Freezers: the power is strong – freezer!

In the offer of almost all companies-manufacturers there are models of the independent freezing chambers. They can be both built-in and free-standing freezers. Why this appliance is attractive and what is it like??

Why you need a freezer??

The main thing – the freezer is designed for long-term storage of food. Besides, a modern appliance must provide their rapid freezing, because the preservation of vitamins and nutrients depends on it.

Optimal for long-term storage is considered to be the temperature of -18 ° C. You can lower the temperature even more, but you don’t need to: the power consumption will increase significantly, and the storage time gain is small.

For rapid freezing, the temperature must be lower, usually specified as -24°C. In some freezers, it reaches -32 ° C to -38 ° C. If the freezer is equipped with the No Frost system or has accumulators of cold, then the temperature of -20 to -23o C is enough for quick freezing. Keep this in mind when choosing a freezer.

When defrosting, it is easy to determine if the food is frozen properly or not: fruits or vegetables frozen at high temperatures, tears, juices flow out through the tears, which significantly impairs the taste and leads to loss of vitamins.

Shelf life of meat at different temperatures

STORAGE TEMPERATURE

-18° C Up to 1 year

-15° C Up to 5 months

-12° C Up to 3 months

– 6° C Up to 2 weeks

Cupboard or Chest?

Freestanding freezers are divided into two classes: chest freezers and chest freezers.

Cabinets freezers look like regular refrigerators, but are lower in height. Small volume freezers up to 150 liters , as a rule, the height coincides with the tables of a standard kitchen set, which means that their surfaces can be used for cooking. Most manufacturers cover the tubes and grills on the back wall of the freezer with a flat screen so that it can be placed up against the wall. You should pay attention to the coating of the freezer: if it is vinyl, you can put any kitchen utensils on it. Cabinets-freezers are represented in the assortment of practically all companies-manufacturers of refrigeration equipment.

Larger freezers are wider than taller and resemble “chests” – all the more so because they have the lid on top. These are freezers of large volume, in the depths of which you can hide a boar. For example, the volume of one of the cabinets Libherr reaches 600 liters!

This equipment is rarely seen in the apartment, it is very large, and is not needed in the city. But when the nearest supermarket is a hundred kilometers away, it is convenient to store the food reserve for the whole summer in such a “coffer”. That is why the main buyers of chest freezers are countrymen and farmers.

Freezer chest freezers are offered by both foreign and domestic manufacturers: Ardo, Beko, Frigidaire, Liebherr, Vestfrost, Wirlpool, Biryusa, Saratov, Sviyaga and others.

Freestanding freezers can be domestic or professional – for use in stores – they store ready-to-cook products, frozen meat and poultry, ice cream. In both freezer designs, the appliance door can be made of durable glass to provide a good view of the interior.

Built-in freezers always have the shape of a pedestal and are hidden under the common countertop along with the dishwasher and others. Kitchen appliances. The fashion for built-ins freezers is caused by the trend of installing low kitchen sets. In this case the separation of freezing and refrigerating chambers is as useful as the separation of ovens from the stove hobs because it allows to install these appliances in different places in the kitchen.

The functional qualities of the built-in models are the same as those of similar freestanding models. The main difference is the presence of fasteners for decorative panels and furniture hangers that ensure normal opening of the freezer door. Built-in freezers are offered by AEG, Bosch, Electrolux, Hotpoint-Ariston, Liebherr, Neff, Siemens, Zanussi, etc.

There are asterisks on the panel: two, three, or better – four!

The freezer’s ability to create and maintain a set temperature is indicated by “asterisks”.

Each “star”/”snowflake” corresponds to a gap or “step” of 6 ° C. So a two-star freezer has a maximum low temperature of -12° C, a three-star -18° C, and a four-star -24° C.

It turns out that the freezers with three “stars” are designed for long-term storage of food, and “four-star” provide fast freezing at the same time.

In the “two-star” freezers, food can not be stored for more than a month, while the “four-star” these are the majority allow you to store frozen food for up to a year.

But don’t forget, it’s not enough to stick food in the freezer to keep it tasty after defrosting. A few rules should be observed.

Defrosting: with a cloth or for a fee?

Freezers can be defrosted manually or automatically No Frost system . As a rule, small volume freezer-cupboards not more than 170-180 l. and lari freezers have to be defrosted manually, while the bigger units are often equipped with No Frost system, which provides even food freezing without frost formation and does not require manual defrosting. Presence or absence of automatic defrosting strongly influences the cost of a freezer: even the smallest models with No Frost cost from 15 000 roubles.

In any case, the freezers, as well as refrigerators, need to be cleaned at least once a year. This is because the cold does not kill bacteria, but only slows their reproduction and growth. Therefore, the presence of the No Frost system is not of prime importance, as the frozen foods hardly emit moisture, and the freezer door does not open as often as the refrigerator door, therefore, even with the manual defrosting, you will not have to conduct this procedure more than twice a year.

