In the past 6 years I have had two 14 cu ft chest freezers, which I had converted to keezers, fail on me. Admittedly I bought them at garage sales for <$50 each, but they were running and freezing well. In each case I used my old Johnson Controls analog controller to keep the temperature 47-52 degrees, and in each case everything worked well for a year or so, then the freezer failed (stopped working). So the question is: did they die of old age, or is there something inherently destructive about running a freezer at refrigerator temperatures. Is my experience unique? Am I doing something wrong? I should note that I had them on a screened-in porch in southern Arizona, where the summer daytime temp can reach 95F (but its a dry heat!)
I'm really reluctant to buy a new freezer to convert to a keezer if using it this way will cause premature failure.