be careful if your fridge or freezer has an eco setting on it to think twice before using it

[andyr123]

have a fridge freezer with a digital display panel on it - in amongst the preset settings I was tempted myself to set the fridge freezer on an ECO mode which set the fridge part to 8'c and the freezer to -15 ... on 'normal' mode the fridge is set to 4'c and the freezer to -18.

I just thought I would run it past Google ai to see what it reckoned setting the fridge to 8'c and the freezer to -15 and it was a big no from that which said it puts the fridge and freezer compartments into a danger zone where bacteria can thrive at those temperatures and food stored long time will spoil and the food consumed could make you ill at those temperatures .

so i have put it back to the recommended fridge 4'c and freezer -18 now and left it at that. But I could see some consumers especially trying to cut their energy bills, being very tempted to set and forget the fridge freezer to ECO mode and leaving it at that.

 

[jj4091]

Can't see -15 being a problem, but I guess you can't set one without the other.

 

[andyr123]

Can't see -15 being a problem, but I guess you can't set one without the other.

you can on our fridge , could leave the freezer -15 and the fridge +4c - still do not know if I could trust it. - Google ai reckons at -15c its not good for long storage of meat etc at -15c and lowers its 4 star rating

 

[StephenStephen]

Hmmm, might've a Google problem rather than a temperature problem...

Personally I'd trust the fridge more than I'd trust some mangled mishmash of opinion made up from of a bunch of random websites...

(Stephen having one his anti-ai tantrums - it'll pass in a minute...)

 

[endecotp]

I just thought I would run it past Google ai

Don’t do that.

 

[andyr123]

Don’t do that.

scans thousands of different website pages in milliseconds and comes up with an answer - what's not to like?

 

[flameport]

cans thousands of different website pages in milliseconds and comes up with an answer - what's not to like?

Thousands of pages are wrong, and most of what's left was created from the others by AI.

 

[endecotp]

it puts the fridge and freezer compartments into a danger zone where bacteria can thrive

Bacteria do not "thrive" at -15.

The main reason for going down to -18 is for preserving nutrition and flavour in the long term. Here's an extract from a 1953 book, cited by Wikipedia: (note 0 F = -18 C; 10 F = -12 C.)

Bacteria can survive freezing and thawing, but they really do not multiply at these temperatures.

If you have a habit of keeping things in your freezer for many months, keep it at -18. If you use it primarily for shorter-term storage, I think -15 would be fine.

You could try asking Google to cite a reference for its claim that bacteria in a freezer will thrive at -15 - but it will probably just fabricate something that sounds plausible.

 

[ericmark]

-18ºC is freezing point of brine, so seems to be a good reason for that temperature. As for fridge, not so sure, depends on what, wine should be +12 so I would just leave as supplied.