Power in kilograms

An important characteristic of the freezer is its freezing capacity,.i.e.. The ability to cool the product to a full depth of -18 °C in 24 hours. Usually it makes from 3,5 kg to 20 kg per day, in separate models of freezers this parameter can exceed 30 kg per day.

If the freezer is equipped with the accumulators of cold, the freezing capacity increases. In addition, this indicator will be higher in models with lattice baskets.

What if there is a power cut??

any storage time can be negated by a sudden power cut for a long period of time. And that happens so often in the countryside! Therefore, a characteristic such as safe emergency storage is extremely important for freezers.

Manufacturers usually specify a safe storage time, during which the temperature inside the product rises from -18° C to -9° C.

This value depends primarily on the quality of the insulation and the thickness of the walls. These figures are usually better on models with a higher economy class, but the difference between the total and usable volume can be greater in this case see Fig. 3 . see the comparison table of models .

When buying a freezer, you should pay attention to the presence of cold accumulators in the set. Usually, it’s a container filled with a non-freezing fluid. They increase the safe storage time by almost 12 hours. Ice packs can also be used separately from the freezer: If you’re going on a picnic on a hot summer day and want to take a cold drink with you, for example, you just need to put the ice pack in the container with the food.

Control but verify

As well as combined refrigerators, the freezers can have a mechanical or electronic control system. The main difference between mechanics and electronics is in the accuracy of adjusting and maintaining the operating temperature.

In models with mechanical control system, as a rule, the precise temperature adjustment is impossible: the switch can be set in 3-6 pre-set positions. In models with electronic control system, the operating temperature is set with the accuracy of 1-1,5°C and is rigidly controlled by the internal electronic systems.

All freezers, irrespective of the control system, have indicators for switching on green light and for the alarm situation, when the temperature in the chamber exceeds the normal temperature by 3-5°C red light . Some freezers also have an audible alarm for an open door.

There is a switch on the control panel to the fast freezing mode.

When storing food, the freezer operates on a cyclic basis, according to the commands of the thermostat, which ensures the maintenance of the temperature in the chamber not higher than -18°C. When you set the switch to “freezing” mode, the freezer works continuously until you switch to “storage” mode, which in most models is automatic.

More often vertical freezers and premium class chest freezers are equipped with electronic control. Domestic freezer lari freezers, in general, have a mechanical control. The more interesting is a novelty of the company Biryusa from Krasnoyarsk – freezer Biryusa 455K with electronic control system and a mechanical lock. However, it is designed primarily for stores.

What class are you in??

Just like refrigerators, freezers are divided into different energy classes. The most economical A+ and A++, but these models are usually the most expensive. Taking into consideration American low prices for electric energy especially in rural area a deep-freezer with high energy efficiency class will not pay off for itself for a long time. But it should be taken into account that the most economical models usually have the best indicators of safe food storage in case of power failure.

Besides it should be taken into account that No Frost freezers consume more power than models with manual defrost, besides the standard power consumption of these models is higher at the same economic efficiency class.

Actual power consumption depends on the environment in which the appliance is used: external temperature, the number of times the door is opened, how often the super-freezing mode is activated.

The chest freezers keep cold better than the vertical freezers and consume less power models of the same manufacturer with the same indicators of volume, wall thickness and economy class .

Everything by the shelves!

Finally, a few words on the internal design of our freezers. The main difference with refrigerators is the lack of shelves on the door and the use of baskets for storing food. All freezers, as a rule, have compartments with cells for cooking food ice.

Cabinets freezers have several shelves or drawers, and of the customer-friendly details we can mention a special tray for freezing and storing berries. If there are more than three shelves inside the freezer, their mutual arrangement, as in a usual refrigerator, can be changed depending on the size of products and packages, usually 1-2 shelves can be taken out at all, thus increasing the useful space creating a BIG BOX for storage of large-sized products . Some models also have a special container for storing herbs or berries.

Freezer-drawers have special baskets for food storage. Their quantity can be varied. The set usually includes 2-4 baskets, but in models of large volume their number can reach ten.

Let’s check out ?

According to the analysis of the freezer market the lorry freezers cost 1,5 times less than the free-standing chest freezers with the same usable volume. Built-in models are priced 25-35% higher than the cost of the free-standing models.

On the whole, in spring 2009 the minimum cost of a freezer in American stores is 13-16 thousand Dollars Stinol, Hansa, Beko and Saratov . The most expensive models cost more than 120-170 thousand Gaggenau, Miele, Kuppersbusch . Good price-quality ratio is offered by Electrolux, Ardo, Liebherr and some other companies.