Review of the freezing market: form of release, models, freezing modes, electricity consumption, service, operating tips.
Once our distant ancestors hit strangers to keep meat, fish, dairy products and deliver them fresh for hundreds and even thousands of miles. Today, this is no longer surprised (especially strangers), because at hand there is always a refrigerator or freezer. On the peculiarities of freezers, these exclusively useful devices, we want to talk today.
To begin with, we define with the concepts. The freezer and the freezer in the refrigerator is not the same. The freezer is a separate freezer cabinet designed for long-term storage of large amounts of products. Before purchasing such a device, we need to weigh it well, whether it is necessary for you. Maybe it is worth limking to the refrigerator? Indeed, in modern two and three-chamber models there is a large freezer compartment. But if you have your own garden and a garden or you prefer to make a huge stock of meat, for which there is no place in the freezer of the refrigerator, then the purchase of the freezer is undoubtedly justified.
Frankly, the volume of sales of individual freezers in the Russian market is small. It is not at all that the buyers are offered too narrow assortment of similar products, quite the opposite, wide. Just a modern person prefers more often to go to the store and do not take good food. This trend could not not affect the actions of manufacturers: the number of models of freezers they still have much less than models of refrigerators. Attacing well-known companies, as, say, Siemens and LG, do not offer freezers at all.
Many of the most important parameters of freezing are such as a climatic class, a useful volume, a class of power consumption - coincide with the same refrigerator characteristics. Sketch, notice, our magazine wrote in detail in the article "And he is so cold ...". Today we will dwell only on those characteristics that concern only freezers.
The form determines the content
Freezers are available in the form of cabinets, tumbers and flashes.Freezers-cabinets reaching the height 2m and width 60cm occupy a relatively small area. Large useful volume (up to 280l) allows you to store many products in them. Cabinets have several levels decorated in the form of extended boxes or shelves with doors. Pictograms on the front panels indicate the recommended storage time of different products. Extreme models (for example, EU2503 from Electrolux, Sweden) provide special trays for freezing berries, fruits and vegetables. The fruits are laid out on the tray and cool evenly, without trying to each other.
Freezers-stands are well combined with kitchen furniture, they can be installed under the tabletop or any other working surface. Usually have a small volume and 3-4 compartments. Such, let's say, the GSV1120 models from Bosch (Germany) and AFB726 from Whirlpool (USA).
Freezer-lary are reminded by grandmother's chest, they are elongated in length and open up. Capacity intake is convenient to freeze large portions of meat or fish. Often, the useful volume of flares is much higher than the volume of cabinets and reaches, for example, 370l at the CA46 model of the company ARDO (Italy) and even 464l at the HF506 model from Vestfrost (Denmark). But think about how you enter such a Gargantua. After all, the last model of the freezer-varnaries has dimensions of 8501560600cm and with difficulty hesitates on the door. In fact, the freezing stall is a mobile cellar in your apartment. It can be placed on the loggia or balcony, and the cold will be maintained even at ambient temperature to + 40 ° C. A noticeable lack of instruments of this type is that the products fit into them as it fell (the stalling is deep enough) and it is not always convenient to get them. True, special boxes and hanging baskets are provided for storing the packaged products in many models. In addition, plug-in separation partitions can be used. Due to its design, effective thermal insulation and a well-positioned refrigerant contour, Lari is more economical than vertical freezers (a larger amount of products contains more products). When the electricity is turned off, the cold retains for a long time. However, in everyday life they did not get much spread. For our small kitchens, the freezer-stall is too cumbersome. Not only that he himself occupies a large area, but it is still necessary to provide free space over the door (60-70cm) to be able to open it.
Small pleasures
All freezers are made using environmentally friendly refrigerants R-134A and R-600A. This, of course, benefit not only for their owners, but also for all the inhabitants of the planet. But hereby you can consider yourself in the event that in the selected model you have been present at least one of the elements listed below:
- The knob is a lever, pressing sealing, for easy and convenient door opening (due to sealed seals and air vacuum inside the chamber requires considerable effort to open the door).
- Heated the door around the perimeter of its fit to the case, so as not to face.
- Fixing boxes in the middle of their extension - for ease of use (with a large number of products in a container it is difficult to hold it).
- Big Box is not 18 cm high (standard), but 26cm- for large-sized products (GSD2201 and GSE22420 from Bosch).
- Remote control of the functions of the freezer cabinet.
- The "key" (blocking) of the electronic control keys is to protect the freezer modes from the encroachment of children (attributed access).
NO Frost in freezers
Oddly enough, not all models of Western manufacturers of freezers have the function of Nofrost. From domestic producers, it can only boast only "Stinol". Avteda Even the most unfine opponents of the NOFROST system recognize that in freezers it is convenient: more with the products, even with long-term storage, do not differ in the ice shrinkage. But it is impossible not to take into account the serious disadvantage of this function: evaporation of water from the surface of the products leads to their drying. So it is better to store your reserves in a packaged form. To defrost the freezer equipped with the NOFROST function, you do not have to, but it costs it at least once a year.The defrosting of "classic" freezers without Nofrost is made by the classic way. Once a year, the device is turned off, open the drain hole and substitute the pallet for melt water under it.
The regime of fast frost
The rapid freezing method allows you to maintain maximum nutrients and vitamins. In addition, if the products freeze instantly, they do not form ice crystals, which tear the shell of cell tissues, as it happens when gradually cooling. Include quick frost mode it is necessary for 5 hours before booking products in the freezer. The compressor will start working continuously, the temperature in the chamber will drop. After that, it is possible to put fresh products, they will quickly freeze and do not warm up reserves already stored. After 24 hours, turn on the "Storage" mode.
