OK, comment-pinning time! I want to address the whole full-vs-empty fridge aside because I appear to have understood this differently than many people and it illustrates a problem in the video. Lots of people are saying things along the lines of "I thought the point of a full fridge was to minimize the amount of air inside so opening it causes less heat loss." Similar to the whole thermal mass reasoning (which is where I was coming from), this doesn't really matter in the long run. Which of course runs counter to the idea that chest freezers are helped by the fact they have a lid and not a door. So let's talk about that. The thermal mass of air is tiny compared to any solid or liquid substance. So even if you exchange the entire volume of air in the fridge or freezer when you open it, once it's shut the new air will rapidly cool thanks to the cold walls, shelves, and of course food. That's why the freezer door gets sucked in. This does introduce some quantity of heat, yes, and in theory if you had more stuff in the fridge less heat would be introduced. But honestly I think this quantity of heat is mostly negligible, and I regret not making that clear in the script. I think that the heat introduced from opening the doors a few times is minimal compared to an entire day's worth of natural heat intrusion. Chest freezers do get some help from the fact that they're sort of "never opened" but I think that more important than even that is simply their massive amounts of insulation compared to a refrigerator. I actually talked more in depth about this in a follow-up video, which you can find here; ua-cam.com/video/CRBWPbqvqvw/v-deo.html (edited to add;) Having thought through it some more, I imagine the greatest benefit of having the lid on the top is that the cold air isn't being held back by a thin door seal as it is in an upright freezer. I really should get a thermal camera!
You can see this in action in grocery stores, where the meat cases usually have open tops. The heat gain from atmosphere is manageable and relatively easy to control, as long as the meat on display and the display rack itself remains chilled.
keep in mind "chest freezers aren't opened as often as a refrigerator". the tags you see on appliances are based on "actual usage", and the testing involves opening and closing the door "several times a day", thus losing some cold air in the process every time. chest freezers also have usage simulations that involve "opening and closing the lid much fewer times a day than a refrigerator".
This channel is basically "in depth facts about mundane things I thought I didn't care about but actually do because it's surprisingly interesting". I'm glad I have this channel while in lockdown.
As a PhD in engineering, who took many (too many) thermodynamics classes, i think you're better at teaching the basics of thermo than most of my professors.
I hadn't found a teacher explain it better than the book until I was a TA for a thermo class in grad school. The main professor for that class was a lot better at teaching than any previous thermo professor I had.
A good organization trick for chest freezers is to use reusable fabric shopping bags of varying colors to organize your food into the bags. Keep a key to what is in each bag taped to the top of the freezer.
@@kathleenlong79 No need. You can get free standing wire shelves for chest freezers. Mine has 3 shelves and I just put it in the bottom. Be sure to measure twice first before you buy one.
Hey, uh, so apologies to all of you who use Celsius (as you should) but since we're talking about refrigerators and freezers, well hopefully you know about what those temperatures should be.
Well, to my calculations, your measurements converted to SI-Units turned out to be the following for Freezers: Size D-Cup and a Duck for Refridgerators...
Television content often has fairly high _production_ quality. Technical stuff, like the lighting and camera work, is often really good. Such a shame about the writing. (I haven't watched television since August of 2000, when a storm blew our antenna out of whack; we never bothered to fix it. I don't miss it.)
Educational content actually has got worse on TV shows. I used to watch ton of informative shows when I was around 8. Usually on well-informed Physics, now I am 19, all I get to see is some stree/pop scientist amaze people by stupid things
@@cortexauth4094 love the old content of science, like for example, entertaining tv shows "how its made".... Its not aiming to be the truest physics work education, but its still educate you anyway... the thing is i think the reason why there's so few educational program again is tv program don't bother to ask or hire good science teacher or something like that to create tv shows, because it seem, tv watcher less likely to watch it.. or think its not entertaining...
@@martyhalloway7935good one I hate upright freezers the shelves are permanently placed because of the cooling coils. You can't go wrong with a chest freezer. 73
In high school, I had to do a report on what I thought was the most important innovation to come out of the industrial revolution. I chose refrigeration which I recall most of my classmates thought was boring and unimportant. I still think it was a good choice. Great video. Love this kind of information.
I'm in a boy scout troop, and now that i think about it, he seems like the kind of person that was a boy scout. Anyways, whenever we went camping, and had the entire weekends food in it, no one would ever close the cooler lid. once, food actually spoiled, and all we had was poptarts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
People are often dumb without realizing they are dumb. When you point out something that they do that even they agree is dumb, they tend to become aware and will over time correct it, making them less dumb.
Best channel on youtube.I've got a degree in Physics 60 years ago,and learning more from this young man each time I watch him.Better than TV.Thank you.
Yes he’s brilliant! I’ve never thought about the fridge door suction phenomenon… and now it all makes sense and suddenly has become interesting. Warm air replaces cold, loses energy and shrinks, pressure difference is created.
My Engineering Physics degree was ~42 years ago. I'm 63 years old and It pleases me tremendously to see real science and critical thinking still shown on UA-cam By this channel. It's not on TV. Or Social Media. CV19 debacle has proven to me that those skills are nearly gone. They are not being taught in HS or College any more. Cognitive Dissonance is a drain on creativity and the joy of learning about how the world works. Unfortunately, I think that's the plan of psychopathic people who now oversee the "system". C'est la Vie.
Between my house's dishwasher that only takes those packets and our fancy-ass, French-door + pullout freezer, this channel is exposing all the inefficiency in my kitchen that i'd never before questioned. Thanks, Tech Connect!
When my family got a bottom freezer they told me it was more efficient to have the freezer on the bottom. Since that became the trend I assumed it was true. When I bought my house it came with a bottom freezer. I was looking to replace it with the same kind, but now I’ll consider broader options now that you have made me a better informed consumer.
It does make it more efficient - for humans. Having heavy blocks of very cold boxes fall on the floor or your foot from 4-5 feet high leads to inefficient things like casts, braces, crutches, doctor visits, etc.And reaching down for something is usually easier for the elderly as well.
@@user-tm3fz7qx3s I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. More of just altering the use of the term 'efficient' from 'electrically efficient' to 'user efficient' to make the OP's statement correct. The bottom freezer being easier to use for the elderly in our household is presicely why we got a bottom freezer unit at the time.
@@bubbly6379 just because your personal amusement isn't piqued doesn't mean it isn't funny; it's just not to you. I'd normally agree with you about explaining, but explaining a joke does ruin it and this one is particularly clever and deserves to just exist, imo.
20:33 This dude's humor is so good man. It's just the right amount of cheesy and self-aware that always gets me, not to mention it tends to be very subtle. I didn't even catch this joke the first time I watched this vid. Anyway, I already liked this video but I wanted to give him even more recognition so here's my comment. Please, never stop doing what you do.
When I started watching this video, I never imagined I'd see footage of someone using a leaf blower to blast warm air into a chest freezer. This channel never ceases to amaze me.
@@Sidicas When my grandmother passed away, we found a bag of peas preserved in the 3 inches of ice that had built up on the bottom of her chest freezer, which had an expiration date of 1989. This was in 2019. We treated it like finding a caveman preserved in a glacier.
Chest Freezer Tip: Use milk crates to organize items in your freezer. Makes it a lot easier to find what you are looking for, plus it's simple to get to items at the bottom of the freezer.
i wonder if a conveyer belt system could be used to separate the chest space into two levels with two layers of container boxes sized so they can be conveyer-ed from lower level to upper level...
"Assuming you have some storage" Fun fact. You can use a freezer AS electric storage. If when energy production is high you over cool the freezer, that is make it even colder than normal, then when production drops off you can allow the freezer to warm back up to normal temperature and not use the heat pump during that time. That essentially means the running of the heat pump later came be done earlier, which is equivalent to storing the power to use later. There are some huge industrial freezers that do this to save energy by working overtime when power is cheap and demand is low to help reduce grid stress and "store" power for later.
@@A.Martin A relative of mine who live in florida has an AC system like this, during the night it super cools a large insulated container of some kind of anti-freeze liquid that it is used to cool the heat exchanger during the day
@@PaulFillmoreIII between that, swamp cooler unit and thermal heating panels to replace most of the water heaters job it really does cut their bill down.
Sounds like the reverse of "storage heaters" where they heat-up the bricks inside using the cheaper "evening rate" (Economy 7 or Economy 10) electric, then release it during the day
I'm a refrigeration engineer, and I do a lot of thermal FEA simulation for heat gain and external condensation performance. For the bit where you were speaking of different configurations having similar internal volume, but different energy consumption values. There are some reasons such as the machine compartment, which can be 10°F greater than the ambient air, being directly adjacent to the freezer compartment on a bottom freezer. Also, the evaporator fan also has a more difficult time forcing air into a fresh food compartment above, rather than forcing air downward as in a top freezer. These are impactful, and certainly design considerations are made with this knowledge, but by far the largest factor is the DOE energy standard. Energy requirements are not just a simple formula for how much energy usage per unit internal volume across the board. The value for allowable energy per internal volume differs based on the compartment type (freezer vs. fresh food) as well as configuration (top freezer, bottom freezer, side by side, etc.). As you noticed, the allowable energy consumption per DOE is less for a top freezer as compared to a bottom freezer. Most refrigerators are designed to an energy standard, be that DOE standard energy or energy star, then internal volume is optimized to meet that standard.
I've had an upright freezer and a chest freezer-personally I prefer digging down to the bottom of a box rather than to the back of one, as things are less likely to fall out on the floor. Gloves are a good idea either way.
There's NOTHING like a 40 pound turkey as hard as a chunk of granite just rolling out of the shelf and ONTO YOUR FOOT... to let you know how BAD an idea it is to have an upright freezer with shelves... full of coolant tubes... and encrusted with ice... as slick as vaseline on glass. ;o)
I forgot what there called but the things on a hatch back car door that hold it open could probably be used in a upright freezer to bring up a metal cage with shelves. You wouldn’t have to dig around for things and you would keep the energy efficiency.
@@ProminentCorpse The original comment references a joke, and both the other replies to it *are* jokes - can you not infer I'm joking too? "Assuming" Alec is single because I have never heard any specific references to anyone else in the household. Yes, that was jumping to a conclusion, and no, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously in any way. And who said there was anything wrong with a single guy making dad jokes? Sheez, lighten up.
One of the things I found to help with “things stacked on top of things” is having a smaller variety of items in the chest freezer and more variety in the upright fridge/freezer. I find that if I have 5 or 10 of each item, I’m not digging for them as often.
Great video, fairly well informed. I've worked in refrigeration for close to 30 years. I will say short cycling absolutely will wear equipment out more than run time. The electrical start components will take a beating, not just the compressor; plus compressor oil management is a factor. If you don't have enough to fill a freezer, put jugs of water in it. Refrigerators will always use more energy. Freezers have one job, freeze. Refrigerators have multiple jobs such as they have to condition the space which means air movement, humidity control of some kind in places such as vegetable storage, and they have many more door openings. Freezers on top of a frig is more efficient. It is harder to move cold air up than assist it going down. Granted the fan motors are only a few watts, but it adds up. Another thing that will help is to get those fridges out of boxed in casements that are popular in today's kitchens. How smart is it to have high tech insulation only to stuff the appliance in an architectural box that the heat is trapped? Less temperature difference, lower rate of warming up. They need to breathe, just like the old days. Look into refrigerant development before you go bashing Midgley. Before him they were flammable, stinky, and highly toxic. There were numerous deaths from refrigerant poisonings before him. The main problem with CFC and HCFC was improper and untrained handling, it was cheap, and you could throw in their use in hairspray propellent too in the pre-EPA days. I still maintain CFCs were the best thermodynamically and for equipment life. Their demise, and the ozone, was due to careless handling, and improper practice. At the time it was cheaper for a slacker equipment owner to just keep adding refrigerant than pay someone to fix the leak. It still happens, but laws and oversight have greatly reduced the occurrences.
