Jill Cataldo

For warranty purposes, most refrigerators or freezers' manuals will state that they're not recommended for unheated garages. Any appliance that cools is going to work harder in the summer and less hard in the winter if it's not in a climate-controlled environment. In the summer, the compressor will run much more often, and in the winter, much less. This can be seen as a "wear and tear" thing than the even cycles it would experience year-round if it was kept in the house.

My secondary freezer (yep, the Jewel one) is in the garage. When I brought it home, I wanted it in the garage because it's just outside my kitchen. But the manual said don't put it in the garage.

At that point, I consulted two of my most trusted resources for this kind of info - Google and my Dad. :) Google had numerous accounts of people successfully keeping fridges and freezers in their garages year-round, and my Dad, who is a genius in too many things to list (but electronics and electrical appliances certainly fall under his banner of knowledge too) gave me this answer.

"Wasn't it free? Does it matter if the lifespan might perhaps be a little shorter because you're keeping it in the garage?"

Hee. In all seriousness, he then gave the explanation that I wrote above about the compressor running differently at different times of the year. I've had my freezer in the garage for over a year now, and it does run more often in summer, barely at all in winter. But it does keep everything nice and frozen year-round.

So, it's your call. There's no set, specific lifespan I can give you if you keep it in the house vs. garage. If it's a secondary fridge, I'd go for a no-frills model -- you won't need an icemaker out there, I'm guessing -- and if you're near one, check out a Sears Outlet store. They sell floor models, scratched/dented, and discontinued appliances -- the prices can be excellent, and usually the cosmetic issues are minimal, if any.

We've bought many new appliances at the Sears Outlet, and our current fridge was over $300 less than an identical model at the "regular" Sears because it had a small dent.

On the back. On the side that's against the wall.

It works just fine :) I'd bet you'd be okay with something like that in the garage too. And if you get it for a great price, I wouldn't worry too much about keeping it in the garage. I do LOVE having a second fridge -- when we moved into our new place a few years ago, we put the old fridge in the basement -- and it has proven invaluable for deals on things like the Over the Moon milk (14 cartons in there right now) and Grands biscuits, among other things.

stops working when it gets below 32 degrees or so. It's fine for the refrigerated things but in the freezer part, we only keep bread and buns in the colder days of winter. I thought it was because it's an older fridge/freezer.

Jill knows EVERYTHING about anything you need to know, from shopping, (of course), to how to save a burnt pan, to the best way to store ice cream, and the best laundry detergent to save your whites. Amazing, isn't it?