emergency freezer repair

[Mo]

I have a large chest freezer stuffed to the gills with frozen fruit, bread , pies plus £100 of meat that I bought yesterday.
Today my icecream was partly defrosted. It is trying to work, it comes on for about 10 seconds then cuts out again. But the orange light that should be on isn't.

Any ideas.

Failing that which brands should I go for / avoid.

[Totally Scrambled]

Not a clue as to what if anything can be done to repair it but if the worst comes to the worst will your household insurance cover the cost of any spoiled food?
Could you see if any neighbours can spare you a bit of freezer space until you can sort things out?
Dom

[Mo]

I should think everyones freezer is full for Christmas - family's certainly is. And I'm not sure there's anyone else living near who I would ask.

[Gwenoakes]

We have a Norfrost chest and Samsung upright freezer, never had a problem with them, so would recommend.

Havent any suggestions re repairing and think you are right thinking everyones freezer will be full over the holiday period.

Think you may have to bite the bullet and buy another one, but whether you would get it delivered before Xmas is another question. Good luck.

[Mo]

Well I bit the bullet - paid £1 for trial membership of Which, then started looking online for a Beko as they said that other makes aren't designed to work in the garage.
Found someone who does next and same day delivery. It would have been cheaper if I'd found it before midnight, but I thought if I keep the lid shut some things will be salvagable.
So I've been flashing my credit card around. Frugal February will have a big card payment due (but at least there'll be no council tax).

[Maggie1]

We had a similar experience when living in UK. We went to Cur.ys and they wouldn't deliver for days as was the same for A.gos. So we put in the freezer that we liked and who supplied it on google. We had a big carrier so we could travel and get it the same day. It came up with a family run electrical shop in the next town. It was cheaper and they delivered the same day. So long as you keep your old freezer shut, as its so full it should stay frozen long enough to enable you to transfer stuff from the old to new. Luckily we was insured but only £100 of stuff which isn't a lot but at least it will help towards some new. The problem is the insurance companies want receipts for the old frozen stuff which is ridiculous, as they want proof of value.

[Spreckly]

Hope you get sorted really quickly Mo. What a bind. We got our freezer from Cu.....s several years since, and it has always lived in the garage. We also have an older chest freezer, which we use as overflow, or when defrosting the upright.

Hope all your food is OK.

[Jenny]

Say this in the daily telegraph property advice section recently.
Too cold to freeze
Q: I have recently bought a new upright freezer from a well known German maker. It replaced a similar model which worked well for years in my unheated garage. The new one specifies a lower ambient temperature of +10C. Shouldn’t a freezer work better the colder the ambient temperature, since there is less heat to remove?
I have tried to get an explanation from the maker, but they didn’t reply to my letter, and gave a waffly reply to my email. There must be millions of freezers currently working OK in cold garages. Can you explain what causes this limit?
DD, Leeds
A: This is to do with the climate class of the freezer, which defines the upper and lower room temperatures the freezer is designed to work in.
Most British-sold freezers will be in the “subnormal” (SN) climate class, designed to operate between +10C and +32C. In other words, if the freezer is installed in a kitchen at +10C or over, it will keep the stored food frozen, but if you put it in a garage which is at +5C, then the food will defrost.
If the garage cools to below zero, the food will be “frozen”, but it won’t be kept at the -18C recommended for healthy long-term storage. The food might regularly defrost and freeze again, without you noticing.
The situation is similar for fridge-freezers, notably those with only one thermostat. The fridge is supposed to be around +4C and the freezer at -18C.
Many people put their old fridge-freezers in a porch, garage, or outbuilding, not realising that when the air temperature falls to +4C or below, the thermostat will sense this, and the compressor will not run. The fridge compartment will still feel cool, but the freezer will defrost.
Unwanted defrosting can also happen to freezers and fridge-freezers in an unheated kitchen or house – a common cause of unsuccessful insurance claims.
Beko claims to be the only UK brand whose freezers and fridge-freezers will operate effectively at temperatures down to -15C, using its “freezer guard” electronic control system.

[Mo]

The which report said Beko used a different type of refrigerant, and that was why they would work outside.

[Sandra M]

I have a beko chest freezer it is great and a bosch upright freezer which is ok but not worth the extra money we paid for it we by beko appliances now found they last well and don't cost as much as the better named products.

[Mo]

Glad you can reccommend them.
Phew. It has just arrived and is cooling down in the garage. I had a peep at the contents of the old one and am relieved. Although the bread is soft the fish is frozen solid so we don't need to cook loads of fish for tea and future fishcakes. I didn't go any further down but I'm hopeful that after dinner we can shift everything.
Bread and peas may not be best texture but they won't poison us. It was the fish & meat I was worried about.