What a boomer rant, jfc, finishing with defending Midgley was just the leaded-fuel laced icing on top of that CFC-filled cake. But of course your leaded generation still loves both.
@@A.Lifecraft Because you would then be introducing all the stuff to the hotter air, then pushing all that hotter air into the chest, completely defeating the purpose.
@@A.Lifecraft I was thinking something similar, but rather with a few vertical racks that could be pulled/lowered manually after the freezer is opened. Racks would allow the warm air that gets sucked in to be pushed out easily (rather than being trapped inside), and would mean that things set on the top shelf of the rack would be immediately accessible without disturbing things at all. It might not be as perfectly energy-efficient as the jumble-box design, but it still seems like it'd beat the vertical design by a landslide.
Good video. As I am a developer for thermodynamic systems in fridge I barely have anything to object. Comparing a top freezer to a bottom freezer makes not much sense. The French door is so much inefficient due to an electrical heater preventing condensation between the doors. 10-30% overall depending on the model. Manual defrost models of bottom mounted freezers are quite common in Europe btw. I defrost my Bosch every 2 years.
I defrost my fridge + top-mounted freezer every time I'm away for a couple of days (2-3 times a year). Now wondering if it would be more energy saving to just let it run (even if empty), as long as there's no ice on the walls. I should measure and compare that next time. Interesting video!
"Is there an entire ice maker inside the door?" YES! My dad has that exact fridge you showed! The ice maker (and ice bin) are comically tiny and inside the door. The engineering involved is frankly incredible.
@@A.Martin Kind of , the ice maker door is thicker overall, there are also air ducts through the walls and a fan motor just for the ice maker adding to inefficiency.
I have a similar model that has a separate ice maker in the fridge space in the top, not built in to the door. It does have another ice maker in the freezer drawer though that gets used about 5x more often.
Yeah, our ice maker is also in the roof of the fridge, and spits the ice into a bin in the door when it's closed. No idea how efficient this is, but it's been going strong for a while . . .
So does mine, one year later he was using dollar store trays for ice in the freezer after an $800 estimate to fix it. $2000 fridge make ice the same as the cheap one now.
Quote from user leeeah on his twinkling light set video: "forever entertained by this guy's outrageously specific opinions on tech items most people never even think about "
I was intrigued when I first plugged my chest freezer into a meter: I thought it was malfunctioning. Glad to have found this video. Definitely want to know more about it.
Thank you so much for this! I am a very cheap bastard. I have lived my entire adult life in China, most of my friends growing up in very poor areas. My 20 years here have taught me to calculate the cost of appliances. Something that majority of the people don't think about here. I'm planning on moving back to Canada soon and your video has given me hope, that I can continue to be a cheap bastard and still live a normal life. I love all your videos and your humour is exceptional.
I installed gas turbine power plants all around the world for General Electric Company many years ago. I appreciate true poverty, shortages of things and unreliable grid power and swore that I would never complain about life in California. Now we are having an unreliable grid and have shortages of things. And cheap.....I'm definitely not cheap but consider myself frugal, not wasteful, and have had a low energy consumption footprint for the last 40 years. I was in Tung Hsiao, Taiwan, when Mount Saint Helens erupted, never got to mainland China.
I actually forgot that was a Monty Python joke until I saw your comment. But on a side note: Put the chest freezer on rollers and slide it under a shelving unit. Suddenly you're not wasting as much space because you roll it out, grab what you need, and roll it back.
I've though this a lot and I'm sure I said it before, but your channel is amazing. You're the reason we bought a 15cu.ft. Chest freezer and it's been REALLY helpful during the price gouging that's currently happening. Thanks!
"I guess Canada is just more optimistic" Nope, just colder. Less tempurture differential means less energy. A chest freezer in the garage in the dead of winter consumes 0 kW.
You don't need a fridge when the outside is a freezer. Important to remember durring a blackout or when you can't fit everything in you freezer for xmas/Thanksgiving when its snowing. Coincidentally thats a major reason Britain has no* spices and therefore bland food. (Since spices are normally also preservatives)
@@jasonreed7522 Mate, we've colonised and gone to war with most of the planet to steal their spices, dating back to the middle ages! But judging by our classic pub foods, yeh it looks like they didn't exactly reach the general pesantry of the population. (Pub classics include stuff like steak and ale pie, a Sunday roast with yorkshires and gravy, bread and butter pudding etc. All good winter fodder). If I remember my history correctly, most meats were preserved with salt since it was more readily available as a local resource, though still not cheap by any stretch. And you're right that the colder weather in winter really helped with preserving food too. Luckily salted meats have fallen by the wayside in these modern times of refrigerant technology. And since spices are freely available to the massess, this leaves us Brits to feel mildly offended and overly defensive when our foodstuffs are called bland. Probably because despite knowing how to use said spices well in our meals, it strikes a little too close to home for our nation's favourite dishes and thus greatest sources of national culinary pride. Or, maybe that's just me. Either way, this has reminded me that bread and butter pudding is a thing that exists and therefore needs making. Apologies for the pointless ramble too, I am very much in need of sleep right now which is probably why I'm pointlessly defending gravy from a historically accurate, relevant and genuinely interesting comment on a great video about how freezers work
Just realised that the end sentance there seems sarcastic reading it back. It isn't meant to be. I was going for self-deprication blended with a genuine expression of my thoughts on the surrounding context
In Sweden we call our pantry sometimes "Sval".They are connected near a wall to the outside with a ventilator at the top. It was designed in most homes built in the 70s. You can use it as a free fridge when the outside temperature is below 8 Celsius. It cools the food and provide extra ventilation at the same time if you open the the valve at the top!
He makes a short story long, and he adds a whole lot of details that I wasn't looking for - but I watched the whole blessed video because it was interesting! And I learned something!
Off gridders have been using chest freezers + a thermal switch to convert chest freezers into refrigerators for years. Just put the thermal sensor inside the freezer, turn the freezer on high, plug it into the thermal switch, and set the thermal switch to the temp you want. The freezer is always calling for more cold, but the thermal switch doesn't give it power till the temp rises above the temp you set.
Great video, I always enjoy your insights into seemingly mundane topics. In case it hasn’t been mentioned in the previous thousands of comments which I am admittedly too lazy to do more than quickly scan through, I just wanted to let you know for future reference- the term heat pump is generally reserved for a device whose useful work is the heat output. While all vapor compression devices could be used to move heat for a useful purpose in theory, a freezer does not put that heat into a used purpose, rather it dumps it into the space so it would not be considered a heat pump. It’s a picky differentiation and doesn’t really matter for the purpose of this video but in the interest of sharing knowledge I wanted to bring it up. Source: I am an engineer in the HVAC industry.
i use stackable milk crates in my chest freezer, meats, veggies, etc. pull out a whole crate reveal the other, minimal rummaging and great organization.
I use those reusable shopping bags that you get from stores. I color code the bags with what is in them, green bags have veggies, pink bags are meat, brown bags are pre-prepared food etc. This allows me to save much more space then having a hard organiser and makes getting to the bottom as simple as pulling out 1 or 2 bags, and able to quickly identify the contents.
"The entire reason we have energy guides in the first place is to encourage consumers to make the more frugal choice, both for their wallet, and for the environment. If there is anything I suggest we do change, it would be that we make focusing on that label just a little bit... *cooler* ".
Nice video, clear and informative! The key factor for real life energy consumption of a refrigerator is ambient temperature. Living in a colder climate if you place the cooling appliance in the garage (or any unheated area of your home) this will significantly reduce the energy consumption year round. But please note a fridge/freezer with a mechanical thermostat located in the fridge does need to operate at room temperature.
Years ago, I replaced my ancient fridge (it said Frigidaire, a division of General Motors, which made it likely to be older than me) with a new one. The old one still worked, but knowing the basics of refrigeration and judging from the amount of heat coming off the thing, I had my suspicions that it wasn't terribly efficient. I replaced it with the most energy-efficient side by side with a through the door ice maker I could find. It was the middle of winter when I replaced it. My energy bill for the next full month after replacing the refrigerator was about half as much as the last full month with the old fridge. It was also about half as much as the same month in the previous year. The new refrigerator paid for itself just in my electricity bill savings in about 18 months. That was about 10 years ago and it's still working great!
Yeah, I've seen it mentioned somewhere that fridges/some appliances are the place where our normal reuse/frugality instincts fail. We're all taught to try to reuse older things and make do rather than throw them away and buy a new one. But for appliances like refrigerators/air conditioners the improved efficiency means that even though the old model may still work perfectly fine, to keep using it (either you or giving it to someone else) will earn a higher cost in energy and resource consumption than a new one, even factoring in manufacturing and scrapping costs
@@St0rmcrash Any fridges newer than about 20 years are near the same level of performance, there was a huge drop in power uses for fridges about 30 years ago and since then they have all been quite similar. so this is only really a factor for really old fridges. they literally went from using killowatts/day to under 100watts.
20:10 yes, there is an entire icemaker inside the fridge's door. it's sealed off to make things, well, cold, but otherwise it's just kinda sitting there in the door, chilling even
And the specific way that little handle actuates the latch to remove the whole unit from the internal compartment is really cool. LG has one of the best designs for an in-door icemaker, I wish TC wouldn't bash them so frivolously lol
@@SilencedMi5 That LG in-door icemaker was the bane of our existence for the past many years. If you have a busy house and use a lot of ice, the opening and closing of the door makes a little of the liquid water in the tray splash out, dribbling down into the ice bin, creating an ice dam. In order to free up the ice to dispense, you have to open that compartment and bang on the bin, letting all the heat from the room in the compartment, which glazes the ice over a little, allowing it to freeze back together solidly. Never ending cycle. --And the tray gets rough over time and stops releasing the ice, and is NOT A REPLACEABLE PART, maddeningly. --The ENTIRE icemaker has to be replaced to get a new tray. And that's not to mention the solenoid on the door flap, which failed on ours within the first year, and requires the entire front panel of the fridge to be removed to replace. It's a $7 part, but it breaks often (check the LG support forums), is poorly designed, and nearly impossible to access. We eventually just assisted and held open the flap with our fingers to get ice. When the linear compressor finally bit the dust (LOUDLY, and completely), we ruled out LG as a replacement, specifically because of this design of icemaker. --Which is a shame, because I love the design and features of LG fridges over almost any other brand. They're just so slick. Our new Samsung has a much more traditional icemaker compartment that doesn't move or fluctuate heat-wise, and has been solid and reliable so far. Fingers crossed. (but in reality, my friend who has a sub-zero says his icemaker is a piece of crap, and his high end purveyor of $20,000 fridges told him NOBODY makes a good reliable icemaker, period). It's just that, for us, the LG super slim in door icemaker life turned out to not be for us. YMMV, of course--my friend, who has no kids, doesn't use a ton of ice, and only 2 people in the house, and says they rarely even open the left door, says she hasn't had any of the problems I listed above, and I can see how that would be. There are definite weaknesses to the design, but not every use case uncovers them all. I do suspect, however, that her door flap solenoid will go eventually. Since I've replaced one multiple times, I can tell you with certainty, that part isn't made for the long haul. It's anything but heavy duty.
I own a fridge with the bottom freezer part just because I was absolutely convinced it is a more energy efficient design and never actually bothered to check it! In my mind, because the cool air sinks to the bottom, the part that needs to battle outside temperature more (the freezer) will stay cooler longer. I am sure I am not the only one with such delusion. Thank you, as always, for educating me!
"I'm not watching a 26 minute video on freezers" 26 minutes later... What has isolation done to me? It at least says something about your quality of videos, so kudos.
About the bottom freezer design consumming more energy: Most models I've seen uses a drawer system, and none of them had an enclosure around the frozen stuff. My intuition tells me that all the cold air gets evacuated when you open the freezer, thus adding cooling to do. And maybe even some cold air of the fridge falls away at the same time...
