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Does anyone have any recommendations for any outdoor chest freezer? I only have a side by side fridge that can't hold frames. There's no room inside for a freezer and no garage/ outbuilding/ covered porch to put one either. I was looking for one that I could put on a small stand (to keep underside dry) and put on a back exposed porch. I can make a cover for in out of a BBQing cover if need be. But I need it to work outside in both winter and summer to store excess honey deeps.
Barring that, how do most of the hobby beeks store excess frames?
Advice is appreciated.
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Have seen several used year round outside in winters that can go to 25 below.
We are using grandmas 60 yr old freezer outside, since we go south for the winter, we unplug it and clean it when we leave.
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England.
Hoffman Equipped System (all original except boiler), Weil-Mclain 580, 2.75 gph Carlin, Vapourstat 0.5 -- 6.0 ounces per square inch
Why would any freezer run in sub freezing ambient temps, after all they do have thermostats?
One day you will slug liquid and say BY BY.
I've seen many modern units run in chilly conditions. Whether or not it's bad for them I don't know. But they are all capillary tube I think and that barely adjusts to conditions.
Whether you'd get migration to the compressor I guess depends on just how cold it gets out. The evaporator should be pretty cold except during defrost.
A restaurant across the highway from us kept two freezers outside for years ( - 20F not uncommon) biggest problem she had was with bears.
A family friend kept a freezer outside for the 20 years we knew them. Biggest problem they had was a druggie son who used to raid it.
Our 60 yr old fridge has lived outside for 10 years now and still chugs along.
This is a classic example of theory bumping heads with practice.
SWMBO tells me that our outside fridge stops cycling when it is cold out, and the ambient heat of the food storage warms the freezer and the ice cream softens a little. Fridge has been outside for about 7 years.
If the Wright Bros had listened to the experts, we would still be ground bound.
This is the same as when you drive your car full throttle into a lake and water gets pulled through tha air filter into the intake. Your engine (compressor) will break a connecting rod or crankshaft.
This is WELL known and I have replaced many compressors this has happened to.
In all likelihood cheap consumers grade stuff has so little refrigerant in it it may survive.
My suggestion to the OP is to buy el cheapo... scratch & dent freezer, and try it.
However, that's also why migration is so deadly to such compressors. Refrigerant ends up laying with the oil and when the compressor fires up the refrigerant vaporizes and foams the oil. I believe, the compressor also tends to suck up a bunch of oil and possibly liquid refrigerant under such conditions.
@nibs as has been said, that long off cycle is exactly what will kill it, if anything. Low ambients with a cap tube will likely make it behave like it's undercharged, but that shouldn't harm anything especially since it freezes anyway. But extended long off periods with the compressor being below the temperature of the evaporator would be BAD.
That said, I tend to agree. Buy one and see what happens. We're not talking about something that costs a fortune or that is irreplaceable.
I said it wasn't cheap!
> Other than cold temps may hard on the compressor low ambulant temps may cause an unwanted temp swing. With temps below freezing the heat loss in the box will be less causing temp inside the box to get higher than normal. Mind you it might be a temp swing of 10-15 degrees instead of 5-10. No real big issue if its below freezing. It depends on the thermostat in the freezer and what kind of anticipator it may have. Now if it gets 100+ degrees outside in the summer you may have more problems with high ambulant than with low.
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> Food must be kept below 0 degrees F for long term storage,not 32.
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> Actually 0°F is short term 30-45 days...………....-15°F is long term 90 Days
Can you share where this information comes from? Is -15 a commercial requiment? I've only seen 0f documented.
Do you want to eat fish 3-months old?