[bpgrills]

I have a cottage in which I turn the heat off during the week when I am not there. Between Monday to Friday, during the winter months, the room temperature drops below freezing. When I return on Friday, the top freezer compartment has thawed somewhat and the meat is soft. I seems that the refrigerator turns off at some point and never turns back on.

How is it possible for a freezer to thaw when the room temperature is below the freezing point? I can only assume that the compressor produces a small amount of heat even though it is off, and this heat is dissipating into the refrigerator.

Does the defrost mechanism have anything to do with the refrigerator not operating while the room temperature is below freezing.

I know several people having the same issue with various brands of refrigerators.

Any ideas on why this is happening would be greatly appreciated.

[PS Staff - Sheila]

As the temp in the cottage goes down so does the temp in the fridge.

The thermostat that controls the temp of the fridge controls the amount that the fridge will run. If this is an older fridge with the standard eight hour defrost timer the timer will still run and the freezer will still defrost every eight hours. In this case the only way to avoid this is to keep your room temp above the freezing point.

Hope this helps.