Last September I was shopping for a new fridge and all the good ones, all those with A+++ or better energy efficiency actually had the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top. Trust me, I was looking for one with the freezer above and not one had a high efficient rating
Maybe someone should bite the bullet and take a measurement of their fridge's power consumption and then turn the thing upside down, measure and compare.
@@TheAllMightyGodofCod yes, many high efficiency combos only use one evaporator for both top and bottom. They use a FAN to transfer the air from the target department to the exchanger and back, this also allows for no frost, as the air is periodically dried at the coolest spot, the exchanger. The devices shown in this video also have quite thin walls compared to EU A+++ and better devices, I wonder how much the ratings differ, especially for upright devices. The cheapest A+++ side by side in US size would be a Samsung RS6GN8222S9 here, for 1500€, which makes me think, the US devices are either really cheap, or pretty crappy. A++ costs 820€ BUT. the A++ device is rated at 395 kWh/year the A+++ device is rated at 260 kW/year both are around 600 L total. I would guess the US ratings are totally different :-P and that is why their devices use so much more power.... maybe they rate for Florida summers or such
It's not just that it lacks an enclosure. The drawer design forcefully pulls the entire contents of the freezer out of the box. Rather than just opening a door and letting the cold air spill out, maybe there's a pressure differential being created behind the drawer that actively sucks the warm ambient air into the box.
@@Harey0407 there's an even easier solution. Turn off gravity while the freezer is open! No gravity means that cold air won't sink, so you can get the best of both worlds with a vertical freezer that's as efficient as a chest freezer!
I know this is four years late, but my time in warehousing has helped me solve the digging issue. I use stacking bins, this allows me to reaching, pull out the meat, veggie, or oddities stack, close the lid, dig through the bins, and place them back in. Each layer is organized by (for example) meat type, making retrieval convenient.
Thank you for another great video; always fun to watch. My former refrigerator was a GE Profile, bottom freezer drawer with the dual zone compressor, no in-door ice maker. It was a wonderful unit and the Kill-a-watt confirmed it was very efficient. But with great frills comes great fails, as proved when it had a problem 7 years in. No repair service available meant I had a very expensive wall locker. I ended up going with a similar, fewer frills, replacement that costs $1 more a month to run. I hated using more electricity, but it can run for 140 years for the purchase cost difference.
Several years ago, I wanted an "Energy Star" certified freezer. I knew instinctively that chest freezers were more energy efficient. But at the store, I noticed only upright freezers had that badge of honor, even though their energy label showed they clearly consumed more energy. I think, the issue, was that the EPA classified an appliance by class. So upright freezers that were Energy Star compliant were compliant "in their class". That is, when compared to other upright freezers. Chest freezers, I posit, were already highly efficient, and therefor, there were fewer opportunities to improve them, enough to earn the badge of honor. I did notice, in your video, there was an Energy Star certified chest freezer. So apparently, something has changed in the last 15 years.
Hmm... I think these sort of certifications are things you have to pay for, you don't just get someone testing your stuff and labeling it for you usually. Sounds like people manufacturing chest freezers assumed it was obvious, or they wanted to push their upright models more or something like this. You would hope people can tell which number is bigger, though I can totally see someone asking for an energy efficient freezer and the salesperson leading them directly to energy star upright freezers and ignoring the chest freezers. A small amount of technical knowledge goes a long way in life.
Just received a second chest freezer today (one is next to the kitchen and this one is going into the garage) and both had energy star stickers on them
EnergyStar refrigerators and freezers are set at 90% of the federal minimum efficiency requirement (www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/refrigerators/key_product_criteria). There might be few cheap gains remaining for chest freezers, instead requiring beefier insulation (not that this would be bad) that decrease the relative capacity and make such models less attractive.
Clearly your mum doesn't know how to have fun. Perhaps you could show her the SpongeBob episode with the leaf blower. She'll probably beg you to move back in as long as you bring your leaf blower.
MrStumblr that they are! Could chuck OpenBSD on them for a reasonable lightweight general-purpose computer. Not sure how easy it would be to sub a larger hard-drive in there though.
There was a mention of chest coolers. I happen to have a chest freezer that out of the factory had a setting on it's thermostat to keep it around 2-5 degrees C. I think it's identical size to the one in the video... I used it for a few years as a fridge/cooler with the occasional boost to get the beer cold faster. Yes, it was an effort to have a very energy efficient small house. And no, you do not need to keep eggs inside a fridge if you have a decent pantry, that's not heated. :) Back to the fridge: As it was opened more frequently than the usual freezer and it was not freezing, there was issue with condensation, that of course all went to the bottom. Cleaning it out really sucked. So using it as a cooler has a lot of drawbacks, but yes, energy consumption was definitely not one of them. Great content, thanks a lot!
Michael Poole Have you heard of DIY “air conditioners”? Basically running cold water from a cooler to a makeshift radiator attached to a box fan. There are more sophisticated designs, but what do you think about the concept?
@@acelakid94 they absolutely work, although I think they can become more work than they're worth. I'm not a professional in these types of coolers but what I can tell you is that 1 ton of cooling (a rating used to classify the size of an air conditioner) is based on a literal ton (2000 LBS.) of ice. Im not 100% sure it translates over perfectly but if you have to go through a ton of ice to get a ton of cooling that would be a chore. For reference my house has a 2.5 ton aircondtioner and most window units range from .5-1 ton.
Michael Poole Yikes that’s a lot of water/ice. I wonder if you can make or buy a mini heat pump instead? My bedroom is only 11x13 but doesn’t have a window where I could put a window unit in. So I was looking for alternate cooling options.
@@acelakid94 Highly depends on your local weather and local setup. Swamp coolers work well in the desert/dry environments but are pretty much useless in humid areas. You could hook up 2 radiators and a pump with 1 radiator in your room and 1 in the basement (as an example) and you would then dump heat into your basement, but its usually not very efficient. Tech Ingredients made a couple videos regarding a non traditional AC. But FWIW I would most likely just get a cheap window AC, they usually fairly efficient. Better things you can do for your living space is to insulate it well (if you can), and sealing windows from air leaks or insulating windows.
@@acelakid94 the biggest struggle with a situation like that is getting heat out. In your case the cooler method might be a decent option because once the ice has melted you can dump out the "heat infused water".
im glad i went back and watched this!! intuitively, i guess i'd assumed that more expensive or popular refrigerators and freezers were inherently more efficient despite wanting the cold-hole storing capabilities of a chest freezer! i will keep this in mind thank you
What is actual nerd stuff for you? Freezer efficiency and seeking to promote greater awareness of the trade-offs we make every day is pretty nerdy in my opinion. After all, it's exactly what I would do.
Its almost all due to magnets beneath the rubbers on the doors of the fridge/freezer, not due to the pressure difference. If the magents are faulty then the door wont stay closed, the "pressure difference" isnt strong enough (thankfully, more jobs for me) to keep the door closed. Source: i repair these
I subbed maybe a year ago but didn't end up watching many videos for some reason (other priorities/distracted mind ig) but now for the past week or so I've been on a binge and it has been very interesting, thanks TC!
1:40😳..😆......I love how embarrassed he gets over delaying promises. It's admirable ......and amusing. Thank you. Love the channel. To me, this is some of the best; genuinely entertaining education. This is why UA-cam should exist.
The amount of info in these videos are incredible. I'm seriously impressed, pretty much all your videos are like this (well thought out, informative and funny).
Fun fact: That Samsung Twin Cooling design you showed IS a manual defrost refrigerator! Because the design is faulty and the evaporator's drain routinely gets plugged with ice, causing the whole thing to ice over every few months.
Our general electric fridge is over 12 years old now, still trucking along very well. A couple new rubber seals and general maintenance and it's as good as new.
Omg. I literally did this two nights ago. It's otherwise a great fridge. But yeah. Trying to defrost a tiny drain hole hidden behind everything is horrible. Bright side, you get a giant slab of ice that forms under the deli drawer that you can then take outside and have tremendous fun for a split second while you watch it shatter into pieces. Just like your dreams of a run relaxing evening.
"You couldn't make that deeper, well ok you could, good luck with that.". I'm sitting there thinking of a freezer cave trying to get out. Amusing. Thank you for the video!
i live in an off-grid tiny home, and i have used a chest fridge for almost 2 years now (a *KICKASS* ARB 63 quart portable fridge now, and a somewhat janky icego GO20 before that) and i love them! they use hardly any energy, keeping a surprising amount of food surprisingly cool, effortlessly.
@@rebeccaspratling2865 lol, funny you ask that!...i'm actually thinking to move into an apartment. :/ tiny house life is a little alienating, unfortunately. :( peace
Here in Thailand there are manual defrosting fridges. There's a button you have to push whenever you want to defrost. There's a small bucket just above the compressor and by the time you need to defrost again the water should already have evaporated. But if you let the ice build up too much you'll need an extra bucket. By the way, we don't call them French/American fridges. We call those "twin door fridges". Anyway, awesome video as usual.
7:02 This is beneficial for when the power fails. The temperature of a full "cold box" will more slowly rise to the danger zone than a relatively empty "cold box".
This channel just popped up in my recommendations and I'm glad it did. He is interesting and obviously well informed on the topics he chooses to make his videos on. I also really enjoy him. Lol. I like his mannerisms and cadence of his speech. Very relaxing, so if I want to nap his videos are soothing and long enough that I can slowly doze off but his videos are also very informative and make the everyday mundane things we use or do actually interesting and therefore easy to watch and understand. So the videos themselves aren't what makes a sleepy Jennifer. I can easily fall down rabbit's hole and while away a couple hours learning. Which has been one of the best ways I've chosen to spend my quarantine time, along with learning about the cosmos and astronomy, (I've actually just purchased my first telescope and I found Jupiter. I could see all the bands of color but not the giant storm eye yet). I've also jumped feet first into marine biology. Tho fascinating, that topic often ends up leaving me sad and very disappointed with certain members of our species. So those have to be watched on a good day, cuz they just make a bad day worse and we already have the pandemic and really stupid politicians doing that particular job for us, smashingly. Though I haven't caught his name yet, I would still like to say thank you. It's never occurred to me to research any of the everyday items and luxuries that we have at our disposal on a daily basis but this channel has gotten me interested in them. It's really interesting how the mechanics of it all works and I'm looking forward to going thru your video catalogue for curiosity and some times as a sleep aid to drown out nonsense noises, relax myself and get a restful, refreshing nights sleep. No nightmare inducing content here to mess up a good sleep and who knows, maybe my subconscious is picking up some of the info he is throwing down, lol. Thanks again. 10 out of 10. Would recommend. 🤓👏👍
Did you know, that there's something called the Westinghouse cycle-type of refrigerators? That's a heat pump, without a pump! Camping fridges use it. Instead of having a compressor outside, to compress the gas, it has a small chimney, with a flame the size of a candle. It heats the gas up, so it expands, and exerts pressure on the gas further inside the system, the compressing *it*. It's quite brilliant, because it uses the expansion of the gas to compress the same gas, since there's just one volume of gas. Even though it's just one long tube, no checks, pistons or valves, is possible to create different zones with different temperatures and pressures, just by lighting a fire in the right place. Pure magic.
I have an old servel gas fridge from the 50's I keep in the garage just in case the power goes sideways. It'll run for about a month on a BBQ propane tank. Magic indeed!
I think you are referring to ammonia cycle refrigeration. homeguides.sfgate.com/propane-fridge-work-84254.html Heat separates the ammonia from water; then the ammonia is allowed to recombine with water and that's an endothermic reaction, it gets cold.
I used to have a camper trailer that had a dual-mode fridge--you could run it on electricity _or_ propane, depending on whether you were parked someplace with an electrical supply. I never used the gas mode, because I wasn't into roughing it in undeveloped campgrounds, but it had one, all the same. :)
7:18 Longer cycles = more energy efficiency. Often people complain that their air condition runs too much but in a perfect system, it would run 24/7 but scale to demand. Every time the system stops the pressures equalize and energy is lost to entropy and additional energy in needed to restore the heat transfer process.
