We’ve got an old (17 yr old) used refrigerator/freezer that we’ve kept in the garage for the past two and half years. We use it primarily for keeping beverages refrigerated and vegetables frozen. The temperatures outside have been in the teens/20’s the past couple weeks and temperatures inside the garage are probably in the mid 30’s. Items inside the refrigerator appear to be adequately refrigerated. However, I noticed something strange a few days ago…some items in the front of the freezer appeared to be slightly thawed. I am curious why that might be? I believe the appliance has not been unplugged at any point. No one in the house admits to having seen or left the freezer door ajar overnight either. Plus, the slightly unfrozen state has been continual for the past three days.
What might be causing this? Should we be looking at a replacement fridge?
The problem is that the thermostat of a refrigerator/freezer is in the refrigerator compartment. So when it gets below about 40 degrees, the thermostat goes “Gee, it’s plenty cold in here, I don’t need to run the compressor.” And what happens is your refrigerator/freezer eventually evens out to the same temperature in both compartments.
Most refrigerators do have a warning label (or a warning in the instruction book) not to put them in a place where the temperature will drop below a certain level.
I am a little confused on the actual refrigerator/freezer the OP is talking about. Is it comparable to the typical units sold in the US? I ask because in post # 3 he says that it is not self-defrosting (usually called frost-free). I am of the opinion that most refrigerator/freezers sold in the US are frost-free and have been for the last 30 years or so.
If it is a frost-free unit, then the thermostat for controlling the compressor is typically in the freezer compartment, even if the control knob is located in the refrigerator section. There will usually be two controls, one for the freezer, which controls the thermostat, and one for the refrigerator, which controls a baffle that diverts cold air from the freezer section to the refrigerator section. This design assumes the refrigerator to be used in an environment where the ambient temperature is between around 60F and 85F. Too hot, and the refrigerator side is likely to end up being too cold (I know, opposite of what you would think) because the compressor is running non-stop (or nearly so) to keep the freezer side cold, which blows too much cold air to the refrigerator side. The opposite happens if it is too cold, the freezer may not stay frozen because the compressor doesn’t have to run long enough to freeze item near the door.
Another thing that happens with refrigerator/freezers that get banished to the garage, particularly in humid areas when they are used in unheated areas, is that corrosion causes the start/overload relay to fail, which prevents the compressor from starting. When in a unheated garage, humidity can condense on the compressor and its components, particularly at night. In warmer environments, this condensation doesn’t do much damage because the compressor turns on periodically and the heat from the compressor running dries everything off before corrosion sets it. However, in an unheated garage, the compressor may not run often enough and the relay can fail.
So, my advice to the OP is to not keep frozen food in the freezer of a refrigerator that is in an unheated garage. It may not stay frozen, or it may thaw and refreeze. You also might want to check to make sure the compressor turns on, perhaps on a warm day? I guess it depends on what the climate is like where you live.
My observation is the opposite. The thermostat and main control dial is in the refrigerator. The freezer temperature dial is the one that’s just controlling a baffle allowing more or less air to go into the refrigerator. Turning that freezer dial to a colder setting closes off the baffle such that less air goes into the refrigerator (overall some 80-90% of the cold air is going into the freezer regardless).
The refrigerator’s temperature is more critical because it absolutely must not go below freezing, but it also can’t get too warm either. The freezer’s target temperature is around 0ºF and if it goes up to 20º or down to -10º it’s not really a big deal. That’s why putting the thermostat in the freezer wouldn’t make much sense, you’d end up with frost-bitten vegetables and spoiled milk just to make sure your ice cream doesn’t get too hard.