed wrote:
"NY" wrote in message
...
We have an Arctis freezer - not sure what model, but it's a tall one
about 5 feet high, which was left by the previous owners of the
house. The temperature on the display used to be constant at -18 degrees
C,
but over the past couple of weeks it's started fluctuating between
-18 and -12 over the course of several hours. The times when it is
showing a warmer temperature are not necessarily when it has been
opened; nor are they times when the room is warmer, either because
of sunlight or daily variations in the temperature of the Aga (which
also came with the house). There are times when it's showing -12 but
the compressor isn't running, so it's not as if the refrigeration
mechanism is struggling to achieve the temperature that the
thermostat is set at.

Do freezers tend to show a higher temperature on the display when
they are going through a periodic "frost free" thawing stage?

That’s not frost free, that’s cyclic defrost. Frost free pumps very
cold air into the freezer and never have a thawing stage. That’s
where the name comes from, there never is any frost to thaw.

Really?

"Frost-Free" refrigerator/freezer units usually use a heating element to
defrost their evaporators, a pan to collect and evaporate water from the
frost that melts from the cold plate and/or evaporator coil, a timer which
turns off the compressor and turns on the defrost element usually from
once to 4 times a day for ...

Nope, that’s cyclic defrost, as I said.