Additionally, electric motors draw more energy on startup than they do while running. That's why if you have a bunch of things all starting up on the same circuit, you need to stagger their start times so they don't draw too much current at one time.
So, it should use a variable-displacement pump instead of a fixed displacement one? Kinda like how variable-duty-cycle is better for switching converters than a bang-bang constant-duty-cycle converter.
Hi I just found your channel the other day while searching for humidifiers and I'm so glad. Thanks so much for making them and sharing all this fun practical knowledge!
It's amazing how quickly collective inefficiency adds up. Dave from the EEVBlog did a really interesting tear down on a wired smoke detector, something pretty benign that most folk would look straight past. The unit is a dual power model (battery and mains) and the power supply was massively inefficient. On the surface it doesn't seem bad, a few hundred milliamps. The catch is, once you factor in the fact that every house has to have a detector in kitchens and bedrooms, take that average by the average number of homes in Australia and the energy impact was substantial! If I recall it was into the Mw range! The thing is, on the battery side the unit had been optimised to hell, drawing *Micro amps* of current for a battery life of 5+ years. When you look at the *amazing* workarounds and efficiency inventions early computer programmers used to make the most of limited hardware and what we can do in terms of power efficiency when limited resources are available it's truly astounding. In some ways I almost feel we should artificially limit some things in order to promote the highest efficiency budgeting we can. On that note - I used to scoff at people who turned off things at the wall to save power because they used hardly any energy. Sadly that marketing campaign by energy providers killed itself by promoting the idea that the *consumer* would save. Nowadays with energy cheap and devices using less standby power the consumer costs are massively outweighed by the effort. With so many low-power smart devices though things are a lot like Dave's smoke alarm. Individually they're only a few watts, in the household maybe a few hundred watts. 24 hours a day across the world - truly massive impact! I fully endorse a energy standard for always on devices that requires sub-watt standby power. We have the electrical design to do it, we have the components! Smart watches can last for days on their tiny batteries, there's no way we cant implement those designs into TV's, Alexa type assistants etc. The only thing stopping us is the idea that if it's plugged in it has "infinate" energy.
I have to imagine that Google spends extraordinary amounts of labor on optimizing their systems to death. If you can save 1 calculation for every Google search, then Google stands to save massive amounts of power and server capacity. Same for all the tech giant, like why Amazon puts so much effort into custom components for their data centers.
ive had mine for a few months now and having the extra freezer space is nice when i dont have to tetris foods in the small freezer with my roomate. I can now stock up on things and not worry about spacing issues. Just nice to know that the thing that i have on all the time in the living room isnt taxing the landlord much, though this video popping up 2 years after its release in my feed is a nice reminder that i need to buy shelves to put in it so that im not stacking stuff on top of stuff. 🤔
How is a leaf blower supposedly so inefficient? Heck how are you even measuring effiency? electric heaters just pump out heat and that's their only job. They have 100% effiency. Anything that cools is far less efficient than that
9:40 the ironic thing is, I distinctively remember my family getting rid of a deep freeze just to save money on electricity. But we probably ended up losing more money by throwing more food away lol Although, on that note, I suppose there's something to be said about having TOO MUCH in your deep freeze, and wasting it that way due to freezer burn...
Doesn't the cost of buying new appliances outweigh the energy saving? If a new appliance costs £1000 and might last 15 years, then it needs to save you £66 per year just to break even. (Obviously this doesn't apply if you're replacing a broken appliance).
I thought the same thing - maybe the ideal design would be a chest freezer with an articulated lid that opens in two stages, one over the front (for about 40% of its length) and just the corner over the top, and then another one that opens the top completely? This would still save a good deal of energy, and be quite a bit more practical than a common chest freezer.
I think the most efficient would be an upright freezer with lots of doors -- one for each shelf. Just don't freeze big things like cauliflowers or human heads.
I think you could have a chest freezer with shelves that slide up, like those cheesy spy movies that show desks and spy equipment emerging from the floor
OK, comment-pinning time!
I want to address the whole full-vs-empty fridge aside because I appear to have understood this differently than many people and it illustrates a problem in the video. Lots of people are saying things along the lines of "I thought the point of a full fridge was to minimize the amount of air inside so opening it causes less heat loss." Similar to the whole thermal mass reasoning (which is where I was coming from), this doesn't really matter in the long run. Which of course runs counter to the idea that chest freezers are helped by the fact they have a lid and not a door. So let's talk about that.
The thermal mass of air is tiny compared to any solid or liquid substance. So even if you exchange the entire volume of air in the fridge or freezer when you open it, once it's shut the new air will rapidly cool thanks to the cold walls, shelves, and of course food. That's why the freezer door gets sucked in. This does introduce some quantity of heat, yes, and in theory if you had more stuff in the fridge less heat would be introduced. But honestly I think this quantity of heat is mostly negligible, and I regret not making that clear in the script. I think that the heat introduced from opening the doors a few times is minimal compared to an entire day's worth of natural heat intrusion.
Chest freezers do get some help from the fact that they're sort of "never opened" but I think that more important than even that is simply their massive amounts of insulation compared to a refrigerator. I actually talked more in depth about this in a follow-up video, which you can find here; ua-cam.com/video/CRBWPbqvqvw/v-deo.html
(edited to add;) Having thought through it some more, I imagine the greatest benefit of having the lid on the top is that the cold air isn't being held back by a thin door seal as it is in an upright freezer. I really should get a thermal camera!
You have the best channel on youtube.
I think your point still stands that not exchanging the air in a chest freezer everytime you open the lid means much less ice buildup
You can see this in action in grocery stores, where the meat cases usually have open tops. The heat gain from atmosphere is manageable and relatively easy to control, as long as the meat on display and the display rack itself remains chilled.
keep in mind "chest freezers aren't opened as often as a refrigerator". the tags you see on appliances are based on "actual usage", and the testing involves opening and closing the door "several times a day", thus losing some cold air in the process every time. chest freezers also have usage simulations that involve "opening and closing the lid much fewer times a day than a refrigerator".
@Matthew Palmer Yes that much is true! And really it's quite a remarkable difference, at least in my experience.
This channel is basically "in depth facts about mundane things I thought I didn't care about but actually do because it's surprisingly interesting". I'm glad I have this channel while in lockdown.
He's our saviour
Give this man a prize. This is the most accurate description of the channel
You should read/listen to "At Home" by Bill Bryson. It's theme is sort of the history of the mundane.
Before UA-cam we used to get this sort of thing on TV ua-cam.com/video/sa7o49uOzVI/v-deo.html
If you think this chest freezer piece is engaging then just wait until you hit the toaster video!
As a PhD in engineering, who took many (too many) thermodynamics classes, i think you're better at teaching the basics of thermo than most of my professors.
As someone with a thermo 2 test in 8 hours, I feel your pain.
I hadn't found a teacher explain it better than the book until I was a TA for a thermo class in grad school. The main professor for that class was a lot better at teaching than any previous thermo professor I had.
@@moejoe987654321 how did it go?
Pretty good. I probably got ~85. Per usual I focused on the more difficult concepts and blanked on an easy question.
@@moejoe987654321 Grats brother
It's funny because in France, a "french door" fridge is called an "american fridge".
Yep, same in Italy, they're called American fridges
I think that's the same everywhere in Europe
Kind of related and unrelated question at the same time. What is a French Pudel called in French?
Whats the regular single door type called?
Is it a relict of Alibert bathroom cabinets?
A good organization trick for chest freezers is to use reusable fabric shopping bags of varying colors to organize your food into the bags. Keep a key to what is in each bag taped to the top of the freezer.
I wonder if Command hooks would stick to the inside of a chest freezer to hold baskets or bags for those smaller items.
@@kathleenlong79 No need. You can get free standing wire shelves for chest freezers. Mine has 3 shelves and I just put it in the bottom. Be sure to measure twice first before you buy one.
My chest freezer has three of those plastic bins that hang from the side rails. It makes it easy to separate the food into two tiers: Bottom and top.
@@Sidicas lemme guess... speaking from experience?
So the kids wouldn't just take what they like and toss the rest around, I made my "key" in ogham.
my takeaway is that we should start making efficient ovens that are stuck on the ceiling and open from the bottom.
Pretty much commercial ovens are like that :P
Would be quite useless as most of the time when u open your oven (and take out your food) you will not be using it after so it can just cool down
@@hinkeltwister7311 Your oven isn't constantly on? Sounds like you are doing it wrong.
@@hinkeltwister7311 That is an excellent point!
There's a reason why, traditionally, the bedrooms in a 2-storey house are located on the upper floor.... :)
Hey, uh, so apologies to all of you who use Celsius (as you should) but since we're talking about refrigerators and freezers, well hopefully you know about what those temperatures should be.
IDC about the inefficiency; freezers should run at -40 to eliminate any confusion.
Well, to my calculations, your measurements converted to SI-Units turned out to be the following for Freezers: Size D-Cup and a Duck for Refridgerators...
@@nekolalia3389 You mean 233.15 kelvins? 🤣
Also, I wonder why the USA never fought back Europe in terms of 'New fangled measurements' by introducing the Decimal Time system? :D
Yeah we get it, it can't be easy remembering to put everything in both SI units and the random junk units scraped together from all over the place.
"But on the other hand..."
Content of this quality simply isn't available on TV. I love this channel.
Television content often has fairly high _production_ quality. Technical stuff, like the lighting and camera work, is often really good.
Such a shame about the writing.
(I haven't watched television since August of 2000, when a storm blew our antenna out of whack; we never bothered to fix it. I don't miss it.)
@@jonadabtheunsightly You're not missing anything. Educational content particularly has gotten worse.
Educational content actually has got worse on TV shows. I used to watch ton of informative shows when I was around 8. Usually on well-informed Physics, now I am 19, all I get to see is some stree/pop scientist amaze people by stupid things
@@cortexauth4094 love the old content of science, like for example, entertaining tv shows "how its made".... Its not aiming to be the truest physics work education, but its still educate you anyway... the thing is i think the reason why there's so few educational program again is tv program don't bother to ask or hire good science teacher or something like that to create tv shows, because it seem, tv watcher less likely to watch it.. or think its not entertaining...
@The Curious Mind same age, same experience.
This video was, without exaggeration, the final straw in buying a chest freezer myself, and I've been most happy with it since.
Do you also have a leaf blower?
@@martyhalloway7935good one I hate upright freezers the shelves are permanently placed because of the cooling coils. You can't go wrong with a chest freezer. 73
future viewer here, I'm omw to explain why we need a freezer to my wife
What specific brand model did you buy? I am shopping.
In high school, I had to do a report on what I thought was the most important innovation to come out of the industrial revolution. I chose refrigeration which I recall most of my classmates thought was boring and unimportant. I still think it was a good choice.
Great video. Love this kind of information.
yeah you hit the nail on the head the world wouldn't be anything like it is now without it
Well a printer would also be very helpful xD
Greg indeed. We wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are today without efficient means of long-term food storage.
You should have given then a glass of warm squash and then ate an ice lolly and said here's what you could of had LOL
@@asificam1 not engines but turbines
"put the cans in the cooler and... Close the lid"
I sense some latent irritation that too many people like to leave the lid open
I'm in a boy scout troop, and now that i think about it, he seems like the kind of person that was a boy scout. Anyways, whenever we went camping, and had the entire weekends food in it, no one would ever close the cooler lid. once, food actually spoiled, and all we had was poptarts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
If you have kids and go camping then you are constantly yelling to close the lid.
That's no way to refer to women!
@@cstyled stfu
People are often dumb without realizing they are dumb. When you point out something that they do that even they agree is dumb, they tend to become aware and will over time correct it, making them less dumb.
Best channel on youtube.I've got a degree in Physics 60 years ago,and learning more from this young man each time I watch him.Better than TV.Thank you.
Yes he’s brilliant! I’ve never thought about the fridge door suction phenomenon… and now it all makes sense and suddenly has become interesting. Warm air replaces cold, loses energy and shrinks, pressure difference is created.
