buying a frost stat to keep freezer above freezing

[Gebby]

My freezer in the garage needs a little warmth to expell moisture, otherwise the outlet freezes.

I can buy a 60watt heater from Coopers for £20 and a T4360 frost stat for the same. Not a lot and very low running cost to keep the freezer's area warmish. Does this make sense? Anything I should or should not do?

 

[Andy™]

could always make use of the heat thats already there

 

[Gebby]

not enough heat from the grill at the back unless I enclose it and funnel it to the outlet pipe. I could try that but would prefer the small heater idea.

 

[Rob_the_rich]

not sure what an outlet pipe is for a freezer, but would fitting pipe insulation to it work?

 

[NozSpark]

Are you saying that you have a Frost Free Freezer and that the compartment drain pipe is freezing up

 

[Gebby]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

First Rob, yes it's a frost free, so the freezer expells near freezing water through an outlet pipe that drains it down to a tray from where it can evaporate. Pipe insulation? The water is near freezing and the temperature around the outlet is a bit warmer, so insulation won't help. (I think)

NozSpark, yes exactly.

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

Believe it or not, a fridge or freezer should NOT be used in a cold room. The reason is it can not work if the outside of the fridge (The room its in) is colder than the inside of the fridge. But if you switch it off and leave the fridge door open, chances are the weather will change and warm up, ruining the contents of the fridge.

 

[sprocketflup]

Every frost fee appliance I've had has been rubbish and caused problems, yet the old fashioned type that you leave outside for a day or chip away titanic sinking chunks of ice with a blunt instrument once a year has been fine.

The march of progress apparently.

 

[Gebby]

Thanks guys, but no one has told me if there is anything I should or should not do when wiring the heater and frost stat. It will be plugged in to a 13amp socket. I recon the heater should be fitted half way up the wall so that the heat is close to the outlet that freezes, and the frost sta fitted below it.

 

[Rob_the_rich]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

First Rob, yes it's a frost free, so the freezer expells near freezing water through an outlet pipe that drains it down to a tray from where it can evaporate. Pipe insulation? The water is near freezing and the temperature around the outlet is a bit warmer, so insulation won't help. (I think)

..

The water is above freezing, pipe insulation might keep it that way. I don't know what make and model your freezer is, so I can't see what the manufacturer recommends in this situation.

I did find

"DIY repair for a frozen drain pipe from the fridge cabinet....in a fridge freezer

Only for a strong skilled DIY fanatic....this is for a 'frost free' fridge freezer combo...with water dripping into the cabinet from a full / blocked / frozen drain pipe

unplug and pull out - have ready say 1M of bare copper wire (easy from the earth wire in say ring main cable) allow the trapped frozen water in the pipe to melt - then thread the bare copper wire down the drain pipe towards the encased (gets warm compressor dome) wrap some round a black pipe the other end lay in the drip tray in the fridge cabinet. The purpose of this copper wire is to stop the water freezing by keeping warmer the join between the freezer and fridge cabinets...which it does

May upset your guarantee but will avoid a fridge person callout @ say (£80) to turn off wait for it to thaw and then leave with the fee...

OR ignore the above - switch off for say 3 hrs - back on and pipe unfrozen.....
NEVER switch off and then quickly back on a fridge or freezer - this can blow the fuse in the compressor = buy a new one - always allow 5 mins between off the on...."

If you fancy a bit of wiring :innocent

 

[Andy™]

when i first read that, i though you were going to suggest putting a supply across the wire to heat it up to melt the ice

 

[Rob_the_rich]

when i first read that, i though you were going to suggest putting a supply across the wire to heat it up to melt the ice

not me suggesting it, but it sort of makes sense, copper being a good conductor of heat. I certainly wouldn't suggest taking the earth wire from your ring main though.

 

[Gebby]

ah, conducting the heat from the compressor to the outlet that freezes sounds good but over that distance, about 1500mm it might disipate. I'll give it a try, thanks.

 

[Marvo]

You can buy flexible trace heaters which are designed specifically for this kinda application. There's the type that just looks like a single wire but usually that type needs to be over a certain length which will be longer than you need (usually a few meters). You also get the flat type which come as a set length and I think you can get them as short as 400 or 500mm which is like a foot and a halfish in English measurements. They'll be available from a proper refrigeration supplier or maybe a plumbing wholesaler and they look like this;

 

[Gebby]

Thanks Marvo, that could solve the problem, I'll investigate it.

And thanks for taking the trouble to  include a photograph, very helpful.

Geoff

 

[Doc Hudson]

Examples of trace heating kits and costs can be seen on the TLC website.  https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Cable_Index/Heat_Tape/index.html

Doc H.

 

[Andy™]

forgot all about trace heating... used it many times too

 

[Marvo]

Not sure why you're against them, we've used the self regulating type heater tapes (without the thermostat) for various applications over many years and they're pretty reliable.

 

[Gebby]

I'm not against them, just never used one. My plumber is working in my house tomorrow so I might get him to fit it. Many thanks.

Thanks also toAndy and Doc Hudson.

 

[roys]

I like self regulating trace heating tape.  I have a 22mm that is prone to freezing, happened about 5 years ago in the first proper cold winter for a while, bit of a mess kitchen ceiling with a big bulge, fortunately for me I was about to do the kitchen up anyway.

The following year we had another big freeze but this time no damage because I had fitted 8 m of self regulating tape to it and a bit of pipe lagging.  That was the same year that plumbers were making lots of money disconnecting frozen drain pipe from condensing combi boilers as they had froze.