.

We bought a small self defrosting refrigerator/freezer about 4 years ago for our garage. Mostly for the storage of bottles, cans, deserts, fruit, etc. The freezer stored bulky things like bread and frozen veggies.

Our last frigid winter was too much I guess.,in April we noticed the fridge was not cooling, but freezer was working. An appliance repair man (warrantee void) defrosted the freezer which it turned out was packed with ice. It cost $100 and we got a perfectly working unit until last Sunday. Same situation.

We were told that new appliances that are energy savers cannot cope with below freezing temps in winter and then over 90 degree days in summer in an unheated area. Old appliances were built differently.

Yet the one we bought was called perfect as a scond fridge in the garage! Of couse, it seems only for a heated one.

Is there a new model out there which might work? Anyone figure out a solution? TI

what's going to keep things from freezing in the fridge section, or do you not mind?

do you have attached or detached? would make a big difference as the attached has some of the walls protected and potentially warmed

Re you question is there a fridge engineered for the garage- yes its expensive

http://www.cnet.com/products/whirlpool-gladiator-chillerator/

Yet another example of why modern updates in appliances are not all good. What a pain in the butt. Sorry, I have no solutions for you mtierney, unless you can find an honest, knowledgeable salesperson who can help you sort out the differences.

Any chance you could put a fridge/freezer in the basement instead?

Sundays said:
what's going to keep things from freezing in the fridge section, or do you not mind?

I don't quite understand the question, but we could be happy if just the refrigerator worked - the freezer could be on off as far as we are concerned. FWIW, the freezer is located on the bottom

Forgot to say my garage is attached, but unheated

mtierney said:

Sundays said:
what's going to keep things from freezing in the fridge section, or do you not mind?

I don't quite understand the question, but we could be happy if just the refrigerator worked - the freezer could be on off as far as we are concerned. FWIW, the freezer is located on the bottom

If the temp inside the garage goes below freezing for long enough your food will freeze, no?

This past frigid winter , top and bottom worked. We had a couple of 90 degree days a week or so ago and that seemed to shut the fridge section down again.

When this happened in April the repair man said the self defrost didn't work and he thought that due to the prolonged below freezing temps --maybe this this Danby is just junk

Could it be that the automatic defrost regulator is defective, causing a build-up of ice on the condenser?

maybe you would have some luck asking for an OLD frig on freecycle--maybe someone that is just upgrading, but has a fully functioning frig.

Fridge. That other word doesn't mean what you think it means.

#FriendlyService

Have a 10 year old refrigerator (the beer frig) in an unheated garage and it works fine.

Someone's selling a 1950s GE refrigerator on Swap/Meet SOMA (Facebook) for $50 if you want it.

1950s? It is mostly likely golden harvest yellow and not self defrosting! Been there!

Found an interesting self help blog and am trying a suggestion. The fridge unit seems to be the way the cold air goes to cool the freezer so if that is set to max, all the cold air is sent to the freezer thereby leaving the top uncooled.

I just plugged it back on. -- will report back tomorrow

We have a fridge in our un-heated garage. it's against the Kitchen wall so I guess is is not too bad when our temp drops below freezing. We have had it for years. We keep lots of water, soda, juice, beer & some vino in it. Also, our garage is pretty insulated by the windows & doors.

Several weeks ago a friend was regaling me with stories about her vacation ski home up in VT. It seems she purchased a refrigerator for the house only to find out later that it wouldn't work properly if the temperature of the house fell below 60 or so degrees. When they aren't there in the winter she lowers the temperature to about 50 degrees. With electric heat, she refused to cater to the fridge's needs so she found one brand that would tolerate operating at a lower temperature.

As with so many "improvements", sometimes you are just better off with obsolete technology.

The fridge and I are friends once more! After a thorough defrost, I plugged it in again and, voila, I had both top and bottom purring again!

I looked at many help sites online and one in particular made sense to me. The fridge section signals cold air to the bottom freezer section. If it is set too high (max) the cold air goes down to the freezer resulting in warming of the top and ultimately too much ice formation in the lower section. Maybe the self defrost isn't broken, but was overwhelmed.

I will keep a watchful eye and if things warm up, I will pull the plug and let it defrost. We also only store beverages, fruit, water, etc, and the freezer was used for bulky baked goods and bread. I really hope this box gets us through the summer, even if I have to kick start it every so often

Thank you all for commiserating with me and offering suggestions and advice! MOL is an amazing resource!