You're a very wise gent, you know that we never stop learning. Cheeers. This comment warmed my icy heart.
TV… You setting a low bar. Every thing can beat the TV.
Why are you not putting in space after punctuation?
@@Gismo3333 I liked Dan Bairds explanation of punctuation better.
My Engineering Physics degree was ~42 years ago.
I'm 63 years old and It pleases me tremendously to see real science and critical thinking still shown on UA-cam
By this channel. It's not on TV. Or Social Media. CV19 debacle has proven to me that those skills are nearly gone.
They are not being taught in HS or College any more.
Cognitive Dissonance is a drain on creativity and the joy of learning about how the world works.
Unfortunately, I think that's the plan of psychopathic people who now oversee the "system".
C'est la Vie.
Between my house's dishwasher that only takes those packets and our fancy-ass, French-door + pullout freezer, this channel is exposing all the inefficiency in my kitchen that i'd never before questioned. Thanks, Tech Connect!
I am almost certain that you can use powder/liquid detergent in your dishwasher.
@@OneOddFellow no spot for a pre rinse cycle. You can just pour it in the drum though.
It seems like you have the Landlord special appliances
When my family got a bottom freezer they told me it was more efficient to have the freezer on the bottom. Since that became the trend I assumed it was true. When I bought my house it came with a bottom freezer. I was looking to replace it with the same kind, but now I’ll consider broader options now that you have made me a better informed consumer.
It allows them to make a nice drawer for everything, meaning most of the cool air can remain inside in the plastic buckets everything sits in.
It does make it more efficient - for humans. Having heavy blocks of very cold boxes fall on the floor or your foot from 4-5 feet high leads to inefficient things like casts, braces, crutches, doctor visits, etc.And reaching down for something is usually easier for the elderly as well.
I love that sarcasm.
@@user-tm3fz7qx3s I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. More of just altering the use of the term 'efficient' from 'electrically efficient' to 'user efficient' to make the OP's statement correct.
The bottom freezer being easier to use for the elderly in our household is presicely why we got a bottom freezer unit at the time.
You get into the refrigerator more often too.
This is like the 4th episodes on refrigerant and condensers. I have to commend you for your consistency in explain heat pumps.
@SLAMO whoosh.....
I can't believe I just discovered this channel. It's amazing.
@@eeHMFIC woooooooooooooshut up that hasn't been funny for like 6 years, either explain the joke, or scroll past
@@bubbly6379 just because your personal amusement isn't piqued doesn't mean it isn't funny; it's just not to you. I'd normally agree with you about explaining, but explaining a joke does ruin it and this one is particularly clever and deserves to just exist, imo.
@@eeHMFIC dude its not funny anymore
20:33
This dude's humor is so good man. It's just the right amount of cheesy and self-aware that always gets me, not to mention it tends to be very subtle. I didn't even catch this joke the first time I watched this vid. Anyway, I already liked this video but I wanted to give him even more recognition so here's my comment.
Please, never stop doing what you do.
Non-native woosh here. What's the deal? Can anyone please explain
@@thorbergson he says "but on the other hand, is it really?" And he has written with marker on his "other hand": "MAYBE" :)
@@viewer10283 hahhaha turns out it's not about the language but simply having ones eyes open, thank you!
Repeats at 24:19
13:48 Watch this with subtitles on LOL
When I started watching this video, I never imagined I'd see footage of someone using a leaf blower to blast warm air into a chest freezer. This channel never ceases to amaze me.
I think he just discovered the fastest chest freezer liner defrost method ever.
@@Sidicas When my grandmother passed away, we found a bag of peas preserved in the 3 inches of ice that had built up on the bottom of her chest freezer, which had an expiration date of 1989. This was in 2019. We treated it like finding a caveman preserved in a glacier.
Alec also explained the pressure difference in freezer doors id always wondered about as a kid.
I never thought I'd see a video of someone with an old iMac and other junk in his basement window well.
Chest Freezer Tip: Use milk crates to organize items in your freezer. Makes it a lot easier to find what you are looking for, plus it's simple to get to items at the bottom of the freezer.
Genius! Thank you. 🙏
i wonder if a conveyer belt system could be used to separate the chest space into two levels with two layers of container boxes sized so they can be conveyer-ed from lower level to upper level...
Or excess reusable shopping bags. That's what I went with
4:00 A cold can of La Croix is devoid of both energy AND flavor.
Ouch.
Also correct.
I want this to be the most liked comment on this video XD
Cardboard boxes on the other hand...
@@bdijkstra1982 warmer, more flavorful, AND has so much of that healthy Fiber Stuff.
I don't get all the hate for La Croix. It's easily the best flavored water I've come across.
"Assuming you have some storage"
Fun fact. You can use a freezer AS electric storage. If when energy production is high you over cool the freezer, that is make it even colder than normal, then when production drops off you can allow the freezer to warm back up to normal temperature and not use the heat pump during that time. That essentially means the running of the heat pump later came be done earlier, which is equivalent to storing the power to use later. There are some huge industrial freezers that do this to save energy by working overtime when power is cheap and demand is low to help reduce grid stress and "store" power for later.
@@A.Martin A relative of mine who live in florida has an AC system like this, during the night it super cools a large insulated container of some kind of anti-freeze liquid that it is used to cool the heat exchanger during the day
Neat, you piqued my interest. I'd like to see a comparison of price and efficiency vs. a battery.
@@spareiChan What a clever idea!
@@PaulFillmoreIII between that, swamp cooler unit and thermal heating panels to replace most of the water heaters job it really does cut their bill down.
Sounds like the reverse of "storage heaters" where they heat-up the bricks inside using the cheaper "evening rate" (Economy 7 or Economy 10) electric, then release it during the day
I'm a refrigeration engineer, and I do a lot of thermal FEA simulation for heat gain and external condensation performance. For the bit where you were speaking of different configurations having similar internal volume, but different energy consumption values. There are some reasons such as the machine compartment, which can be 10°F greater than the ambient air, being directly adjacent to the freezer compartment on a bottom freezer. Also, the evaporator fan also has a more difficult time forcing air into a fresh food compartment above, rather than forcing air downward as in a top freezer. These are impactful, and certainly design considerations are made with this knowledge, but by far the largest factor is the DOE energy standard. Energy requirements are not just a simple formula for how much energy usage per unit internal volume across the board. The value for allowable energy per internal volume differs based on the compartment type (freezer vs. fresh food) as well as configuration (top freezer, bottom freezer, side by side, etc.). As you noticed, the allowable energy consumption per DOE is less for a top freezer as compared to a bottom freezer. Most refrigerators are designed to an energy standard, be that DOE standard energy or energy star, then internal volume is optimized to meet that standard.
I've had an upright freezer and a chest freezer-personally I prefer digging down to the bottom of a box rather than to the back of one, as things are less likely to fall out on the floor.
Gloves are a good idea either way.
There's NOTHING like a 40 pound turkey as hard as a chunk of granite just rolling out of the shelf and ONTO YOUR FOOT... to let you know how BAD an idea it is to have an upright freezer with shelves... full of coolant tubes... and encrusted with ice... as slick as vaseline on glass. ;o)
I forgot what there called but the things on a hatch back car door that hold it open could probably be used in a upright freezer to bring up a metal cage with shelves. You wouldn’t have to dig around for things and you would keep the energy efficiency.
@@kylesmith4173 hydraulics typically
@@kylesmith4173 That is an excellent idea!
My chest freezer has three of those plastic bins that hang from the side rails. It makes it easy to separate the food into two tiers: Bottom and top.
The "and more power to them" pun is perfection, underrated comedy right there folks!
And I was like: WATT do you mean?
@@SushiElemental you Volted right up there.
Hmm. Dad jokes from a single guy. At least, I assume so.
@@ChrisB600 Why would you assume so. Also, What's wrong with a single guy using dad jokes?
@@ProminentCorpse The original comment references a joke, and both the other replies to it *are* jokes - can you not infer I'm joking too?
"Assuming" Alec is single because I have never heard any specific references to anyone else in the household. Yes, that was jumping to a conclusion, and no, it wasn't meant to be taken seriously in any way.
And who said there was anything wrong with a single guy making dad jokes?
Sheez, lighten up.
One of the things I found to help with “things stacked on top of things” is having a smaller variety of items in the chest freezer and more variety in the upright fridge/freezer. I find that if I have 5 or 10 of each item, I’m not digging for them as often.
"If you have a leafblower and a chest freezer" sounds like the ravings of a madman and i love it.
The safe-word is"Freon."
@@MrKyltpzyxm I was thinking of something more along the lines of, "Welcome, Clarice..."
I'd go one step further and say... hair dryer! muhahaha
I would do that but since my leaf blowers are gasoline powered, that's really not a good idea.
"Leafblower & Chest Freezer" sounds like a great band name
Great video, fairly well informed. I've worked in refrigeration for close to 30 years. I will say short cycling absolutely will wear equipment out more than run time. The electrical start components will take a beating, not just the compressor; plus compressor oil management is a factor. If you don't have enough to fill a freezer, put jugs of water in it. Refrigerators will always use more energy. Freezers have one job, freeze. Refrigerators have multiple jobs such as they have to condition the space which means air movement, humidity control of some kind in places such as vegetable storage, and they have many more door openings. Freezers on top of a frig is more efficient. It is harder to move cold air up than assist it going down. Granted the fan motors are only a few watts, but it adds up. Another thing that will help is to get those fridges out of boxed in casements that are popular in today's kitchens. How smart is it to have high tech insulation only to stuff the appliance in an architectural box that the heat is trapped? Less temperature difference, lower rate of warming up. They need to breathe, just like the old days. Look into refrigerant development before you go bashing Midgley. Before him they were flammable, stinky, and highly toxic. There were numerous deaths from refrigerant poisonings before him. The main problem with CFC and HCFC was improper and untrained handling, it was cheap, and you could throw in their use in hairspray propellent too in the pre-EPA days. I still maintain CFCs were the best thermodynamically and for equipment life. Their demise, and the ozone, was due to careless handling, and improper practice. At the time it was cheaper for a slacker equipment owner to just keep adding refrigerant than pay someone to fix the leak. It still happens, but laws and oversight have greatly reduced the occurrences.
What a boomer rant, jfc, finishing with defending Midgley was just the leaded-fuel laced icing on top of that CFC-filled cake. But of course your leaded generation still loves both.
"There's a sweet spot to be found"
Oh, I know where this is going... 45 degree angle freezers!
Why not put a whole shelf into a chest freezer and have it lift out along with the lid? If you now make a fortune with this, be fair and share :D
@@A.Lifecraft Because you would then be introducing all the stuff to the hotter air, then pushing all that hotter air into the chest, completely defeating the purpose.
all about 45º angle fridge/freezer tbh, try that one
Underrated comment
@@A.Lifecraft I was thinking something similar, but rather with a few vertical racks that could be pulled/lowered manually after the freezer is opened. Racks would allow the warm air that gets sucked in to be pushed out easily (rather than being trapped inside), and would mean that things set on the top shelf of the rack would be immediately accessible without disturbing things at all. It might not be as perfectly energy-efficient as the jumble-box design, but it still seems like it'd beat the vertical design by a landslide.
Good video. As I am a developer for thermodynamic systems in fridge I barely have anything to object. Comparing a top freezer to a bottom freezer makes not much sense. The French door is so much inefficient due to an electrical heater preventing condensation between the doors. 10-30% overall depending on the model. Manual defrost models of bottom mounted freezers are quite common in Europe btw. I defrost my Bosch every 2 years.
I defrost my fridge + top-mounted freezer every time I'm away for a couple of days (2-3 times a year). Now wondering if it would be more energy saving to just let it run (even if empty), as long as there's no ice on the walls. I should measure and compare that next time. Interesting video!
By this logic, ovens should also be chests, but mounted on the ceiling
doable
God, I love this channel.
Shouldn't it be: "With this logic..."?
