Chest freezer outside?

[loosechangedru]

I think chest freezers fall under the sub forum "equipment," but please feel free to move this if it's in the wrong place.

I recently got my hands on a ~18 cubic ft chest freezer for FREE, I just had to pick it up. Lightly used, I plugged it in last night and it seems to be working great. I really don't want to keep it inside, as space is limited and I have no garage. The internet and it's forums are split on whether or not it will drastically affect the appliance or the contained food, the slight majority saying it'll be fine depending on the make and model of the freezer. I've looked for freezer covers and didn't find much - I figured the appliance needs ventilation, but there a vented grill covers, so...

I live in Central/North Florida, so it doesn't get THAT cold, and I can keep it in my covered porch to reduce exposure to heat. It does rain enough where the backsplash can get the freezer wet, so I'm thinking an awning or gutter or both to reduce the backsplash. Not much I can do about the humidity, it does cause condensation to build up on the freezer tho.

I'd imagine plenty of ya'll have ran into this question before. Does anyone have any information or thoughts on the subject?

 

[buzzy]

Don’t see why it wouldn’t be fine outside for your location. If u lived in cold climate I’d have different opinion. Maybe somebody closer to your location will chime in with their thoughts

 

[smokerjim]

My friend keeps his in a unheated garage, it gets pretty cold here, he's had no problems for years.dont know if this helps

 

[hillbillyrkstr]

We have 3 in the garage and barn and live in Michigan. No issues ever.

Scott

 

[mike243]

Keep the water out of the thermostat and buy a alarm for it incase power gets cut off to it

 

[johnmeyer]

In a good blow, it looks like it could get pretty wet. That will not be good.

It will obviously have to work pretty hard when it gets near 90 and the humidity is high. The humidity may cause problems with the auto defrost (it may not be able to keep up).

If you live in rural central Florida (the interior), you may have bears or raccoons. Either are capable of opening up something like this.

Since it's free, I'm sure you're not worrying too much about these things. You'll just have to have some sort of tarp ready when you are about to get some really nasty weather.

 

[retfr8flyr]

Check with the manufacturer, some freezers are made for outdoor use and some aren't. If it's not made for outdoor use, all the electronics and the compressor could freeze.

 

[loosechangedru]

Thanks for everyone's input! I'd like to make this freebie last. I might try to tarp the front of it loosely where there are no vents to keep out elements but to allow airflow. I'll update if I find a new solution worth mentioning.

 

[Winterrider]

Agree with Johnmeyer, humidity maybe the biggest problem. Compressor may freeze up. Alarm suggested for piece of mind.

 

[daveomak]

As the outside temp rises, the more your freezer will run to cool the inside...
I had 3 freezers in a room in my barn... electricity bill was getting higher the warmer the weather got.. The freezer room got up to about 85 degrees with the freezers running... I installed an window air conditioner in the wall... Electric billed dropped about $20... I could easily maintain 65F in the insulated freezer room... The 1 window air conditioner costs a lot less to run than 3 freezers.. The cooler I kept the room, the less the freezers ran... 65F seemed to be the cost effective temperature... I think they are designed to operate inside a household... FWIW ...

 

[Bearcarver]

When I got a Cheap Fridge/Freezer from Home Depot years ago, I planned on putting it in my Garage.
I even had a new dedicated 20A line run just for it.
Then I read the owners manual, and put it in my Basement, or as we say in PA "Cellar".

Bear

 

[mike243]

Just so you all know the truth about the energy that freezers and fridge uses.a chest freezer runs about 1 amp for a newer unit 4-5 for a 25 or older,uprite with auto defrost about 1 amp and then 3.5-4 amps when in defrost for 30 minutes or so.a window AC pulls about 6-8 amps when running,I work on them for a living,very few chest freezers have a defrost and humidity and temp wont freeze a compressor up,it can get cold enuf that it has trouble compressing gas to a liquid but you probably will never know it .on uprite with defrost keep stuff off the top and sides as the condensor coils are run on the outside of the cabinet and anything setting on it will cause it to run longer trying to get rid of the heat

 

[kelbro]

For safety, just make sure that it is locked.

 

[Bearcarver]

Just so you all know the truth about the energy that freezers and fridge uses.a chest freezer runs about 1 amp for a newer unit 4-5 for a 25 or older,uprite with auto defrost about 1 amp and then 3.5-4 amps when in defrost for 30 minutes or so.a window AC pulls about 6-8 amps when running,I work on them for a living,very few chest freezers have a defrost and humidity and temp wont freeze a compressor up,it can get cold enuf that it has trouble compressing gas to a liquid but you probably will never know it .on uprite with defrost keep stuff off the top and sides as the condensor coils are run on the outside of the cabinet and anything setting on it will cause it to run longer trying to get rid of the heat

Thanks Mike---Great Info.
I would have never known my Chest Freezer only draws about 1 Amp.
I know my newer Monster French Door Ref/Fridge draws a lot less than our old, half as big one did in our Kitchen.

Bear