Freezer in unhgeated garage over winter?

[Huey]

I plan on buying a chest freezer soon and leaving it in an unheated garage year round. If I leave it plugged in and run through the winter, even during below freezing temps, will it hurt the freezer?

[SkunkedAgain]

Our cabin fridge/freezer is a cheapy. We leave food and condiments in there all winter long. When we warm up the cabin, everything in the fridge needs to defrost. That combo unit has been running for at least 10 years.

[Archerysniper]

My venison freezer in the pole barn runs great all winter once it stays below 20 degrees I unplug it is funny frozen things stay froze under 32 deg's

[Fredd]

I've had a smaller cheapy new model chest freezer for five years and an older upright model for the past three years w/o issue.

[muskE]

How "frozen" are you looking to get in the winter? Buy the freezer, unplug it, and keep the door open.

Auto-defrost models are great for keeping beer from freezing and easier to clean when the kids' soda explodes all over the cars when you forget and leave a case on the floor.

[Big-Al]

Frozen food should remain below zero. You won't have that very much of the winter with an unplugged freezer, at least not with a lot of the winters we have had lately.

[pikechaser]

Compressors in any ac/refrrigeration system are designed to pump refrigerant as a vapor(gas), not in a liquid form. Liquid refrigerant will ruin a compressor sooner or later. When temps get that cold, you will have liquid refrigerant sitting in the compressor. units that are intended to run in cold climates will have a small heater on the compressor to keep it warm enough prevent this. Newer units run different refrigerants, that use different oil..so oil isnt really an issue..not even so much in older units with mineral oil really..With all the goverment regs on energy useage & being "green" they wont put a crankcase heater on a domestic unit, for the added energy consumption & to save a few dollars. a heater could be added to pretty much any compressor..no real need to pay the big bucks to buy a unit they say is built to run in a cold space. I would stay away from a fridge with electronic controls..they are most likely to be affected from the cold garage. a manual defrost unit with mechanical controls, would most likely be ok..better with a crankcase heater on the compressor.. Running a unit out there, that is not intended to be run in the cold is taking a chance.

[Bigbartguy]

we have fridge/freezer in our insulated garage and have lost alot of food once the temps drop far enough: everything in fridge is frozen and everthing in freezer is melted. They dont function correctly in super-cold weather. My advice is dont do it.

[larryz]

I have had freezers in my unheated garage for the last 25-30 years with no problems. Refrigerators on the other hand have not worked out.