I have just been down to the garage to get a joint of beef out for tomorrow and the freezer is dead. (It's a garage compatible freezer.)
It's an upright thing. Quite large - 172cm tall and packed with roasting joints - lamb, gammon, pork, beef, salmon. All ruined. It's all warm and defrosted so probably been broken for a while.
I have had a look at my electricity readings and can't pinpoint a failure day.
Mrs Z's in bed and I don't want to wake her, so I'm letting vent here...hope you don't mind!
So that's the TV, bathroom leak, car, laptop and now freezer in the last few months. Since moving here we've needed new flooring - the flooring in the master bedroom is now failing, a new range cooker, a new dishwasher, a new boiler and a new tumble drier, plus of course, my laptop totally died last year hence replacing it with this one - where the screen is gone.
I think I might be blessed with bad luck!
Yes, it's covered by insurance but there is an excess and the policy increase amount to consider (it will be two claims this year).
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Aw that's quite some run of bad luck you're having Zippy.
I had the freezer pack up many years ago but we caught it early enough that stuff hadn't defrosted so gifted out the contents, and also some kind neighbours cooked stuff for us and kept it in their freezer till we had a replacement.
Made me think - we have 2 freezers, a small chest one and a fridge freezer. I could easily put a plug on each which measures energy use then have the Home Assistant notify me if one didn't use any energy for a set period. I love a project... :-)
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Is there an electrical issue with the supply to the house ?
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My freezer "died" in November 10 year old tall Samsung - through out almost everything. Ate some and handed some to others.
Phoned around to find a local man to cast his eye over matters. No luck - very busy come tomorrow or day after. My wife was resigned to waiting or just going out for a new one -in the region of £1000.
I am no handyman BUT I decided to move it out, mop up and take a look at the back.
Took the cover off the back and looked in plugged it back in and the fan was not turning. Switched it off again - small paint brush & Dyson I proceeded to clean up the fan and the accumulated dirt around the compressor etc etc
Plugged it in, compressor came alive and within 20 minutes -18C. 2 months on still working 100%
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Yeah, add full rewire and meter change to the ever growing list
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>> Is there an electrical issue with the supply to the house ?
>>
It seems ok. No brown outs.
Perhaps I should get it tested.
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Have any neighbours suffered problems? I wonder if it could be local power surges but it’s not an area I know anything about other than using a surge protection adaptor for my old PC.
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>> Have any neighbours suffered problems? I wonder if it could be local power surges but
>> it’s not an area I know anything about other than using a surge protection adaptor
>> for my old PC.
>>
Not that anyone has said.
We are finding out that the build quality of this house is very poor and I wouldn't be surprised if the wiring was up the spout.
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In all seriousness, the freezer could have been the source of the electrical nastiness on its journey to the underworld, they are horrible things power wise.
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If it was an oldie you will find a noticeable improvement in your energy bills. In 2022 we ditched a (very) old one (1986) in favour of one worth about and our electricity cost was less than 1/3rd of the old one - 250kWh pa v. 804. That difference is well over £100 or so these days.
EDIT: Here's a page which you can compare old v. new. www.sust-it.net/running-costs-of-old-appliances.php?srsltid=AfmBOoqD7EXKKd11p7H4EbBfkO-maMkezRl1leUVM35kyIaJfLXDyJEH
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 20 Jan 25 at 09:43
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>> If it was an oldie you will find a noticeable improvement in your energy bills.
>> In 2022 we ditched a (very) old one (1986) in favour of one worth about
>> and our electricity cost was less than 1/3rd of the old one - 250kWh pa
>> v. 804. That difference is well over £100 or so these days.
>>
Similar but smaller gain when we changed a 1998 Bosch for a more modern piece of kit.
The Bosch was working OK but various plastic bits were cracking and spares were a problem.
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Why do people need these chest freezers, unless you have a huge family or a pack of hounds and need to store 250kg of frozen dog food ?
In a previous life there were 5 of us in the household and a combined fridge freezer was adequate.
