Freezr Burn

by John

I have a Frigidaire frost-free freezer. We are experiencing lots of food to freezer burn. Can I disable the frost-free feature and use it as a manual defrost freezer? If so, how? Thanks, John

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Answer


Hi John,

No, you cannot convert a frost-free refrigerator to a manual refrigerator. It may be possible but certainly not practical and I it will not solve your problem. Fluctuating temperature speeds up freezer burn but even if it were a manual defrost it still would fluctuate due to the fact that the freezer and the fresh food section both cut off when the fresh food gets cold enough. A freezer in a refrigerator (frost free or manual defrost) will be around –3 to 7 degrees and anytime the temperature above 0 freezer burn will happen faster. Yes when the freezer goes into defrost the temperature will rise some but freezer burn occurs in any refrigerator.

A manual defrost deep freezer however will keep hold temperature steady at around –15 to –20 and freezer burn will be very minimal.

Check for an air leak at the door gasket or anywhere air may enter the refrigerator. Freezer burn will happen to a certain extent in any refrigerator but if you have an air leak it could make your food have freezer burn faster.

While freezer burn is going to happen eventually there are things you can do to slow it down. Try changing the way you package your food before putting it into the freezer. There are two ways that I find will keep freezer burn to a minimal.

Double wrap your food. The first wrap should be a heavy plastic wrap then freezer paper. Use the kind of freezer paper that the blucher uses and use masking tape to seal off the ends. This should keep the moisture from escaping the food which is pretty much what freezer burn is.

The other way is to use one of those sealing machines that sucks out all the air out of the package and seals it off. This is the best way to prevent freezer burn but of course you have to have or purchase a sealing machine. I don’t know what one cost but if it saves food for you it won’t take long to pay for itself.

Thank you,
Shawn/administrator