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Love the coin on the frozen cup idea to see how things are working while I’m gone. I also keep an old 2 Ltr soda jug full of water/ice in the freezer while we are gone so if it does shut down it helps keep things cold till the power comes back on. I had issues in the past but since leaving he heat on at 45 all has been good.
Thanks for all the great input. We’ve decided to use a relaxed approach as winter begins. We’ll leave the refrigerator on, door closed, and continue to drain pipes and turn off the heater. Before the next visit, we’ll also continue to pre-heat (by 4 hours or so) the cabin with the phone-activated FAG heater. Hopefully when we arrive, the refrigerator will have re-activated also as the cabin warms. Inside the fridge, I plan to install an electronic thermometer that can be zeroed out before we leave the cabin. Upon return, we can retrieve the stored high/low readings inside the fridge since the last visit. The frozen water cup and coin are also going into the freezer. I do expect the coin to drop. But after a while, we should know if all was well or if some re-thinking is in order. I’ll follow up here if anything doesn’t work out. Again, thanks; I feel better having a plan.
LarryI think the bottom line is if a refrigerator/freezer combo only has one thermostat in the refrigerator the compressor will not run enough in cold weather to keep food frozen in the freezer. Shouldn’t be a problem though if you keep your place at 45 degrees. We never had a problem when we were weekenders but we didn’t keep much food in the freezer.
We had a problem with our Maytag refrigerator last winter where we were getting frozen food in the food compartment and melting in the freezer, just like some of the comments here. Nothing we tried would solve the problem and even had the thermostat replaced. Finally decided that the fridge had finally bit the dust and bought a new one at Middletons. Great service and hope we don’t have the same problem again. We generally leave the house set at 45 degrees in the winter and we have a hot water recycling system to keep the pipes from freezing and wasting too much water when we need it hot.
I like the penny in the cup idea and will try it out too.
Steve
I found this interesting article here:
http://www.appliance-repair-it.com/garage-refrigerator.htmlThis would explain why everik’s water thawed and refroze.
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Garage Refrigerator Problems- Low TemperatureNot running/Not running enough
Most refrigerators (with the exception of newer high end refrigerators) are controlled by a cold control/thermostat in the fresh food section. Which means if the temperature in the fresh food section is at the set temperature (the cold control is satisfied) the entire refrigerator cuts off. This works fine at higher temperatures because when the temperature in the fresh food section gets to the set temperature the freezer is plenty cold. To understand all of this, it is important to know the fresh food section is cooled by cold air from the freezer on almost all refrigerators with a few exceptions.
What happens is when the ambient temperature gets below about 50 degrees or so the refrigerator will not run long enough to cool the freezer properly. This is because the refrigerator doesn’t have to run very long to cool the fresh food section to set temperature if the ambient temperature is low.
Then when the ambient temperature gets down in the 30s, the refrigerator will not run at all. So eventually the temperature in the freezer and the fresh food section will become the same as the ambient temperature.
So lets say the ambient temperature has been around 25 degrees for some time. This would mean that the temperature in both sections would be close to 25 degrees. 25 degrees is too cold for the fresh food section and food will start to freeze. 25 degrees is not cold enough for the freezer and things will start to thaw.
This is confusing and I know you are thinking how could food be freezing in the fresh food section and be thawing in the freezer if you just said they will be the same temperature. Well its simple things such as meat and ice-cream must be around 0 degrees to stay frozen but things that would be in the fresh food section such as water, soda, beer, eggs or milk will start to freeze at 32 degrees.
Note for this to happen, the temperature has got to be down for a prolonged period of time. If it just dips down at night then back up in the day the refrigerator may work halfway ok. Also some companies make heaters that correct this problem to a certain extent. They say the heater only allows the refrigerator to run down to around 32 degrees.
============================Hummm, I wasn’t aware new refrigerators shut down below 50 or 55 degrees. We’re full time now so that wouldn’t normally be a problem, but if we go somewhere for a week or so it could be a problem. I will have to take a look at the owner’s manual. There must be a way to bypass this shutdown temp sensor. We bought our new one in May of this year.
We have a one-year old fridge too – but have none of these problems. It’s a very basic model, so maybe we skipped the fancy energy saving options? I’ll go read the manual though!
I bought a new refrigerator last year. Every owner’s manual that I was able to see online indicated that new models can shut down if the ambient temperature in the room drops below 55F for some brands and 50F for others. They come back on when the temperature rises. For that reason we don’t leave much in the freezer during winter months…in particular ice cream which can create a mess if defrosted.
I love the penny and cup idea.
Everik. That is very useful, and I’ll experiment this winter with that information and ideas. Thank you!
Larry
That is so weird, the same thing happened to us. Our fridge died in Nov last year, and we got our replacement just before new years (Middleton’s).
My son learned a trick while he was on staff at a summer camp to freeze a cup of water and then put a coin on top and keep it in the freezer. Next time you show up, if the coin is a the bottom of the cup, the freezer had gone off (for an appreciable amount of time). So, we decided to do that in the new refrigerator (mostly to see if any power outages were long enough to melt the food we leave behind).
During the winter, we were coming up almost every 2-3 weeks. And from Jan to Feb I noticed each time that the water had melted and the coin refrozen at the bottom of the cup. The clocks in the house never showed a power outage (we had a good year!)
I almost called Middletons to complain about a bad refrigerator when I thought I’d try something (my engineer training made it hard for me to give up on the unit). I turn down the fridge/freezer setting. Just a little bit. That did the trick. Everytime we’ve been up there, the coin has been on the top of the frozen water in the cup!
I would mess with that. While we are away, our house is kept at 40 deg F, so I’m guessing that the fridge is sensing something with the difference in the ambient air temp and the fridge temp. When they get close, it shuts off he fridge. For ice to melt in a brand new freezer it has to be off for some time, though.
Good luck!
Our old unit gave up. We replaced it with a basic GE 18′ purchased from Middletons, Angels Camp. At the store, I was told that the new refrigerators will get cold enough to trigger a switch to automatically shut down. It will start again when it gets warm enough. It was suggested that I might run a small electric heater on the floor to keep the unit from turning off. Another guy suggested I either:
a.just close the door and walk away. The food will stay cold, the unit will turn back on when the cabin warms up.
b.empty the unit of all food, leave the door ajar, turn off the unit.
I don’t like the heater idea, and adding another chore is also not appealing. Any cabin owners that winterize before you depart with new-fangled refrigerators? Have any input? Many thanks!
Larry
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