Nowadays, most refrigerator buyers go for no-frost type. The convenience of having no need to manually defrost is the main reason why many buyers opt for no-frost refrigerators. Later, you will learn the difference between inverter and non-inverter refrigerators which you can read in the post
Inverter Refrigerator Vs Conventional Fridge. In the meantime, let's focus on this topic.
A Story Of No-Frost Fridge
I created this article of comparison because lately I have learned about an old friend's first hand experience with their own no-frost fridge. He's diabetic and at that time he was confined in a hospital. Prior to his confinement, he's making some house improvement of their residence. Good thing that he's already in hospital suite with all his insulin and other stuffs when an electrical short circuit happened in the house that had broke down their power.
As you know, insulin must keep refrigerated. Otherwise, it gets spoiled and couldn't be used. And it's expensive. Lack of electrical power in their home that lasted more than 5 hours had rotten and spoiled their food in the fridge at no time.
A frost-free refrigerator defrosts continuously by itself and during blackout, this is what happens: The inside of the fridge gets hot quickly because of lack of ice and frost inside the freezer that supposed to sustain the cool inside the fridge in a temporary power failure. Naturally, food get spoiled way too fast.
My Frost Type Refrigerator
Now let me share to you my experience with my own manual defrost model refrigerator. During my early time in my place, there were countless of times blackouts happened in our apartment building. The landlord kept on adding units vertically and horizontally and there were lots of works going on. Lack of electrical power lasted from 4 to 6 hours on average and at one point up to more than 12 hours. During those times of blackouts, neither did I experience a rotten food on my fridge or the ref itself gotten warm.
During power failure, I don't open the fridge to make sure the frost inside the freezer don't gets exposed to temperature of the entire room. My food remain cold for the entire duration of blackout because the frost and ice inside the freezer supply the necessary coolness as they melt down very slowly.
On this area of owning a right model of refrigerator, I believe manual defrost refrigerators are far better than frost-free models. But there's more to it than how your food last during power failure. It boils down to how much premium we give in getting some savings on electrical bills.
No-Frost Model Vs Manual Defrost Type Refrigerator
There are lots of debates which one consumes more electricity, frost-free ref or frost-type one?
Personally, I can't give you a precise answer to this question as I haven't owned a no-frost type of refrigerator. Based on the research I have made, many say that no-frost models consume more electricity. At any rate, your preference on buying your own unit depends on the weight you give to the actual reason of buying a refrigerator - convenience of keeping your food cool without "hassle" of manual defrosting OR keep your food frozen and cool while conserving electricity.
Speaking of "conserving electricity", that is the reason I mentioned earlier that you get to learn the difference between inverter and traditional fridges in our separate article. It is in that department of conserving energy that our post on inverter and non-inverter fridges is a must-read. When we conserve power, we cut our bills, right? But, the amazing part is the ultimate convenience you get in using one of the two kinds in our comparison. You hit two birds in one stone - savings and convenience. Read the full article in this post:
Inverter Refrigerator Vs Conventional Fridge.
Tips On Buying Manual-Defrost Refrigerator
Choose the model which is defrosted by a push of a button. Mine is like that model. So every time I manually defrost, I just push the button. After the unit has defrosted, the button pops up and restarts.
Don't wait until frost has built up before you defrost. Compressor works double time when frost inside freezer has thickens. If you allow that to happen often, you should expect your bill to increase. I defrost once a week and I think that's okay.
Make it a habit to use your refrigerator's temperature control knob. Set the temperature to "Warm" when your unit has little content and set it to normal if it's almost full. Maximum setting is cold.
Lastly, allow enough space for good air circulation. Don't fill your refrigerator to the brim.
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