Garage Fridge: Newsletter Challenge (04/18/06)

How do you know if the refrigerator light goes out when you close the door?

If the refrigerator is not a new electronic control unit and you do not have a freezer compartment, does it matter?

If a simple thermostat controls the cycling of the compressor, then it is not drawing power when idle.

However, if it is an attached garage the garage temperature will not likely spend too much, if any, time below the freezing mark. Most refrigerators do have a freezer, so you need it to run to keep your freezer below 0 degrees C.

If it is a detached, unheated garage the temperature may dip below freezing, so disconnecting it would be okay on those days, but who would go through the trouble?

Maybe you should ask if he has any extra space you can use to store your own food.

"Better get a combination lock so the kids don't steal the beer out of it"

Suggest keeping the fridge inside to salvage the waste heat and lower the utility bill

Sort of like chopping wood. The calories burned moving it in and out will warm you up, too.

You tell him that the winter temperature in his garage will be too low to evaporate the refrigerant fully, so liquid refrigerant will get into the compressor and damage it due to hydraulic lock.

You advise him to buy a fridge designed for garage duty. I don't know if these use a heater (like many air conditioning units)or some other trick to avoid the problem.

I think the damaged compressor answer is the best yet. However,I would suggest that he purchase a cheap thermostat and operate a cheap ice cube relay (no pun intended) that the 117 V. house current will be controlled with. Both items should be available at your local electronics outlet. Also, don't put anything in there that you don't want frozen eventually unless you heat the garage (not a good energy conservation scenario). He could just use the fridge as a spare freezer? Or, I guess he could get a heating element that is controlled by the same thermostat on the other side of the contact arrangement. Unplugging it in the winter may not be a good idea either. I had a freezer that I unplugged and sat on the back porch and when I went to use it again all of the freon was gone. I had someone come out and look at it and he said that it is not good to let these things sit for a long time without running them. It was permanently damaged as it had developed a leak that was buried deep in the lining somewhere. Someone suggested I bury it in the backyard (not a funeral) and use it to store potatoes in? Go figure.

Old fridges and freezers are great for storing potatoes - dark and air-tight. I don't believe you need to bury them though.

Bob Flowerdew (yes really!), Britain's leading organic gardener swears by 'em!

...Reminds me of a question. My air conditioner was not getting cold enough so I finally placed a manual switch across the thermostat. When the evaporator ices up if I fall asleep, and I cannot turn it off, the compressor is barely doing any work, there is not a lot of pressure against it. It almost seems to freewheel. I wonder if the oil is not flowing enough to lubricate the compressor, but is it?

Don't use the freezer portion as the thermostat is located/controlls the fridge portion. The freezer portion is typical fed a portion of the cold air so as the garage temperature reaches your fridge setting the compressor will not run at all and the freezer will be the same temp. as the fridge. When it is really cold!! I use a battery heater in the fridge to keep the fridge portion from freezing. Don't what your beer to freeze!!

My garage gets very warm in the summer time you might want to put in a roof vent to lower energy costs for keeping the beer cold in summer and switch to flavor vodka in winter then it doesn't matter if it freezes.

I would ask, "Why do you keep it in the garage instead of on the front porch like the rest of us?" Who the heck wants to walk to the garage everytime someone wants a beer?

If it is a detached garage who wants to shovel your way to the garage?

You must be a nut's to plugged it in during winter season as the temperature is below freezing points. Why waste energy. Recommend him to install a sensor for the automatic switch "ON" the power supply if the temperature is above frezing point.

the fridge is only a one way heat pump so when the temp drops below freezing, so will the contents of the fridge.

It won't make any difference around here. It's always warm enough for a coldie. A normal fridge is seldom cold enough so try a "Trailblaza" it's even better than using ice.

Keep it plugged in so the light will work!!!

I guess the differential point of the garage with the rest of the house is the poor thermal isolation and lack of heating and aircon. Based in this supposition the garage is a good location for the fridge in winter since the lower temperature than the rest of the hose make it work more efficiently, the decrease of the temperature of the gas in the outside coil is higher what derives in less working hours of the compressor jointly with lower losses by the walls of the fridge. In summary more efficiency and saving. However in summer the temperature of the garage is higher than the house. The difference of temperature between the expanded gas in the outside coil and the air of the garage is lower than inside the house, the decrease of temp in the gas along the coil will be lower in the garage what means the compressor will work longer, the losses by the walls of the fridge higher and if the weather is really hot you can have the compressor working the 24 hours without reaching the internal target temp. In brief hot beer when you really need it... put the fridge inside the house, at least in summer.

Good beer should only be chilled. American beer needs to ice cold so as to protect the drinker from tasting it!

A lot of talk about a problem thats not a problem. No heat load, no run no problem. Del

If you plan on running it in the summer the compressor may trip the GFI breaker. I would not put anything that could spoil in there. Beer would be fine. Miss

Keep lots of beer in there 'cause I'll be around most of the summer...

This reminds me of advise I once received from a HVAC-specialist friend--he was referring to the annual late winter/early spring TV commercials offering "pre-season" AC checkups to homeowners--and also "guaranteed-trouble-free" in-season AC maintenance--who was repairing my old Fedders window unit. According to him, these promotions are, in fact, scams intended to cause damage, and should not be responded to. According to him, those purveyors are well aware that starting a compressors in the cold season will result in the failure of a considerable number of units, and that when an otherwise good compressor is damaged, the homeowner will not be aware that the damage was caused by the service person, but will be aware of being "over a barrel" and reluctantly willing to purchase expensive repairs, or an entirely new system, from the HVAC "hero" who just saved him/her from a summer of misery. This is the reason also, my HVAC friend went on, that it is recommended to desist from starting a car's AC in cold winter until the engine (and engine compartment) have warmed up...in order to extend the lifetime of the car AC compressor. Now then based on this, there would seem to be two answers to the challenge: safe best answer and a somewhat risker adequate answer.

(1) It is safest to take the unit out of service until warm weather returns--using it only to store non perishables if necessary.

(2) If it must be used, ensure that it is never unplugged, allowed to get cold, and restarted--that it is left on and running continuously.

If it is a combination frige/freezer with the typical arrangement of the primary temperature control (the one that turns on the compressor)being in the refrigerator compartment, you not only have the risk of the contents in the refrigerator compartment getting frozen but during warmer times there is also the risk of the contents the freezer compartment thawing. I know this based on experience. I have yet to convince my wife that having a second refrigerator in the garage is not a good idea. Each fall we have the same issue. Items in the freezer thawing followed by items in the refrigerator compartment freezing. Will she ever learn? I doubt it. The only chance I have is to save the precious item to the frig/freezer in the kitchen before the cold weather hits.

I wanted to purchase a beverage cooler / refrigerator to place on my porch in the summer months to keep the kids from coming into the house from the pool with wet feet. I ran across this info and now am wondering if that will be ok if I unplug it and cover it during the winter. It's a covered porch so it would be clean & dry.