freezer setting?

skeptik

Do I need to turn my deep freeze up or down when its full? I thought it was down a bit because when its packed this helps keeps the food in it frozen more so there's no need to have it turned up as high but I thought I may check incase I am wrong! Thanks

CJhaughey

skeptik wrote: »

Do I need to turn my deep freeze up or down when its full? I thought it was down a bit because when its packed this helps keeps the food in it frozen more so there's no need to have it turned up as high but I thought I may check incase I am wrong! Thanks

Why touch it? If its frozen and working just leave it alone.

rubadub

Most freezers will be thermostatically controlled, knocking off once at -18C or so. When you open the freezer warm air can get in, if its a chest freezer you are a bit better off as it is harder to freely flow about, in a vertical fridge freezer the cold air flows out easier. This is why pull out enclosed shelves area good idea in vertical ones, it stops air freely flowing out. I know some have detachable fronts on the pull out bits which some people remove to get a bit more food in, or they break.

If your freezer is jammed full then when you open & close it there is very little warm air able to exchange places with the cold air. If your freezer is empty each time you open & close it the freezer will kick start again to cool that air down to -18C again.

If you have empty space in a freezer you can fill voids with stuff, this could be bulky food like a sliced pan, or empty black sacks or bin liners puffed up with air, or empty 2L bottles of coke. The air in the bottles will not flow out but will be cold. If you put in a 2L full of ice then you use up energy freezing the water initially, but from then on it is similar enough to having an empty 2L.

In the summer a frozen 2L might be useful to cooling those containers you put beer & water in for a BBQ. Another tip is to add loads of salt to a 2L of water, this will not freeze if there is enough salt in it. This can be used to chill wine or beer cans really fast. You put the can/bottle in a large jug and pour in the salt water, as it is in close contact it cools really quickly, the salt water can be poured back in and reused.

You can also just make loads of ice cubes to fill the void, but I prefer fresher ice.

Food you want kept for longer should be kept deeper in the freezer, packed with other foods ontop, this insulates it better and only the top layer of food is exposed to the incoming warm air.

skeptik

rubadub wrote: »

Most freezers will be thermostatically controlled, knocking off once at -18C or so. When you open the freezer warm air can get in, if its a chest freezer you are a bit better off as it is harder to freely flow about, in a vertical fridge freezer the cold air flows out easier. This is why pull out enclosed shelves area good idea in vertical ones, it stops air freely flowing out. I know some have detachable fronts on the pull out bits which some people remove to get a bit more food in, or they break.

If your freezer is jammed full then when you open & close it there is very little warm air able to exchange places with the cold air. If your freezer is empty each time you open & close it the freezer will kick start again to cool that air down to -18C again.

If you have empty space in a freezer you can fill voids with stuff, this could be bulky food like a sliced pan, or empty black sacks or bin liners puffed up with air, or empty 2L bottles of coke. The air in the bottles will not flow out but will be cold. If you put in a 2L full of ice then you use up energy freezing the water initially, but from then on it is similar enough to having an empty 2L.

In the summer a frozen 2L might be useful to cooling those containers you put beer & water in for a BBQ. Another tip is to add loads of salt to a 2L of water, this will not freeze if there is enough salt in it. This can be used to chill wine or beer cans really fast. You put the can/bottle in a large jug and pour in the salt water, as it is in close contact it cools really quickly, the salt water can be poured back in and reused.

You can also just make loads of ice cubes to fill the void, but I prefer fresher ice.

Food you want kept for longer should be kept deeper in the freezer, packed with other foods ontop, this insulates it better and only the top layer of food is exposed to the incoming warm air.

now that's an answer! Thank you

the beer revolu

To add to rubadub's excellent answer:
There should be a thermometer in the freezer (mine is on the inside of the door).
Check this - if it reads warmer than -18C turn your control up (bigger number on control = colder) a little and check it in a few hours and vice versa if it is colder than -18C.
What you want is to have the controls as low as possible but have the internal temp close to -18C. This shouldn't change whether the freezer if full or not.

If you put a large mass of food into the freezer at once you might want to push the 'super' switch which engages the motor full time to chill the food down fast but don't forget to unpress this switch after a couple of hours of else you'll have a very cold but very uneconomical freezer.