this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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ShowerThoughts

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Sometimes we have those little epiphanies in the shower.. sometimes they come from other places. This is a home for those epiphanies.

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Am I the only one who thinks this is just hilariously idiotic?

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[โ€“] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Refrigerators tend to be surprisingly efficient. The cold substance inside them helps keep them cool, we've learned a lot of little tricks to help people keep the doors closed (before ice makers people basically left the freezer open while scooping ice into stuff), and we've just gotten better at design and insulation.

Paradoxically, they can sometimes work less efficiently in the cold. Not because of how refrigeration works, but because of how motors work. The oil in the compressor can get thicker, and the motor has to push harder to work.
That's why some advertise as "garage ready". An efficient compressor running gently for longer can use less energy than an inefficient one running for a short time, and being too cold can give you an inefficient compressor that runs for too long.

Then the compressor locks up, stops cooling entirely while churning power grinding at nothing while your food coasts up to the ambient temperature of the environment and a dead overheating compressor.

[โ€“] Mucki@feddit.org 1 points 3 weeks ago

Interesting.

I will look out for the garage ready label, have never read or seen that before.