There are two-chamber freezers (for example, the NS-8117 model from Asko): one chamber works in normal mode, the other is designed for a quick freeze. Such devices have two compressors that freezers are rare.
The method of fast freezing requires an additional electricity consumption. In addition, in this mode, the compressor works without stopping, which speeds up its wear.
Battery cold
Unfortunately, in our homes, it is not disconnected of electricity. It is evident, it is very important what time the freezer can hold the cold without power supply. Extractive models (for example, GS2413 and GSN2436 from Liebherr; EU7503 from Electrolux), due to the good quality of thermal insulation and seals, this indicator reaches 1,555, and the freezer-stall SE325 from Vestfrost holds cold even 52 hours.Batteries have a low temperature help and cold batteries. These are plastic briquettes filled with a liquid with a high specific heat capacity, capable of accumulating the cold during the freezer. When the electricity is turned off, they increase the defrost period. Freezers are usually completed with a pair of such briquettes. The best performance on Hod retention at GSS3123 (Liebherr) - 40 hours.
Temperature mode
Three- or four-star freezers must maintain temperature at -18c. There are many models equipped with a temperature indicator, but not all it is located outside. Among those devices whose indicator is visible immediately, GS1784 can be noted (Liebherr). Many freezers are equipped with alarm warning that the temperature in the chamber has risen above the normative.
Very convenient system of "floor" cold. In this case, each box has its own refrigeration (evaporator), and freezing products is possible at all levels (naturally, only in cabinets and couches). That is, you do not need to shift products from boxing in boxing.
Control Panel
The panels are different in design, but everything is quite simple and visual. Almost each there is a regulator and temperature indicator, modes key and color indicators. Green - symbol of the working state of storage, yellow denotes the mode of operation of a quick frost, red signals about elevated temperatures or about the open door (extraction models this indicator is complemented by a beep). It should be borne in mind that after time, the indicators may begin to show a smaller temperature than in fact. Therefore, once a year, their data must be verified with the data of some other (accurate) thermometer. Sometimes the "E" mode is specified in the panel (for example, it is almost all models of Bosch). This is the mode of saving electricity used in the case when the freezer is loaded only by half.Electricity consumption
As noted above, we talked about the energy consumption classes in the review of the refrigerator market. However, it is worth noting that the data specified in the reference tables of energy consumption are based on the application of the manufacturers themselves, and not on independent sources. Experts discover that sometimes freezers consume 15-20% of electricity than declared. Note that the models equipped with the NOFROST system consume a greater amount of energy. A pleasant exception is the model GSN 2936-25 (Liebherr) - very economical, the truth is one of the most expensive.
In the morning money- in the evening service
Most of the freezers currently available in the Russian market need service in the post-warranty period, after three years (of course, if there is no "congenital" defect). Having a model has its own "chronic" diagnosis. It concerns domestic and "close foreign" manufacturers. In Saratov, the main impact defect is due to corrosion of the pipeline. "Biryusa" "sick" engines. Jesl Motor fails, it is not clear whether it is necessary to restore it at all, because the cost of this work coincides with the value of the new freezer. As for foreign manufacturers, they do not have "chronic diseases", except for the failure of motors after their operational period of 15 years. It is impossible to argue that repairing the freezer will fly into a penny, it is impossible, on average it is one quarter of the price of a new freezer.Storage of products
In our land, many different vegetables, fruits, greenery, bakhchyevaya, berry, in common, which is the basis of rational nutrition and is referred to as "juicy vegetation raw materials" today. Just this raw material and should be 90% of products for long-continuously preserved in the frozen state. The current science of preserving the cold already knows exactly how to prepare and freeze the product and how much it can be stored so that the quality is not injured. Products ready for use without heat treatment must fully respond to the requirements of "sanitary reliability" and do not contain pathogenic microbes.
After primary processing in advance prepared polyethylene packages, the recommended amount of the product is constructed (usually from 200 to 600g each). Packages are compacted in such a way that there is less air in them (between berries, products, slices, slices), marked (product name, shelf life) and are placed in the freezer. Frozen fruit slices and berries can be used as decorative ice cubes. For this, they are placed on the tray and freeze in advance, and then packaged in packets for deep frost. With this method, the berries are not fatal and each separately stored.
The meat is better to store chopped into pieces necessary subsequently, and fish-cleared and entirely. You can not put in the freezer products containing gelatin. It is not recommended to freeze cucumbers, bananas, radishes, a salad of a lathouse, jam, eggs, dairy products, low-fat cheeses. However, our hostesses know many secrets, how to make an impossible and all year round to treat their households with useful and delicious food.
Operation of refrigerators
"The car, if it is necessary to care for it, and can work 20 years." As for twenty, some doubts may arise, but that the freezer will hold out at least 15-18 years of operation), it is worth complying with certain rules.
To begin with, it would be nice to get acquainted with the technical passport of the unit. The freezer, of course, is many times the productive refrigerator freezer: you can simultaneously lay from 4 to 10 kg of fresh products and freeze 18-36 kg per day. But everything has its own limit. It is not necessary to over-overload a refrigerator, otherwise it can simply fail.
Do not risk placing drinks in glass containers in the freezer, they can burst. Cool all products to room temperature before laying them into the chamber.
The unit does not like the neighborhood of the kitchen plate (both gas and electrical) and exposure to direct sunlight.
After the quick frost mode cope with its work, be sure to translate the freezer into a normal working condition. Otherwise, the compressor will not stand and elementary burns.