@@Really14301 No, but I can’t really articulate why we use “by” like that in English.
But gravity’s an evil monster which keeps us buying expensive, fragile electroniques.
"Is there an entire ice maker inside the door?"
YES! My dad has that exact fridge you showed! The ice maker (and ice bin) are comically tiny and inside the door. The engineering involved is frankly incredible.
And the ice melts easily and freezes into a lump due to the whole plastic flap thing.
@@A.Martin Kind of , the ice maker door is thicker overall, there are also air ducts through the walls and a fan motor just for the ice maker adding to inefficiency.
I have a similar model that has a separate ice maker in the fridge space in the top, not built in to the door.
It does have another ice maker in the freezer drawer though that gets used about 5x more often.
Yeah, our ice maker is also in the roof of the fridge, and spits the ice into a bin in the door when it's closed. No idea how efficient this is, but it's been going strong for a while . . .
So does mine, one year later he was using dollar store trays for ice in the freezer after an $800 estimate to fix it. $2000 fridge make ice the same as the cheap one now.
there's just something so delightful and calming about watching you get excited about household electronics
Quote from user leeeah on his twinkling light set video: "forever entertained by this guy's outrageously specific opinions on tech items most people never even think about
"
I was intrigued when I first plugged my chest freezer into a meter: I thought it was malfunctioning. Glad to have found this video. Definitely want to know more about it.
"Food Netflix" - a term coined April 7th 2020, Technology Connections
.
I wasn't sure if I heard that right :)
My fridge is more like Food Tv....full of re-runs
Thank you so much for this! I am a very cheap bastard. I have lived my entire adult life in China, most of my friends growing up in very poor areas. My 20 years here have taught me to calculate the cost of appliances. Something that majority of the people don't think about here. I'm planning on moving back to Canada soon and your video has given me hope, that I can continue to be a cheap bastard and still live a normal life. I love all your videos and your humour is exceptional.
I installed gas turbine power plants all around the world for General Electric Company many years ago. I appreciate true poverty, shortages of things and unreliable grid power and swore that I would never complain about life in California. Now we are having an unreliable grid and have shortages of things. And cheap.....I'm definitely not cheap but consider myself frugal, not wasteful, and have had a low energy consumption footprint for the last 40 years. I was in Tung Hsiao, Taiwan, when Mount Saint Helens erupted, never got to mainland China.
“The Royal Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things”. Best Monty Python reference I’ve heard in a while.
It's even better if you turn on subtitles. He has spaced them such that the two "Things" are on top of each other.
I actually forgot that was a Monty Python joke until I saw your comment.
But on a side note: Put the chest freezer on rollers and slide it under a shelving unit. Suddenly you're not wasting as much space because you roll it out, grab what you need, and roll it back.
Yes!
I've though this a lot and I'm sure I said it before, but your channel is amazing. You're the reason we bought a 15cu.ft. Chest freezer and it's been REALLY helpful during the price gouging that's currently happening. Thanks!
"I guess Canada is just more optimistic"
Nope, just colder. Less tempurture differential means less energy. A chest freezer in the garage in the dead of winter consumes 0 kW.
True true, a 1500w freezer doesn't use 1500w when it's as cold as that, never thought about that
You don't need a fridge when the outside is a freezer. Important to remember durring a blackout or when you can't fit everything in you freezer for xmas/Thanksgiving when its snowing.
Coincidentally thats a major reason Britain has no* spices and therefore bland food. (Since spices are normally also preservatives)
@@jasonreed7522 Mate, we've colonised and gone to war with most of the planet to steal their spices, dating back to the middle ages! But judging by our classic pub foods, yeh it looks like they didn't exactly reach the general pesantry of the population. (Pub classics include stuff like steak and ale pie, a Sunday roast with yorkshires and gravy, bread and butter pudding etc. All good winter fodder). If I remember my history correctly, most meats were preserved with salt since it was more readily available as a local resource, though still not cheap by any stretch. And you're right that the colder weather in winter really helped with preserving food too. Luckily salted meats have fallen by the wayside in these modern times of refrigerant technology. And since spices are freely available to the massess, this leaves us Brits to feel mildly offended and overly defensive when our foodstuffs are called bland. Probably because despite knowing how to use said spices well in our meals, it strikes a little too close to home for our nation's favourite dishes and thus greatest sources of national culinary pride. Or, maybe that's just me.
Either way, this has reminded me that bread and butter pudding is a thing that exists and therefore needs making. Apologies for the pointless ramble too, I am very much in need of sleep right now which is probably why I'm pointlessly defending gravy from a historically accurate, relevant and genuinely interesting comment on a great video about how freezers work
Just realised that the end sentance there seems sarcastic reading it back. It isn't meant to be. I was going for self-deprication blended with a genuine expression of my thoughts on the surrounding context
In Sweden we call our pantry sometimes "Sval".They are connected near a wall to the outside with a ventilator at the top. It was designed in most homes built in the 70s.
You can use it as a free fridge when the outside temperature is below 8 Celsius. It cools the food and provide extra ventilation at the same time if you open the the valve at the top!
I’m on lockdown and just watched a guy talk about refrigerators for 27 minutes.
And I liked it.
He's just wonderful and this beats nearly any Netflix series
He makes a short story long, and he adds a whole lot of details that I wasn't looking for - but I watched the whole blessed video because it was interesting! And I learned something!
One of us. One of us.
There's a pill for that.
Welcome to Technology Connections. The educational channel that teaches you informative things about technology.
"feel free to comment about them, it'll boost engagement"
I like your self awareness. Here's a comment.
And another, for engagement.
Same
This is horrible!
(adding some variety)
Yup
THIS REPLY IS IN ALL CAPS, BECAUSE NO UA-cam COMMENT THREAD WOULD BE COMPLETE WITHOUT ONE.
Off gridders have been using chest freezers + a thermal switch to convert chest freezers into refrigerators for years. Just put the thermal sensor inside the freezer, turn the freezer on high, plug it into the thermal switch, and set the thermal switch to the temp you want. The freezer is always calling for more cold, but the thermal switch doesn't give it power till the temp rises above the temp you set.
Fun fact : French doors refrigerators are called "Réfrigérateurs américains" in France.
I was hoping for a Refrigerateurs royal
@@JasonStevens Nope, only works for burgers !
In the UK they are called American Style which is kinda ironic now I know what they are called in the states.
Same in Denmark. Double door fridge is "american". The SUVs of refrigerators.
I guess pedantic posh designers in France don't have the option of using French to sound more sophisticated.
"But on the other hand..." *shows his other hand with the answer of "Maybe" on it*
Absolutely brilliant. +100 points for showmanship.
"...for people who are off the grid, in which case, *more power to them"*
damnit Technology Connections
Great video, I always enjoy your insights into seemingly mundane topics. In case it hasn’t been mentioned in the previous thousands of comments which I am admittedly too lazy to do more than quickly scan through, I just wanted to let you know for future reference- the term heat pump is generally reserved for a device whose useful work is the heat output. While all vapor compression devices could be used to move heat for a useful purpose in theory, a freezer does not put that heat into a used purpose, rather it dumps it into the space so it would not be considered a heat pump. It’s a picky differentiation and doesn’t really matter for the purpose of this video but in the interest of sharing knowledge I wanted to bring it up. Source: I am an engineer in the HVAC industry.
i use stackable milk crates in my chest freezer, meats, veggies, etc. pull out a whole crate reveal the other, minimal rummaging and great organization.
RC286 that is what I do.
RC286 You’re sacrificing some space for convenience but sounds worth it.
That sounds like a nice idea.
I use those reusable shopping bags that you get from stores. I color code the bags with what is in them, green bags have veggies, pink bags are meat, brown bags are pre-prepared food etc. This allows me to save much more space then having a hard organiser and makes getting to the bottom as simple as pulling out 1 or 2 bags, and able to quickly identify the contents.
@@Pauleh123 the real lifehack is always in the comments
good idea
“More power to them.” This whole video, for one pun.
Damn it, spoiled it for me. Yuk yuk yuk.
"The entire reason we have energy guides in the first place is to encourage consumers to make the more frugal choice, both for their wallet, and for the environment. If there is anything I suggest we do change, it would be that we make focusing on that label just a little bit... *cooler* ".
Ba-dum tss
@Rodolfo Goulart Müller some times you just have to think in english...
Technically, less power.
24:15 I like how that label puts the energy usage at $42 on a scale of $46 to $46.
Hahaha wtf that's brilliant
Only thing I can think of is that there’s only one other model in this ones “class” so they can only compare it against that single value
No, actually, it’s the unelected, non-accountable government bureaucracy at work.
Does that mean you get a $4 rebate / year from the power utility LoL.
Nice video, clear and informative! The key factor for real life energy consumption of a refrigerator is ambient temperature. Living in a colder climate if you place the cooling appliance in the garage (or any unheated area of your home) this will significantly reduce the energy consumption year round. But please note a fridge/freezer with a mechanical thermostat located in the fridge does need to operate at room temperature.
Years ago, I replaced my ancient fridge (it said Frigidaire, a division of General Motors, which made it likely to be older than me) with a new one. The old one still worked, but knowing the basics of refrigeration and judging from the amount of heat coming off the thing, I had my suspicions that it wasn't terribly efficient. I replaced it with the most energy-efficient side by side with a through the door ice maker I could find. It was the middle of winter when I replaced it.
My energy bill for the next full month after replacing the refrigerator was about half as much as the last full month with the old fridge. It was also about half as much as the same month in the previous year. The new refrigerator paid for itself just in my electricity bill savings in about 18 months. That was about 10 years ago and it's still working great!
Yeah, I've seen it mentioned somewhere that fridges/some appliances are the place where our normal reuse/frugality instincts fail. We're all taught to try to reuse older things and make do rather than throw them away and buy a new one. But for appliances like refrigerators/air conditioners the improved efficiency means that even though the old model may still work perfectly fine, to keep using it (either you or giving it to someone else) will earn a higher cost in energy and resource consumption than a new one, even factoring in manufacturing and scrapping costs
@@St0rmcrash Any fridges newer than about 20 years are near the same level of performance, there was a huge drop in power uses for fridges about 30 years ago and since then they have all been quite similar. so this is only really a factor for really old fridges. they literally went from using killowatts/day to under 100watts.
Just replacing the rubber gasket on our 6yr old fridge solved the efficiency problem. My best advice is to inspect the problem first.
20:10
yes, there is an entire icemaker inside the fridge's door. it's sealed off to make things, well, cold, but otherwise it's just kinda sitting there in the door, chilling even
That's cool.
And the specific way that little handle actuates the latch to remove the whole unit from the internal compartment is really cool. LG has one of the best designs for an in-door icemaker, I wish TC wouldn't bash them so frivolously lol
@@SilencedMi5 That LG in-door icemaker was the bane of our existence for the past many years. If you have a busy house and use a lot of ice, the opening and closing of the door makes a little of the liquid water in the tray splash out, dribbling down into the ice bin, creating an ice dam. In order to free up the ice to dispense, you have to open that compartment and bang on the bin, letting all the heat from the room in the compartment, which glazes the ice over a little, allowing it to freeze back together solidly. Never ending cycle. --And the tray gets rough over time and stops releasing the ice, and is NOT A REPLACEABLE PART, maddeningly. --The ENTIRE icemaker has to be replaced to get a new tray. And that's not to mention the solenoid on the door flap, which failed on ours within the first year, and requires the entire front panel of the fridge to be removed to replace. It's a $7 part, but it breaks often (check the LG support forums), is poorly designed, and nearly impossible to access. We eventually just assisted and held open the flap with our fingers to get ice. When the linear compressor finally bit the dust (LOUDLY, and completely), we ruled out LG as a replacement, specifically because of this design of icemaker.
--Which is a shame, because I love the design and features of LG fridges over almost any other brand. They're just so slick.
