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Chest Fridge (2009)

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Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#21

Post by femto »

nom wrote: post #11

No. Drawers.

Makes sense if the drawers completely fill the volume of the fridge, so most of the air is inside the drawers and there is minimal air loss when the door opens. If the drawer fronts were insulated, each drawer would effectively be its own chest.

Edit: On a reread, I'm guessing you were talking about individual refrigerated drawers? Multiple drawers in a single insulated box (as I interpreted it) could work though, as it would have less exterior surface area, use less insulation for the same thermal resistance and useable volume and have a single cooling unit, which might be more efficient. It would also fit existing fridge alcoves.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#23

Post by mapontosevenths »

I have a bad back and bending over hurts. Statistically it will also start to hurt you someday.

Even if we ignore the pain, there is no way to organize food in a chest freezer effectively. To reach items on the bottom one must remove all the food that sits above it. This wastes time and effort that could better be spent on other things. Meaning the opportunity cost is too high, even if it saves me money on electricity.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#24

Post by TurdF3rguson »

refactor_master wrote: post #7
tempestn wrote: post #4

It's a cool idea, and might be great for a secondary fridge. For a primary fridge though, it's so much more convenient to have direct access to everything through a vertical door. I like energy efficiency, but I'm willing to pay 300kWh a year (around $40 here) for that convenience, let alone the space efficiency.

Most people in dense urban areas would actually pay less. By going vertical you’re freezing a whole m2 that was otherwise necessarily occupied by the fridge. In most places, 300 kWh is much cheaper than an extra irrevocable m2 for your fridge. Plus, a horizontal fridge is just… convenient. You can’t even put things on top of a vertical fridge.

But if I put things on top of it, now I can't get at the food.

I mean, I have one of these as a meat freezer, and sometimes I put things on top of it, and then my wife gets mad at me and moves that thing somewhere because otherwise nobody can open it.

Things on top of my vertical fridge on the other hand (my cat for example), can stay there indefinitely.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#26

Post by linsomniac »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #23

I have a bad back and bending over hurts. Statistically it will also start to hurt you someday. Even if we ignore the pain, there is no way to organize food in a chest freezer effectively. To reach items on the bottom one must remove all the food that sits above it. This wastes time and effort that could better be spent on other things. Meaning the opportunity cost is too high, even if it saves me money on electricit…

Yeah, we have a french door fridge with a lower drawer freezer, and even with that being split into an upper drawer maybe 8" deep, and a lower one ~12" deep. Everything but the top layer and maybe one layer under that, is where food goes to die. And that setup is vastly better at this all than a 30" deep chest, except that when you pull the drawer out, all the benefits of a chest are lost. So (nearly) the worst of both worlds.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#27

Post by erelong »

Just have to make it either easy to buy or easy to mod and emphasize energy savings and lots of people would be interested

Edit: looks like a few chest freezers have a "fridge" setting, which sounds like the easiest way to do this for those interested (maybe)

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#28

Post by PaulKeeble »

Its possible to design internal structures such that its easier to use as a Fridge and freezer with some loss of space to avoid having to reach down into it. It would waste space and some efficiency however, the more complicated it becomes with assisted lifting and such the worse the gap would become. But the problem is often space, a lot of kitchens do not have 2x the floor area to be putting in chests making them good for secondary storage somewhere else but not a primary kitchen appliance.

There is no doubt its better thermally just because cold air falls out the front of a normal fridge/freezer and huge amounts of energy are wasted everytime you open the door. A chest design looses considerably less of its cooled air but its also a lot more awkward to use and ends up less floor space efficient.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#29

Post by tshaddox »

asutekku wrote: post #16
tshaddox wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you completely remodeled a kitchen around a chest fridge it might not be too terribly inconvenient. But the major blocker is that virtually every kitchen is designed with a perfect spot for a tall, relatively shallow fridge.

It's inconvenient as soon as you need to get something from the bottom of the fridge, kitchen layout does not change this one at all. And I grew up in a home with multiple chest fridges in addition to a shelved ones so I know the hurdles. They are good to store something you're not accessing all the time though, like frozen berries etc.

I think that inconvenience could be manageable depending on how full the fridge is and what sort of organizing features it has.

It’s already pretty inconvenient to get something out of the back of a traditional fridge that is completely full.

Re: Chest Fridge (2009)

#30

Post by nlawalker »

femto wrote: post #21
nom wrote: post #11

No. Drawers.

Makes sense if the drawers completely fill the volume of the fridge, so most of the air is inside the drawers and there is minimal air loss when the door opens. If the drawer fronts were insulated, each drawer would effectively be its own chest. Edit: On a reread, I'm guessing you were talking about individual refrigerated drawers? Multiple drawers in a single insulated box (as I interpreted it) could work though, as…

If you designed around it, it would fit where existing kitchens have drawers, and the space typically reserved for a vertical fridge would be occupied by shelving. Kind of a neat idea. Microwave drawers are a thing.
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