So a few weeks ago, the wife found our upright Fridgidaire freezer door slightly ajar, with several items thawed. Cleared out the spoiled food, closed the door and put a thermometer in with max/min recording (something I should have done previously, but did not). Since then, it stays below freezing, but will not cool below 8 degrees, gets to about 22 during the thaw cycles, especially at the bottom. Ice cream will not stay firmly frozen. I fully thawed the coil in the freezer, though there was not a lot of ice on it, no change. Fan inside works fine, air circulation seems good after reorganization of everything inside. Replace the defrost timer, thermostat, and defrost thermostat on the coil last week, still no change. Set to coldest setting on the thermostat - it runs, compressor cycles on and off, but still never gets below 8 degrees. I thought freezers should stay about 0 most of the time except during the defrost cycle. Is this normal or is the freezer in need of replacement? If so, what would you recommend to replace with? Chest freezer? Manual or auto defrost? Thanks!

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Originally posted by barndg00:
If so, what would you recommend to replace with? Chest freezer?

Can't help you on the technical stuff, but I can give my two cents on chest vs. upright.

I have one of each, and the bottom line is it's a trade off.

I love the upright for being able to organize things and I got a huge one so it does hold a lot, but there is a TON of wasted space. The chest freezers hold a lot more, you just can't find it. Just the other day I was fishing around in the chest freezer and found a couple of chickens that I'd put in there five years ago.

If you could find an upright that you could add shelves to and be able to adjust them, that would be ideal. I looked fairly thoroughly though prior to purchasing my upright and couldn't find one that I liked.

Best of luck.

Chest freezers are generally far cheaper to operate, FWIW. They’re a pain in the ass to find things in, though.

I like a chest type. I have a midsize model that helps in the losing things dept. I’m not a fan of self defrost either. Seeing the frost build reminds me I need to go through the contents defrosting also is hard on your food. don’t open mine very often once every 10 days maybe, at which time I transfer food to the regular fridge. I find I only defrost once every two years.

Check to see if the condenser coils are clean. They might be blocked with dust which will cause your symptoms.

This model has the condenser coils in the walls of the freezer, basically radiating heat from the sides and top.