Our new Samsung has a much more traditional icemaker compartment that doesn't move or fluctuate heat-wise, and has been solid and reliable so far. Fingers crossed. (but in reality, my friend who has a sub-zero says his icemaker is a piece of crap, and his high end purveyor of $20,000 fridges told him NOBODY makes a good reliable icemaker, period). It's just that, for us, the LG super slim in door icemaker life turned out to not be for us.
YMMV, of course--my friend, who has no kids, doesn't use a ton of ice, and only 2 people in the house, and says they rarely even open the left door, says she hasn't had any of the problems I listed above, and I can see how that would be. There are definite weaknesses to the design, but not every use case uncovers them all. I do suspect, however, that her door flap solenoid will go eventually. Since I've replaced one multiple times, I can tell you with certainty, that part isn't made for the long haul. It's anything but heavy duty.
"that makes the buzzy sound and makes the cool happen"
Engineering and physics at its best.
I own a fridge with the bottom freezer part just because I was absolutely convinced it is a more energy efficient design and never actually bothered to check it! In my mind, because the cool air sinks to the bottom, the part that needs to battle outside temperature more (the freezer) will stay cooler longer. I am sure I am not the only one with such delusion. Thank you, as always, for educating me!
"I'm not watching a 26 minute video on freezers"
26 minutes later...
What has isolation done to me?
It at least says something about your quality of videos, so kudos.
@Gryffin DarkBreed Or the one about painting Christmas lights.
Watch all the ones about discs. Those videos get so shiny so fast. It's visually delicious.
I don't even need isolation... 🙄
I dunno, this has been the highlight of my week 😳
Isolation? More like insulation am I right?
About the bottom freezer design consumming more energy:
Most models I've seen uses a drawer system, and none of them had an enclosure around the frozen stuff. My intuition tells me that all the cold air gets evacuated when you open the freezer, thus adding cooling to do. And maybe even some cold air of the fridge falls away at the same time...
I'd think it might have something to do with the (hot) compressor sitting at the bottom.
Last September I was shopping for a new fridge and all the good ones, all those with A+++ or better energy efficiency actually had the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on top. Trust me, I was looking for one with the freezer above and not one had a high efficient rating
Maybe someone should bite the bullet and take a measurement of their fridge's power consumption and then turn the thing upside down, measure and compare.
@@TheAllMightyGodofCod yes, many high efficiency combos only use one evaporator for both top and bottom.
They use a FAN to transfer the air from the target department to the exchanger and back, this also allows for no frost, as the air is periodically dried at the coolest spot, the exchanger.
The devices shown in this video also have quite thin walls compared to EU A+++ and better devices, I wonder how much the ratings differ, especially for upright devices.
The cheapest A+++ side by side in US size would be a Samsung RS6GN8222S9 here, for 1500€, which makes me think, the US devices are either really cheap, or pretty crappy.
A++ costs 820€ BUT.
the A++ device is rated at 395 kWh/year
the A+++ device is rated at 260 kW/year
both are around 600 L total.
I would guess the US ratings are totally different :-P and that is why their devices use so much more power.... maybe they rate for Florida summers or such
It's not just that it lacks an enclosure. The drawer design forcefully pulls the entire contents of the freezer out of the box. Rather than just opening a door and letting the cold air spill out, maybe there's a pressure differential being created behind the drawer that actively sucks the warm ambient air into the box.
"There is a sweet spot to be found."
So the true face of peak performance is a diagonal freezer.
well, it worked for mario...
Why not just pump the cold air out, let the user do his things and then pump the cold air back in? Pouring the air might make more sense.
@@mik13ST That would need more power and in the end itwould cost around the same, aybe even more.
@@Liriq No no, its simple, we increase gravity when the chest freezer is open!
@@Harey0407 there's an even easier solution. Turn off gravity while the freezer is open! No gravity means that cold air won't sink, so you can get the best of both worlds with a vertical freezer that's as efficient as a chest freezer!
I know this is four years late, but my time in warehousing has helped me solve the digging issue.
I use stacking bins, this allows me to reaching, pull out the meat, veggie, or oddities stack, close the lid, dig through the bins, and place them back in. Each layer is organized by (for example) meat type, making retrieval convenient.
"...even more longerer."
That pop sound you heard in the distance was your exploding english teacher xD
I love mangling the language. Not so much puns, but putting them together following the rules in ill advised ways.
It many much fun
it instantly made me think of Jay Foreman, and that's not a bad thing.
There is a sweet spot to be found between vertical and horizontal freezers: 45° angled freezers.
When you not sure if "even more longer" is correct
*Even more longerer*
*Ahem* *Technicalllllyyy* It should be even more longerrrrrrrrrrrr.
Evener morer longererer. HTH.HAND.
*Even* *more* *longererer*
Akshully, it's 'even manyer long'
@@PhilRennie Not "It's". Should be "They's" fewer short.
Thank you for another great video; always fun to watch. My former refrigerator was a GE Profile, bottom freezer drawer with the dual zone compressor, no in-door ice maker. It was a wonderful unit and the Kill-a-watt confirmed it was very efficient. But with great frills comes great fails, as proved when it had a problem 7 years in. No repair service available meant I had a very expensive wall locker. I ended up going with a similar, fewer frills, replacement that costs $1 more a month to run. I hated using more electricity, but it can run for 140 years for the purchase cost difference.
Several years ago, I wanted an "Energy Star" certified freezer. I knew instinctively that chest freezers were more energy efficient. But at the store, I noticed only upright freezers had that badge of honor, even though their energy label showed they clearly consumed more energy.
I think, the issue, was that the EPA classified an appliance by class. So upright freezers that were Energy Star compliant were compliant "in their class". That is, when compared to other upright freezers.
Chest freezers, I posit, were already highly efficient, and therefor, there were fewer opportunities to improve them, enough to earn the badge of honor.
I did notice, in your video, there was an Energy Star certified chest freezer. So apparently, something has changed in the last 15 years.
Marketing is one hell of a thing.
Hmm... I think these sort of certifications are things you have to pay for, you don't just get someone testing your stuff and labeling it for you usually. Sounds like people manufacturing chest freezers assumed it was obvious, or they wanted to push their upright models more or something like this. You would hope people can tell which number is bigger, though I can totally see someone asking for an energy efficient freezer and the salesperson leading them directly to energy star upright freezers and ignoring the chest freezers. A small amount of technical knowledge goes a long way in life.
Just received a second chest freezer today (one is next to the kitchen and this one is going into the garage) and both had energy star stickers on them
My family has a smoothie business and some of our chest freezers are energy star. Mostly the ones we bought new.
EnergyStar refrigerators and freezers are set at 90% of the federal minimum efficiency requirement (www.energystar.gov/products/appliances/refrigerators/key_product_criteria). There might be few cheap gains remaining for chest freezers, instead requiring beefier insulation (not that this would be bad) that decrease the relative capacity and make such models less attractive.
"If you've got a chest freezer and a leaf blower, try this at home, it's fun"
So anyway my mom kicked me out of the house.
Clearly your mum doesn't know how to have fun. Perhaps you could show her the SpongeBob episode with the leaf blower. She'll probably beg you to move back in as long as you bring your leaf blower.
is this real?
ur mum's crazy anyway
who tf keeps leaves in the freezer
@@Aragubas nothing on the internet is real
@@klystron2010 had us in the first half not gonna lie
0:40 I like the old CRT and VCR looking in through the window from outside. It's like they are saying, "please, sir, let us back in!"
There's a pair of iMac G3s outside that window! And I want so bad to save them from being left outside.
MrStumblr that they are! Could chuck OpenBSD on them for a reasonable lightweight general-purpose computer. Not sure how easy it would be to sub a larger hard-drive in there though.
There was a mention of chest coolers. I happen to have a chest freezer that out of the factory had a setting on it's thermostat to keep it around 2-5 degrees C. I think it's identical size to the one in the video... I used it for a few years as a fridge/cooler with the occasional boost to get the beer cold faster. Yes, it was an effort to have a very energy efficient small house. And no, you do not need to keep eggs inside a fridge if you have a decent pantry, that's not heated. :) Back to the fridge: As it was opened more frequently than the usual freezer and it was not freezing, there was issue with condensation, that of course all went to the bottom. Cleaning it out really sucked. So using it as a cooler has a lot of drawbacks, but yes, energy consumption was definitely not one of them. Great content, thanks a lot!
I'm a trained HVAC tech and would love to help you make a video about refrigeration.
Michael Poole Have you heard of DIY “air conditioners”? Basically running cold water from a cooler to a makeshift radiator attached to a box fan. There are more sophisticated designs, but what do you think about the concept?
@@acelakid94 they absolutely work, although I think they can become more work than they're worth. I'm not a professional in these types of coolers but what I can tell you is that 1 ton of cooling (a rating used to classify the size of an air conditioner) is based on a literal ton (2000 LBS.) of ice. Im not 100% sure it translates over perfectly but if you have to go through a ton of ice to get a ton of cooling that would be a chore. For reference my house has a 2.5 ton aircondtioner and most window units range from .5-1 ton.
Michael Poole Yikes that’s a lot of water/ice. I wonder if you can make or buy a mini heat pump instead? My bedroom is only 11x13 but doesn’t have a window where I could put a window unit in. So I was looking for alternate cooling options.
@@acelakid94 Highly depends on your local weather and local setup. Swamp coolers work well in the desert/dry environments but are pretty much useless in humid areas. You could hook up 2 radiators and a pump with 1 radiator in your room and 1 in the basement (as an example) and you would then dump heat into your basement, but its usually not very efficient.
Tech Ingredients made a couple videos regarding a non traditional AC. But FWIW I would most likely just get a cheap window AC, they usually fairly efficient. Better things you can do for your living space is to insulate it well (if you can), and sealing windows from air leaks or insulating windows.
@@acelakid94 the biggest struggle with a situation like that is getting heat out. In your case the cooler method might be a decent option because once the ice has melted you can dump out the "heat infused water".
"These unassuming white basement boxes of last year's turkey and grandma's popsicles"
How did he describe them so perfectly?
I could've used this when I was taking thermodynamics. This channel is really good at explaining certain thermodynamic concepts in simple terms
Or you could be smarter. It possible you’re in over your head in studies. College doesn’t change your IQ 🤷🏼♂️
@@BikingVikingHH Ok but I don't recall asking
im glad i went back and watched this!! intuitively, i guess i'd assumed that more expensive or popular refrigerators and freezers were inherently more efficient despite wanting the cold-hole storing capabilities of a chest freezer! i will keep this in mind thank you
I have never heard ANYONE say, "Hey, let's use a leaf blower to blow air into our freezer." ROTFL
its probably the last time too haha
And you hardly ever hear: "Try this at home; it's fun!"
right? i think a hairdryer would have got the point across better, haha
@@milapartment A hairdryer heats up the air it's blowing, a leaf blower just moves air.
You seem like the kind of guy that says "um, actually..." but never about actual nerd stuff. I kind of love that about you.
What is actual nerd stuff for you? Freezer efficiency and seeking to promote greater awareness of the trade-offs we make every day is pretty nerdy in my opinion. After all, it's exactly what I would do.
I've been wondering about that suction force for years. Thank you TC!
Its almost all due to magnets beneath the rubbers on the doors of the fridge/freezer, not due to the pressure difference. If the magents are faulty then the door wont stay closed, the "pressure difference" isnt strong enough (thankfully, more jobs for me) to keep the door closed.
Source: i repair these
@@matttzzz2 I always suspected exactly this, thanks for confirming
I subbed maybe a year ago but didn't end up watching many videos for some reason (other priorities/distracted mind ig) but now for the past week or so I've been on a binge and it has been very interesting, thanks TC!
1:40😳..😆......I love how embarrassed he gets over delaying promises.
It's admirable ......and amusing.
Thank you.
Love the channel. To me, this is some of the best; genuinely entertaining education.
This is why UA-cam should exist.
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS! shirt. Their first album was probably one of my favorite albums growing up.
YES!! I was halfway through the video when I realized his shirt was the TMBG album cover! I grew up listening to Flood.
