Rust in brand new chest freezer

[cladinshadows]

Just bought a brand new chest freezer from Lowe's last week. I am already seeing signs of rust at the only interior seam, presumably from condensation on the coils "rinsing" rust down and out.

Does this warrant me exchanging this unit for a new one?

I am fine sealing this joint up and forgetting about it as long as this doesn't mean that this very expensive piece of equipment is going to fail prematurely. The rest of the freezer interior is a solid piece of plastic so I won't be able to see any other spots if this is some kind of widespread issue.

I know the wisdom is usually "something else will fail before the rust gets it", but I just want to hear some thoughts/experiences.

Thanks!

 

[Gravity]

The rust won't harm anything, and the fridge should be alive and kicking for a while; the old adage might be a self filling prophecy here

I'd show you my rusted tank of a chest freezer, but i'm embarrassed in comparison to yours

If it bothers you, I'd exchange....If you can live with it, don't worry about it

I'm not sure what you are planning on doing with your chest freezer, however, I use mine as a fermentation chamber and has been the home to countless of brews.

So, for what's its worth, its fine

 

[cladinshadows]

Thanks for the reply. This will be a keezer. My last rustbucket survived for about 8 years and it had serious rust when I bought it, but it was used and cheap so it was somewhat expected. I just assumed that I shouldn't see any indication of rusting on a brand new freezer. The other issue here is that on my last one the rust was seemingly only on the interior surface (would probably take a long time to spread to the internals), whereas the rust I am seeing here is coming from inside the freezer walls.

 

[passedpawn]

I've been through several craigslist freezers. Rust was always a problem, inside and out.

My suggestion for the next time:

• get the freezer with the aluminum cladding on the inside. That seems to be impervious to rusting (so far ). I bought a new one at HD like this.
• Before you put it into service, lightly sand the gloss off the outside of the entire thing, prime with rustoleum, then paint with whatever rustoleum paint you like. I went with flat black (chalkboard). This freezer is outside in rainy hot FL, and doesn't have a bit of rust anywhere.

You might be able to limit the rust by using damp-rid inside.

 

[cladinshadows]

I've been through several craigslist freezers. Rust was always a problem, inside and out.

My suggestion for the next time:

• get the freezer with the aluminum cladding on the inside. That seems to be impervious to rusting (so far ). I bought a new one at HD like this.
• Before you put it into service, lightly sand the gloss off the outside of the entire thing, prime with rustoleum, then paint with whatever rustoleum paint you like. I went with flat black (chalkboard). This freezer is outside in rainy hot FL, and doesn't have a bit of rust anywhere.

You might be able to limit the rust by using damp-rid inside.

So when you say "my suggestion for next time"... are you saying you think I should return this one?

The interior of this one is entirely lined with plastic - nothing to rust. I chose the plastic over the metal liner because with this one most of the interior corners are slightly rounded (unlike the aluminum or gavlanized liners) so that it's easier to clean and doesn't collect moisture as easily. You are right, though, aluminum doesn't rust, it just creates aluminum oxide which actually protects the aluminum from further corrosion.

I am not concerned about exterior rust (unit is inside my garage, not exposed to lots of water), so I'd rather not preemptively compromise the factory finish by sanding down and doing an inevitably poor job repainting!

 

[passedpawn]

So when you say "my suggestion for next time"... are you saying you think I should return this one?

The interior of this one is entirely lined with plastic - nothing to rust. I chose the plastic over the metal liner because with this one most of the interior corners are slightly rounded (unlike the aluminum or gavlanized liners) so that it's easier to clean and doesn't collect moisture as easily. You are right, though, aluminum doesn't rust, it just creates aluminum oxide which actually protects the aluminum from further corrosion.

I am not concerned about exterior rust (unit is inside my garage, not exposed to lots of water), so I'd rather not preemptively compromise the factory finish by sanding down and doing an inevitably poor job repainting!

If you can return it and get one as I suggested, that's what I would do. Well, I would probably not do that because moving a chest freezer around is a big hassle, but it's my recommendation anyway (my garage freezer is 15 cu ft).

I've had chest freezers that looked PERFECT on the outside develop rust, and rot from the outside. They were used freezers kept in a garage. But after watching them disintegrate I decided to act proactively on my latest one. Your call, I'm just relating one guy's experience.

 

[cladinshadows]

Great, I appreciate the input!

 

[wilserbrewer]

The replacement may likely show signs of rust just like the one you have now...

Freezers are not made to be continuously wet inside. I stopped using a freezer a few years ago and bought a large fridge, always dry inside pleases me...