Couples I know have garage freezers & have stuff in them that is several months old. I can almost understand a small freezer to store blueberries, rasps etc, maybe a large joint of dead cow , but even batch cooking chilli, pasta and the like doesn’t take up much room if stacked neatly.
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The trouble with chest freezers is that stuff disappears to the bottom to be forgotten about and never see the light of day again.
My Mother was an avid apple pie maker. She ran County Lines in apple pies :).
Several years after she died our chest freezer gave up the ghost and when we emptied it there at the bottom was one of her pies on a white steel plate.
It was duly thawed and heated. Whether it was age or nostalgia but it didn't taste the same.
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>> My Mother was an avid apple pie maker. She ran County Lines in apple pies
>> :).
That made me smile FC and brought back fond memories.
My mum is still with us, thank goodness, but is now disabled.
She was an avid cook and I miss her shepherd's pie, Bakewell Tarts and Apple Crumble.
Even following the recipes, written on old faded note paper, I can't get anywhere near the taste of hers.
When I first left home in the '80s, every time I visited I would leave with a hamper of the above amongst other delights to put in the small freezer at home.
I think it's the same for many who are lucky enough to have had a family life.
When our kids come home they put in their requests for favourites: Miss Z asks for our version of shepherd's pie or a leg of lamb roast. Master Z asks for our recipe chilli with all the extras.
Having Miss Z's boyfriend around and Master Z's girlfriend - some amusing observations - some of which include Miss Z's boyfriend having never seen crispy duck and pancakes from a Chinese take-a-way before and was "converted". One of Master Z's girlfriends never had a family Sunday roast at a dinner table and was quite emotional about it.
Last edited by: zippy on Mon 20 Jan 25 at 13:30
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Ours is only a moderate size chest freezer. To avoid the problems FC describes, we have a few of those proper bags for life from different stores (so different colours) into which everything goes. So sausages and bacon etc into the orange omen, joints blue, veg green etc etc. Easy to hoik out the one you want (though we do have an index on the wall, could be inside the lid), and when we were having the kitchen done and had to keep moving the freezer around it made emptying the whole thing not too arduous. Stock checking is easy too.
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Sock drawer next, Smokes ?
Ted
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"Why do people need these chest freezers/"
I'm with with you on this one . Unless you live miles away from civilisation you really don't need six months supply of sausages or five kilos of frozen peas. Just visit the supermarket once very week or two but if that is too much get them to deliver the stuff. Food will taste better too. Meat does deteriorate both in taste and in texture if frozen for an extended period.
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When we had two teenage gannets in the house and were both working we had a double height fridge freezer (50/50 or thereabouts0 in the kitchen and a full size upright in the garage. Both kept full enough to be worthwhile.
Now the kids have gone we manage with what's in the house.
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>Why do people need these chest freezers,..
Too difficult to hide a body in an upright.
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I agree, been looking for one big enough to store a 76 yr old, 5' 2" woman for a long time now !
Ted
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>> Too difficult to hide a body in an upright.
>>
No need if youve got one of theseen-uk.woodlandmills.eu/wood-chippers?setCurrencyId=7
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 20 Jan 25 at 17:25
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Reminds me of the wood chipper scene in Fargo. What a great film.
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I have one of these side by side American fridge freezers. We got this one in 2023 when the last one died.
During the discovery period, I realised that the stuff in my fridge that actually needed refrigerated took up 2 shelves at the most.
Yet it’s full with beer, wine, sauces, preserves etc etc etc.
my freezer is always full.
Bottom basket is used for chicken breasts. But then in 5kg packs and freeze individually as we eat a lot of chicken.
Top shelf full of batch cooking tubs.
Other shelves frozen veg etc etc.
We are contemplating getting a new kitchen as previously mentioned, and we would need to consider if we could go back to a conventional fridge freezer if we did.
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>No need if youve got one of these..
Nah. Leaves too much of a mess to clean up.
Unless the body is frozen....
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Freezer Died - This is getting so frustrating now - smokie