I never thought I’d have so much fun learning about home appliance thermodynamics
The amount of info in these videos are incredible. I'm seriously impressed, pretty much all your videos are like this (well thought out, informative and funny).
Fun fact: That Samsung Twin Cooling design you showed IS a manual defrost refrigerator! Because the design is faulty and the evaporator's drain routinely gets plugged with ice, causing the whole thing to ice over every few months.
this seems to happen with a lot of bottom freezers. I am never buying a bottom freezer again.
That's Samsung ingenuity for you. Their business model is cheap and replaceable, no need to design it well if you have to just replace it frequently.
F
Our general electric fridge is over 12 years old now, still trucking along very well. A couple new rubber seals and general maintenance and it's as good as new.
Omg. I literally did this two nights ago. It's otherwise a great fridge. But yeah. Trying to defrost a tiny drain hole hidden behind everything is horrible. Bright side, you get a giant slab of ice that forms under the deli drawer that you can then take outside and have tremendous fun for a split second while you watch it shatter into pieces. Just like your dreams of a run relaxing evening.
him - "I'm sure you've used one of these before."
me - "That's a cooler!"
him - "It's a cooler."
me - :D
Why does this make me so happy I wonder? It seems kind of like how when child gets excited at mundane things you feel strangely content.
This comment made my day
In Australia we call them Eski's.
In this house we call them friends
I can't help but picture Special Ed from the show Crank Yankers. "YAAAAAAY"
"You couldn't make that deeper, well ok you could, good luck with that.". I'm sitting there thinking of a freezer cave trying to get out. Amusing. Thank you for the video!
OMFG!
I’ve always wondered why the door got stuck after you closed it!!
I love it when someone answer the question I didn’t ask!!!
He was actually wrong. The plastic door seal is magnetic.
"How's quarantine going for you?"
"Oh you know, I'm just staying inside even more longerer"
Right? Is there a way to get even more inside than you were in the beginning?
i live in an off-grid tiny home, and i have used a chest fridge for almost 2 years now (a *KICKASS* ARB 63 quart portable fridge now, and a somewhat janky icego GO20 before that) and i love them! they use hardly any energy, keeping a surprising amount of food surprisingly cool, effortlessly.
How does it feel to live my dream? 🤔
@@rebeccaspratling2865 lol, funny you ask that!...i'm actually thinking to move into an apartment. :/ tiny house life is a little alienating, unfortunately. :( peace
Most UA-cam videos: “Do not try this at home”
This video: “You should try this at home
Literally like 5% of all the videos on UA-cam (that are craft tutorials) bruh
"It's fun!"
Here in Thailand there are manual defrosting fridges. There's a button you have to push whenever you want to defrost. There's a small bucket just above the compressor and by the time you need to defrost again the water should already have evaporated. But if you let the ice build up too much you'll need an extra bucket.
By the way, we don't call them French/American fridges. We call those "twin door fridges".
Anyway, awesome video as usual.
7:02 This is beneficial for when the power fails. The temperature of a full "cold box" will more slowly rise to the danger zone than a relatively empty "cold box".
It also creates less fluctuation in temperature, which is better for sanitation reasons.
Which is why my freezer is topped off with frozen 2L bottles of water.
@@diamondflaw 500 ml bottles for me (you can rearrange them easier than 2L bottles), but yes, that's a great idea.
Wow. Amazing happy medium. So rare to hear someone talk about efficiency vs convenience in such a level headed manner. Great job as usual :)
I've always preferred the classic top-freezer design, WITHOUT ice dispenser; now I know I can be smug about it! Thanks, Technology Connections!
This channel just popped up in my recommendations and I'm glad it did. He is interesting and obviously well informed on the topics he chooses to make his videos on. I also really enjoy him. Lol. I like his mannerisms and cadence of his speech. Very relaxing, so if I want to nap his videos are soothing and long enough that I can slowly doze off but his videos are also very informative and make the everyday mundane things we use or do actually interesting and therefore easy to watch and understand. So the videos themselves aren't what makes a sleepy Jennifer. I can easily fall down rabbit's hole and while away a couple hours learning. Which has been one of the best ways I've chosen to spend my quarantine time, along with learning about the cosmos and astronomy, (I've actually just purchased my first telescope and I found Jupiter. I could see all the bands of color but not the giant storm eye yet). I've also jumped feet first into marine biology. Tho fascinating, that topic often ends up leaving me sad and very disappointed with certain members of our species. So those have to be watched on a good day, cuz they just make a bad day worse and we already have the pandemic and really stupid politicians doing that particular job for us, smashingly.
Though I haven't caught his name yet, I would still like to say thank you. It's never occurred to me to research any of the everyday items and luxuries that we have at our disposal on a daily basis but this channel has gotten me interested in them. It's really interesting how the mechanics of it all works and I'm looking forward to going thru your video catalogue for curiosity and some times as a sleep aid to drown out nonsense noises, relax myself and get a restful, refreshing nights sleep. No nightmare inducing content here to mess up a good sleep and who knows, maybe my subconscious is picking up some of the info he is throwing down, lol. Thanks again. 10 out of 10. Would recommend. 🤓👏👍
- Humans: Screw you entropy!
- Entropy: I’ll wait.
Technically the freezer just moves the point of entropy to the generator. But as you say, entropy of sure to have the last laugh.
Did you know, that there's something called the Westinghouse cycle-type of refrigerators? That's a heat pump, without a pump!
Camping fridges use it. Instead of having a compressor outside, to compress the gas, it has a small chimney, with a flame the size of a candle. It heats the gas up, so it expands, and exerts pressure on the gas further inside the system, the compressing *it*.
It's quite brilliant, because it uses the expansion of the gas to compress the same gas, since there's just one volume of gas. Even though it's just one long tube, no checks, pistons or valves, is possible to create different zones with different temperatures and pressures, just by lighting a fire in the right place.
Pure magic.
Is this how propane refrigerators work?
@@adwagmusic yep
I have an old servel gas fridge from the 50's I keep in the garage just in case the power goes sideways. It'll run for about a month on a BBQ propane tank. Magic indeed!
I think you are referring to ammonia cycle refrigeration. homeguides.sfgate.com/propane-fridge-work-84254.html
Heat separates the ammonia from water; then the ammonia is allowed to recombine with water and that's an endothermic reaction, it gets cold.
I used to have a camper trailer that had a dual-mode fridge--you could run it on electricity _or_ propane, depending on whether you were parked someplace with an electrical supply. I never used the gas mode, because I wasn't into roughing it in undeveloped campgrounds, but it had one, all the same. :)
7:18 Longer cycles = more energy efficiency. Often people complain that their air condition runs too much but in a perfect system, it would run 24/7 but scale to demand. Every time the system stops the pressures equalize and energy is lost to entropy and additional energy in needed to restore the heat transfer process.
Additionally, electric motors draw more energy on startup than they do while running. That's why if you have a bunch of things all starting up on the same circuit, you need to stagger their start times so they don't draw too much current at one time.
So, it should use a variable-displacement pump instead of a fixed displacement one? Kinda like how variable-duty-cycle is better for switching converters than a bang-bang constant-duty-cycle converter.
That's what an inverter air conditioner does. It regulates motor speed so ideally the compressor never stops running, just run slower or faster.
Hi I just found your channel the other day while searching for humidifiers and I'm so glad. Thanks so much for making them and sharing all this fun practical knowledge!
Disappointed that the opening line isn’t “Freezers are very cool”
Are they thou? Touch one...
"that means it has a HOLE in its door."
I felt that.
But how does a french door fridge with freezer on the bottom ice maker work?!?
Various noises of confusion intensify.
@@sofiadragon6520 those noises are actually an ice auger lifting the ice to dispense it higher...
@@sofiadragon6520 twin cooling...
@@sofiadragon6520 ice maker is on the top
It's amazing how quickly collective inefficiency adds up. Dave from the EEVBlog did a really interesting tear down on a wired smoke detector, something pretty benign that most folk would look straight past. The unit is a dual power model (battery and mains) and the power supply was massively inefficient. On the surface it doesn't seem bad, a few hundred milliamps. The catch is, once you factor in the fact that every house has to have a detector in kitchens and bedrooms, take that average by the average number of homes in Australia and the energy impact was substantial! If I recall it was into the Mw range! The thing is, on the battery side the unit had been optimised to hell, drawing *Micro amps* of current for a battery life of 5+ years.
When you look at the *amazing* workarounds and efficiency inventions early computer programmers used to make the most of limited hardware and what we can do in terms of power efficiency when limited resources are available it's truly astounding. In some ways I almost feel we should artificially limit some things in order to promote the highest efficiency budgeting we can.
On that note - I used to scoff at people who turned off things at the wall to save power because they used hardly any energy. Sadly that marketing campaign by energy providers killed itself by promoting the idea that the *consumer* would save. Nowadays with energy cheap and devices using less standby power the consumer costs are massively outweighed by the effort. With so many low-power smart devices though things are a lot like Dave's smoke alarm. Individually they're only a few watts, in the household maybe a few hundred watts. 24 hours a day across the world - truly massive impact!
I fully endorse a energy standard for always on devices that requires sub-watt standby power. We have the electrical design to do it, we have the components! Smart watches can last for days on their tiny batteries, there's no way we cant implement those designs into TV's, Alexa type assistants etc. The only thing stopping us is the idea that if it's plugged in it has "infinate" energy.
I have to imagine that Google spends extraordinary amounts of labor on optimizing their systems to death. If you can save 1 calculation for every Google search, then Google stands to save massive amounts of power and server capacity. Same for all the tech giant, like why Amazon puts so much effort into custom components for their data centers.
Well said, Kenny! 👏👏👏
ive had mine for a few months now and having the extra freezer space is nice when i dont have to tetris foods in the small freezer with my roomate. I can now stock up on things and not worry about spacing issues. Just nice to know that the thing that i have on all the time in the living room isnt taxing the landlord much, though this video popping up 2 years after its release in my feed is a nice reminder that i need to buy shelves to put in it so that im not stacking stuff on top of stuff. 🤔
Chest freezer: One of the most energy-efficient devices in the world. Leaf blower: One of the least.
How is a leaf blower supposedly so inefficient? Heck how are you even measuring effiency? electric heaters just pump out heat and that's their only job. They have 100% effiency. Anything that cools is far less efficient than that
@@MsHojat I'd argue that the fact you could just use a rake instead in most cases makes them a joke, efficiency-wise.
9:40 the ironic thing is, I distinctively remember my family getting rid of a deep freeze just to save money on electricity. But we probably ended up losing more money by throwing more food away lol
Although, on that note, I suppose there's something to be said about having TOO MUCH in your deep freeze, and wasting it that way due to freezer burn...
Vacuum seal and put your items in stackable containers.sortrd by type.
Most people waste money buying food they will never eat because it's buried at the bottom of the freezer.
@@bubba842 true lol and it ALWAYS gets freezer burn
Doesn't the cost of buying new appliances outweigh the energy saving? If a new appliance costs £1000 and might last 15 years, then it needs to save you £66 per year just to break even.
(Obviously this doesn't apply if you're replacing a broken appliance).
The sweet spot between a chest freezer and a refrigerator is an diagonal freezer, about 45 degree (not Fahrenheit)
The sweet spot is where the ice cream is stored, obviously.
I thought the same thing - maybe the ideal design would be a chest freezer with an articulated lid that opens in two stages, one over the front (for about 40% of its length) and just the corner over the top, and then another one that opens the top completely? This would still save a good deal of energy, and be quite a bit more practical than a common chest freezer.
I think the most efficient would be an upright freezer with lots of doors -- one for each shelf. Just don't freeze big things like cauliflowers or human heads.
@@Ndlanding But what else am I gonna do with my collection of human heads?
I think you could have a chest freezer with shelves that slide up, like those cheesy spy movies that show desks and spy equipment emerging from the floor
You single-handidly the best source of information in this genre. I enjoy them.