Fridges, freezers, and fridge-freezers are all designed to operate within specific temperature ranges (climates). If you place one in a kitchen, or in a separate room inside your house, it’s likely that it will operate as intended. However, it’s not advisable to place a refrigeration appliance next to a heat source such as a radiator or a cooker – or even in strong direct sunlight).
If you place one in an outside building such as a shed or garage you may be putting it into temperature ranges that fall outside the designed limits. You could then experience problems such as not working properly or completely malfunctioning.
So think carefully before installing a refrigeration appliance in a garage or outbuilding if the temperature inside is likely to get much higher or much lower than that of its stated climate class. If you buy any refrigeration appliance in the UK it is highly likely to be only designed to work in a kitchen or utility room. (e.g. Freezer defrosted: Can you put a fridge freezer in a garage?)
All fridges, freezers, and fridge freezers should have a climate class printed on their rating plate (or maybe in the instruction book). This class indicates the minimum and maximum temperatures that the appliance is suitable to work in. The most common climate classes sold in the UK are listed in the form below. (where is the serial number on a fridge or freezer?)
NOTE: Your appliance may not necessarily use the phrase “climate class”, on my freezer the writing is very small and it just says “class SN”. I would expect most refrigeration appliances in the UK would be climate class SN but check your rating plate.
| Climate Class | Min Temperature | Max Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| N | 16 ° | 32 ° |
| SN | 10 ° | 32 ° |
| ST | 18 ° | 38 ° |
| T | 18 ° | 43 ° |
The above climate classes stand for – N = Temperate climate, SN = Extended Temperate climate, ST = Sub Tropical, T = Tropical.
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Hello benson: ST works up to 38 degrees, T works up to 43 degrees. I don’t know enough about their climate to answer but refrigeration might be tailored for the areas they are sold in.
It would make sense for refrigeration designed to be sold in Mediterranean climates to be ST or T but refrigeration designed to be sold in cold countries may be N or SN. Therefore it’s probably best to buy from the country it’s intended to be used in which would guarantee its suitability.
If you need to buy one elsewhere knowing it will end up in another country I would contact the manufacturer for advice. There may not be a fridge that can work in cold climates as well as really hot ones and it makes no sense to sell fridges capable of running up to 43 degrees C in the UK for example. Having said that, in these days of global marketing it’s hard to say how they deal with the problem.
Julie:
No disrespect to the John Lewis sales people, they are probably the best informed sales people of the major retailers but they may be confusing issues.
Only fridge freezers where the freezer compartment is controlled by one sensor in the fridge compartment (a stupid idea if I ever heard one) should be affected. A separate freezer will have its own sensor set to cool down to minus 18 degrees centigrade, I can’t see how ambient temperatures of below 10 degrees could stop a freezer working. They already said that chest freezers aren’t affected (for the same reason) and as far as I know neither should any separate freezer.
It’s like saying a thermostatically controlled heater set to heat a room up to 25 degrees would stop working if the room temperature got to 20 degrees. It’s set to keep heating until the thing it is sensing reaches the temperature it is set to.
The separate freezer is set to cool down to -18 and will keep freezing until the temperature inside is -18. I can’t see how just because the temperature of the room drops to 0 degrees it could stop working thinking it’s cold enough when its job is to bring the temperature down another 18 degrees lower than 0 degrees.
I’m just trying to further clarify this point, which is looked at in more detail here – Freezer defrosted: Can you put a fridge freezer in a garage?
Don’t manufacturers and shops just like to confuse us just to make sales! We fell into the trap of buying a single thermostat fridge freezer for the garage which with all the recent cold weather has been defrosting.
BEKO seem to be the only manufacturer claiming you can use their freezers in the garage (down to -15C), but the freezers are still only rated SN (10-32C). So do they work or don’t they? Would I have a claim against BEKO if the freezer defrosted in the garage?
With the weather at the moment perhaps we should be considering importing a fridge from Scandinavia!
@ StevieG
I bought a Beko fridge freezer for the garage and it has been the best fridge freezer I have ever had! The temp went down to -10 in Northern Ireland 2 weeks ago and it worked perfectly!
At the same time as I bought the Beko, I also bought an integrated Hotpoint fridge for the kitchen. The Beko is far superior to the Hotpoint – the food stays fresher in the Beko and the Beko does not frost up like the Hotpoint does. In summary, I am VERY pleased with the Beko and less than pleased with the Hotpoint!
One final note: only the Beko models with the frost free are designed to function at the lower temperatures!
Hope this helps!
Anne
Anne – Thanks, that’s very useful.
We were looking to get a small, undercounter freezer which is manual defrost. What difference does the frost free make to operation in a garage (apart from the obivious).
Don’t know what model you have but the undercounter model has drop down doors to the shelves rather than pull out drawers – if you have them how do you get on with them eg the need to get everything out to have a rummage for what you’re looking for?
Well Anne I live in Northern Ireland and the spare 2yr old Beko fridge in the garage hasn’t worked one day since the cold snap at the start of December. Bought and replaced the thermostat a couple of days ago, worked for the best part of 20 mins and low and behold, it’s stopped working once again. I’m not engineer, but I put it down to the cold weather once again. Hoping fridge will boot back into life when temperatures rise. As for Beko – avoid like the plague if putting in an outhouse/garage. I can vouch for that.
Regards
Very unlucky Neil.
Is your Beko a Frost free model? According to the Beko website only the frost-free models are designed to operate in garages and outbuildings.
I had no problems at all throughout the winter and am very, very pleased with the Beko!
Hi Anne
It is indeed frost free. Like I mentioned in my previous post, wouldn’t recommend Beko to anyone because of the hassle I had. Now maybe it’s just pot luck I managed to pick the runt of the Beko litter, but I doubt it. I’m still toying with the idea of taking fridge to the council recycling point, or holding out until the weather picks up to see if new thermostat will spring back to life. While I don’t know if there’s any truth to the rumour, but there is still that slim chance it’s not working because the temperature is colder outside fridge than inside – if that makes any sense. The Samsung integrated fridge inside the house is 10yrs old and still going like a trooper.
Regards
I have a Scandinova upright freezer, about 10 yrs old with a climate class of N. During the cold weather in the UK in January the outside temp. went down to -15C one night & was regularly down to about -4C. I suppose the temp. in my garage where I keep the freezer was approx. zero most of the time. Instead of a temp of -18C the temp rose to -11C & stayed there until I adjusted the thermostat when it then struggled to keep at -16C. Now that the temp. outside is back to positive figures, I’ve had to readjust the thermostat so that -18C is maintained.
I had never heard of climate class until researching this issue.
Well we got a Beko frost free freezer and it’s been in the garage for around a month without a problem. It’s been cold but as we’re in Surrey not nearly so cold as NI