How Safe is Your Frozen Food After a Powercut?

Thankfully powercuts are a rare occurrence these days, but do you know how safe frozen food in your freezer would be following a powercut?

You need to look for something called the "rising time"

If you are looking for a chest freezer that can withstand lengthy powercuts, you need to look for its "rising time".

Food Starts Thawing at -10c

Manufacturers and retailers might also call this the "powersafe time" or "food safe time". In any case, this is the length of time that the temperature of frozen food takes to rise from the normal -18 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius at which it will start to thaw and spoil.

Average Rising Time Over 18 hours

The rising time does vary from freezer to freezer. A lot of freezers can keep food safe for well over 18 hours which is good news as most power cuts rarely last this long. However we are disappointed to see some LEC freezers with a rising time of just 5 hours.

Premium Brands Offer Better Times

At the other end of the scale, some brands like Bosch and Miele with their thicker insulation and better build quality have rising times of 48 hours or more. Some cheaper brands like Beko and Logik also have impressive rising times.

Helping You Decide

When we can get that information from the manufacturer, we are now starting to show the rising times on our products pages to help you choose the right freezer for your needs.