Blamed for open freezer door

We had a cheap "frost-free" upright freezer as a long-term store in an empty room. Two days after I deposited the week's milk in it, my wife found the freezer door wide open, the compressor running noisily and the summer's fruit thawed. I'm in the dog house, but...
The door was well balanced; it didn't move if left 90deg open when using the freezer. The door was found 180deg open. Neither of us ever remember opening it that far; there was never any need to.
Examining the machine, we saw that the downpipe at the rear that carried the condensate down to its receptacle had broken away from its outlet, even though it was not vulnerable to damage. No one apart from my wife or I access the room.
We wonder if there is any way that pressure could build inside the freezer and "puff" (blow sounds a bit explosive!) the door open?

Sorry your'e still in the dog house freezers produce low pressure i.e low temperature low pressure this pulls the door in.

for the sake of your marriage just admit too it, wives like it when us men do something wrong, and they love you more if you admit too it. She'll be telling all here friends of the day YOU left the freezer door open.

Regards
Lrac

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Originally Posted by RichTea

We wonder if there is any way that pressure could build inside the freezer and "puff" (blow sounds a bit explosive!) the door open?

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LOL... good try mate.

Maybe your house is haunted?

As LRAC says, freezers produce low presure that would pull the door in.

Chillin:) :)

This is all very well, guys, but how come the dor was flung wide open? Absent minded I may be, but opening the door wide was never necessary. And yes, I know that air pressure tends to hold shut the door of a working freezer, but a freezer in some conceivable failure mode???
Haunting is the only perceptibly credible answer yet, and that's infinitessimally credible.
Keep trying with your engineering caps on.

Ok then your wife must be reading this as well so we'll baffle her with science.

The freezer was secound hand and had been imported from America, because of the pressure differential at altitude caused the manual thermostat to operate incorrectly and not actual freeze the food solid, thus causing a gas build up(living matter) inside the freezer,when it went on defrost you had an electrical short on the defrost heater. In turn this ignited the gas build up and "puff" the door flew open.

This can also explain the broken pipe on the back as this acted like an exhaust port for the ignited gas.


Unite together and help Richtea out.

Kind regards
Lrac

That was easy-just blame it on the Americans! :)

I had a carton of juice explode in my fridge ( cue i thought you bought it and didn't touch it, no i thought you bought it and didn't touch it "discussion"
Could well believe it could blow a door open (pounds per sqaure in x surface area of the door) but it only opens 90deg then hits the dish washer and would shut its self anyway.

Cheers Jon

You mention that the 'summer fruit' is lost, as Jon said above, apart from the milk cartons, is it possible that a container of fruit had fermented in some fashion and escaped from it's container in an explosive fashion?

This one jogged my memory back a long way, I remember during my aprentice days that the cold store company across the road from Prestcold A-u-Lyne had a blast freezer that used to open the door in the night, then someone came along and fitted an air pressure release valve to let some air in as the unit cooled down and to let some out after the defrost cycle, the fans kicked in as soon as the defrost was terminated, expanding the air in the coldroom, sounds to me like your frost free has the same problem, it should run the comp for a while before the fan starts.

May be your wife has special friend that pops round when your out:)

Regards

What about the larger Freezer Room with its pressure relief valve mounted in the wall for after defrost to let pressure out of the room and prevent the door from opening ?
Not that a piddly domestic will do that but maybe if there is no relief point into the fridge section of the cabinet .......?

Keep it up, friends. I hope this is giving you as much pleasure as it us. (Bernard's contribution particularly!).
Stevek's suggestion that the warming associated with de-frosting could cause a pressure rise was interesting. On a frost-free, how is the pressure rise dealt with in normal operation?

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Originally Posted by RichTea

On a frost-free, how is the pressure rise dealt with in normal operation?

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It's easy, you reduce the pressure manually when you open the door to see how the defrost is going.

Brian_UK: are you saying that there is no internal pressure relief in a domestic freezer?
Toolman: I believe that there is interconnection between the two halves of a fridge/freezer, but our device was aplain upright freezer. Presumably the condensate outlet on a "frost-free" should provide relief, though?

Do you have any cats or dogs?
I have seen both cats and dogs open a fridge door.
The cat to steal the cream from the milk and the dog to steal meat.

Cheers taz

Another possibility.
Do you or your wife sleep walk. One of you could be coming down in the night for a midnight feast. :-)

Cheers taz.

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Originally Posted by taz24

Another possibility.
Do you or your wife sleep walk. One of you could be coming down in the night for a midnight feast. :-)

Cheers taz.

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What he means is are you or your wife fat? :D Only kidding, I'm sure you're both very normal, expect the haunted house and strange gas problems that is.
Was anything missing or disturbed in the fridge?

Nice one Bernard, I take you have one of those then!