How can freezers hit 50 degrees?

Several recent cyber attacks on European supermarkets have shown commercial freezers hitting extraordinary temperatures heating internal units above 50 degrees centigrade with some hitting 80 degrees. This resulted in several localised fires, but how is this possible?

Followed up...Can my freezer reach these temperatures? This is a logical question, applying the dangers discussed in the press to your home scenario.

We spot scams like this every week in The Scam Hound newsletter — one email, every Tuesday, free. → subscribe

As a qualified electrical engineer commercial freezers can be placed into defrost mode which will send their temperatures soaring in a relatively short space of time. They are designed to manage this temperature and their electrical components are designed to take the shift from frozen to hot in one or two defrost cycles.

Here is where things can get dangerous. The software kept triggering the defrost system continuously this raised the internal temperature to around 50 degrees and in some cases 80 degrees. In an isolated incident, one freezer for example, prolonged forced heat (lets say it became stuck in defrost mode), would normally be identified by staff and dealt with.

Commercial appliances are extremely expensive and designed to last much longer than our home appliances. Internal parts are designed to be replaced and far more robust. Larger cables conduct more power with high rangers in thermal conduction, better quality insulation copes with adjusting heat modes, defrosting a unit quickly.

the hackers purposely set prolonged defrost most to start overnight on a Sunday, the only evening supermarkets close early, giving the longest period to send the freezers into triggered cycle defrost. Fires likely began in some cases as an a prolonged electrical overload overheated sensors, cables, internal components and melted insulation around the conducted connections sparking fires.

Domestic freezers should not reach this temperature under normal operations. We do not have defrost mode that send domestic appliances up 50-80 degrees C. Home appliances in defrost mode send a freezer to 14 degrees for 30 minutes. That said every appliance plugged into the electric has the capability to overheat, our appliances are made to very high standards.

We spot scams like this every week in The Scam Hound newsletter — one email, every Tuesday, free. → subscribe

This article has been created as general advice only.