It's an unknown Frigidaire freezer. It has recently decided to stop freezing food properly, which has left my Haagen Daz in a precarious position. I think I might have pushed one of these switches by accident, but it's hardly clear what they do. If I move the left switch to the right, the other two lights go off. Does anyone have a clue how to operate this damn thing?

That looks like me Mam's old freezer. I think that one setting means "freeze" and the other means "fast freeze", which YOU MUSTN'T TOUCH.

Oh dear. What happens if I do fast freeze, and which is which??

That green light doesn't look like it's on. Which is probably bad.

Green doesn't come on no matter what I do. If I move the right switch all the way to the right the red and yellow come on and it starts making a noise.

Noise may be good as it could be the compressor starting up which means the freezer will start to cool.

Does it sound like a compressor starting up? A mechanic fridge type noise as opposed to mechanical death or something?

If it is a fridge type noise, keep a close eye on it.

I am just guessing mind. Your house and food may be a risk if you listen to me.

Chinny has said pretty much what I was going to say. Namely experiment with the switches to see what they do - a thermometer would help.

Green may only come on when the fridge reaches the correct temp.

Anyway, off to bed. Hopefully I'll wake up in the morning to hear that all your ice cream is fully frozen again.

You see, I'd just take the opportunity to eat the whole tub. Excuse "It was going to go manky, so I ate it before it did"

I used to use this excuse alot. Until I came up with "I'm a fat chuff and I wanted to eat 2 litres of ice cream"

I ate two pizzas today, one of them a large Domino's. People keep calling me skinny, and it irritates me.

Mmm, I do like pizza. And again everyone accuses me of being fat because I can usually eat a large pizza without any help.

(I weigh 55 kilos, and IIRC 6 kilos of that is fat. I am in no way, shape or form fat.)

He is, in fact, the complete opposite.

Crikey. Good look in the National tomorrow.

Blimey. I weigh 70kg (5'10), and people call me skinny. I am, mind.

This reminds me of my nanny's freezer. I'm fairly confident that you leave it as it is, as any other setting is just fast freeze, which as everyone has said, is bad.

are you like 4 foot tall or something

Why is fast-freeze so bad, and why do they have it as an option?

I have the physique of a pregnant pig, but can barely even eat a sandwich in one go, without being horribly full.

I have decided that Mr. Dave is my nemesis.

I think, errr, if you leave it on too long it creates far too much ice.

"Myoptika! We told you to use Fast Freeze sparingly!"

When I was (very) young and I first heard about global warming and polar icecaps melting, I did wonder why we didn't just put a load of freezers in the arctic to help keep it cold. Again, I was young.

No leccy up there dumbass, the explorers should always remember to close the door though.

Look, it's hereditary knowledge. Don't question it.

No 5'11".

Always been thin and my metabolism has seen to it that I've never even reached any more than 9 and a half stone, and recent stress has caused quite a bit of weight loss.

Loser.
I'm thin as a rake and I pack away tonnes of food (when available). I once ate 16 slices in a Pizza Hut challange.

I could however drink or smoke you under the table, Pod

You probably could. But, y'see, you therefore waste more money on it. The vast amounts of money I save on beer I spend on MORE food.


It's a positive feedback cycle. I get more happy; you get more sad (and drunk)!

Hi folks from the past and hopefully other folks from the near future.

Our freezer has broken… I think.

The other day the food in it started to defrost. Russell thought maybe Darwin had left the door ajar, but within an hour of when this could have happened, everything inside was thawed to the point of liquid, so I’m not sure.

We left it a couple of days, but it didn’t seem to be improving, and this morning it started making a really loud noise, a bit like a motorbike.

We turned it off and took all the food to the tio. It’s a frost-free freezer, but we took the panels off and checked for ice. There wasn’t really any, bar a tiny bit at the top which defrosted quickly. Put it all back together and turned it on.

The noise has stopped, but over six hours later and the temperature is hovering around 0°c and it’s cooled down a small bit of water in the bottom of a cup but it’s not freezing. A thermometer inside reads 0°c, nowhere near the -18°c it should be, but is that because it’s empty? It’s a big freezer and I don’t want to buy more food if it’s broken as we’ve lost a LOT already and I’m already kinda distraught/flapping about.

No idea about the machine, but household insurance often covers freezer contents.

Yeah, I asked Russell to look at that but from what he said the excess was so much that alongside any subsequent rate rises it might not make sense to make a claim? I am just going off what Russell said though, I’ve not checked it out myself.

Put a container of water in there to see if it freezes, but that does sound like a broken freezer

Separate from the bit of water in a cup that I’d put in?

Even if it isn't broken as such, you'll never be able to trust it again. Time for a new freezer I'm afraid.

That’s what I said to Russell. I’m just worried that if we get it working, we might steadily fill it with food and then it happens again.

I suspect the compressor is kaput. You can probably fix it, but I also suspect the cost of repair will be the same as a new freezer

Russell thinks the door was open for more hours (up to four?) than I thought and this is what has broken it. If that’s right then the door was left ajar by an inch for that long and everything turned to liquid within that time frame, which subsequently broke it, so to be honest I’m now just super nervous of ever using a freezer ever again in case I break it. Guess I’m never going to freeze anything ever again.

I’ll be over here with my pantry full of beans.

My experience of freezers is that if they’re on and the door is ajar, they don’t defrost, they overcompensate.
And even if the power failed they would take a day or more to defrost properly to the point everything was ruined
I think yours is broken, sorry

Yeah, everything would be iced up if the door was left open and the freezer was healthy.
Maybe the door being opened just gave an already dieing compressor the last kick over the edge.

Thanks folks, that makes me feel better in a way, as I had got to the point where I was blaming myself a lot for not checking the door after Darwin went there.

As annoying and expensive as it is, there's not much point messing about - and it's just one of those things really, stuff just packs up eventually.

I agree with Vision - time for a new freezer, and if the fear of the door being left open is something heavy on you, look for one that beeps and bongs if the door is left open.

Now why isn’t that a thing that all freezers have?

Going to look online for a new one today as yes, it’s definitely broken.

Sorry for all the questions, for some reason this whole thing has piqued my anxiety. Has anybody heard of Beko, and are they generally reliable/worth looking at?

Yeah, we've had Beko stuff..not had an issue.

Cool, thank you. I hadn’t heard of them but there’s a lot of them on AO .com and some fit what I’m looking for.

I had a Beko fridge but that broke after 7-8 years.. I replaced it with another Beko.

Ah, that’s ace to know. Thank you. I take that as a recommendation.

I’m currently between a Beko, a Hotpoint and an AEG (which I think I’ve heard of only as I think I saw it on a football shirt once).

Beko is a budget focused brand, but the double oven we had from them worked flawlessly for 6 years and we only got rid because we got a whole new kitchen

My 'new' Hotpoint is a pain and won't recommend .

It is a fridge freezer. Where the fridge takes the cold from the freezer. I have left the door open (yes my fault) and it cause the cold transfer channel to frost over and the frdge stops working.

There doe snot seem to be a way to fix it without taking panels of and attacking with a steamer.

Seems a bad design, or an idiot operator..

I had one beko washer that died within a few years but then loads of other beko stuff that's been rock solid so wouldn't have any issues buying beko again.

Although that one Beko dishwasher we had seemed to be something of a 'lemon', with small but irritating things like the detergent compartment not latching closed, the shelf always 'dropping' down etc.

The replacement Beko was/is indeed rock solid though.