On Thu, 11 Mar 2021 09:06:09 +0000 (UTC), RJH
wrote:

snip

The only time I've needed to defrost my (Beko) freezer
in 10 years was when I left the door open accidentally.

Yeah, I noticed a bit of buildup after leave our freezer door open a
crack overnight recently.

It's not exactly hard
work, leaving a bowl in the bottom of the freezer, with a towel underneath.

Our has a little plastic chute you clip in the bottom edge that allows
you to put a shallow container on the floor in front of the freezer
and it drains into that. It's easy to then sponge the water out of the
tray as needed. As you say, most of the water can be caught in a bowl
and I generally accelerate the defrosting process using a hot air gun
(from a safe distance from the freezer etc).You wouldn't need to do
that if you had additional freezer capacity or good temporary storage
(we use a camping cooler box that can just about freeze things if it's
in a cold space and put the stuff in freezer bags and wrap with
newspapers / towels).

And it helped with my poor food-rotation management ;-)

This was something I hoped might improve if we had a bit more freezer
space. I think there can be a critical volume for 'n' people and
whilst that has been 'ok' for 30 years, the Covid thing has meant us
not wanting daughter doing our shopping very frequently and so we have
been buying more less frequently.

On energy, it'd be useful if you can keep it somewhere cool. Mine's in a
cellar, so it does save the cost of having to cool it that extra 10-15C.

I would love as cellar (although the water table is pretty high here
so it would have to be well tanked).

Although you do lose the convenience of easy access of course.

We have the fridge and freezer under the counter opposite the sink
(galley kitchen). Didn't they call it the 'Magic triangle'? All very
efficient / convenient for most food / hot beverage production. I did
think of moving the fridge out of the kitchen and to where the
(defunked) tumble dryer is, next door in the lobby ... but I'm not
sure that even those few paces will be tolerable, after a fridge has
been under counter for 40 years, even though it might be a bit more
convenient being higher? I could try it I guess and I can always put
it back if it doesn't 'work'.

I chose a Beko
for the reason it could cope with low temperatures.

Has there always been the option to get 'cold working' freezers as if
not, how have all the 'std' freezers coped that are out in peoples
(unheated) garages and other outbuildings (I've even seen them just
outside under a simple plastic roof)?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Does your Beko freezer have a metal or plastic back OOI Rob?