On Wed, 10 Mar 2021 13:43:43 -0800 (PST), Scribbles
wrote:


So is self defrosting one of those 'must have' features or just 'ok
when it works'?

snip

Self-defrosting is a Must Have as far as I am concerned.

Ok.

Most people have a particular domestic task they absolutely loathe and detest; for me, that task is defrosting fridges and freezers.

As long as I can time running the freezer down to finding the time to
do the defrosting, I quite enjoy it. Armed with a hot air gun, some
suitably sized containers and a wooden spatula I can do it quite
quickly and be back up and running in no time (given what was left in
the freezer would stay pretty frozen in our coolbox with the aid of
some additional frozen cooler blocks, get the freezer back down to
temp pretty quickly.).

Put simply, life's too short for all that faff and puddles of water.

Understood.

My current freezer is an under the counter AEC model, about 8 years old and A-rated.

Ok, the sort of thing I would be going for I think.

Apart from the time I stupidly left the door open overnight, it's never given me a moment's bother.

I think conventional fixed-temperature freezers are pretty simple /
reliable in general.

Then, I was obliged to empty and unplug it while it completely defrosted and the temperature control mechanism reset itself.

Oh?

(It's one way to get to know the neighbours. "Er, hello. I live at number 94. I don't suppose you have room in your freezer for 5 litres of tomato soup and a couple of steak pies overnight, by any chance?")

When I over ordered the frozen stuff when daughter went shopping for
us the other day, I did exactly the same thing with the guy next door.
Luckily he had a 'spare' desktop freezer he leant me (like you do).
;-)

If I use the fast-freeze button, I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to turn it off at the appropriate time because the green light which is supposed to remind me that fast-freeze is on is almost invisible in daylight and dim as a Toch H lamp in the dark.

Again, same here on our old Zanussi. Funnily, I left the freezer door
very slightly ajar for one of the very few times over the many years
we have had it the other day (a multimeter lead got caught in it by
accident) so I put it on boost just to catch up ... and only
remembered it the next day when going to use it again.

I only use fast-freeze when putting in a big batch of fresh stuff to freeze from scratch. Already-frozen items come home from the shops in a cool bag or box and get put straight in the freezer drawers without any thawing.

Check.

I've never done a serious analysis of what it's costing to run but in all honesty, I don't think the costs outweigh the convenience of having an efficient piece of kit which pretty much looks after itself.

There seems to be a bigger price discrepancy between what I assume to
be more efficient freezers (thicker insulation, more sealed draws,
more efficient compressor etc) and those that happen to also be
auto-defrost.

Cold temperature working could be relevant, as could the fast freeze
feature (when doing a big frozen shop).

Currently, due to shortage of kitchen space, my freezer is living in the conservatory where the temperature has been known to drop as low as 5C on winter nights

We may also put one out in the lean-to (we don't have a fancy
conservatory g) in the future and hence why I thought it might be
worth considering now.

and rise into the high 30s and beyond on summer days. According to the user handbook, its lowest recommended environmental temperature for optimal performance is 10C.

Yeah, I've seen similar figures mentioned.

With luck, the space problem will be resolved in the next few months and the freezer can come into the more moderate climate of the kitchen before any damage is done.

Good luck with that then.

I think the only models currently sold as suitable for use in sheds, garages or other cold environments are made by Beko.

I think I've seen a few but they could have all be BeKo models. ;-)

Talking of Beko ... I wonder how important it is to have a freezer
with a non-(inflammable)plastic back on it?

I believe our tumble dryer was 'good' in that being externally
vented the heater filaments only ever saw fresh air so less chance of
getting fluff back on it and them catching fire. Not so good for the
running costs and the environment though (and partly why we haven't
bothered repairing it this time).

Thanks for the feedback. I can carry on looking and including self
defrosting models. ;-)

Cheers, T i m