How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
Here&#x27;s what I&#x27;ve learned about refrigerators recently.<p>My fridge is failing in a revealing way.  It has an automatic defrost unit- this means that it heats the evaporator coils in the freezer every so often (I think it&#x27;s once every 36 hours) to melt the frost off of them, producing the same condensation you normally get from an A&#x2F;C.  So where does this water go?  Well there is a hose from the freezer to a pan underneath  the fridge.  There is a cooling fan for the condenser coils there which can dip into this pan.  The idea is to use this water to help cool the condenser coils, making the fridge a little more efficient.<p>Anyway, so the failure has to do with the management of this condensation water. When it&#x27;s not working, you get a puddle of water in the bottom of the fridge compartment which eventually leaks out to the floor.  First thing to check- is the hose clogged?  Yes it is, washed it out, but problem still happens.  Next thing to check- behind the back wall of the freezer you find the evaporator coils.  At the bottom is some cheap metal called the &quot;drain trough&quot;.  It is a funnel that leads the condensation into the hose.  This is where the planned obsolescence comes into play.  I&#x27;m convinced that the manufactures make this metal out of steal with just the tiniest amount of galvanization so that it will eventually rot out.  I think even plastic would have been a better material.<p>It&#x27;s theoretically possible to replace this metal, but consider the work involved: you need to empty the freezer, dry it out, remove the back of it, figure out how to move the evaporator coils out of the way without damaging them, unscrew the trough, and figure out how to wiggle it out.  You need to do this at least twice (once to debug the issue in the first place, next to actually replace it).  Finally good luck finding the replacement in stock (also add the time needed for this search). The fridge is maybe good for 12 years, but little chance of replacement parts stocked for that long.  Certainly this is the case for my fridge, and I fabricated a temporary patch out of rubber.<p>Also, of course, there is absolutely no way for you to inspect this part before you buy a new fridge.  Maybe it&#x27;s even worse on new fridges, who knows?<p>Edit: check it out, someone else noticed this:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@michael.grimshaw1&#x2F;rusted-through-in-four-years-c897fd7ce08f" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@michael.grimshaw1&#x2F;rusted-through-in-four...</a>