We have our upright freezer in the garage, it is NOT “garage ready“. However, our garage is insulated, it’s been 106 degrees some days and the warmest the temperature has been INSIDE the garage was 85 degrees.

I would track the garage temperatures and see how bad it can get. If I recall correctly, temperatures up to 90- 95 degrees in the location around the freezer are “ok,“ but not on a daily basis. Hot temperatures make it more difficult for the freezer to regulate the interior temperature and you can end up with food thawing within the freezer.

https://www.familyhandyman.com/list/10-cool-tips-for-a-garage-refrigerator-or-freezer/

We are in N. Cal as well. We moved our old fridge/freezer into the garage and it works fine.

Thank you both-garage is not insulated-and temps do rise in afternoon in the garage-but I don't believe more than 90-95 degrees-so maybe a regular freezer.

I believe the garage ready freezers are actually for COLD weather locales. When the garage gets too cold, the thermostat does not get triggered to turn on or something like that. Then all of your colorful popsicles melt down the front of your freezer door and ooze out and trickle down the fridge door below. . . Go ahead and ask me how I know this!! There is an aftermarket "garage ready" kit that you can buy inexpensively on amazon and convert any freezer that way.

"Anna: Yes, as noted in the link above, the freezer/fridge uses the ambient temperature to determine how much to heat/cool the inside."

That info in that linked article is wrong.

The thermostat reads the temperature inside the unit, not outside.The reason a typical refrigerator with freezer may not work properly in a cold garage is because the thermostat is inside the fresh food section, not the freezer section.

The temperature in the fresh food section is maintained usually between 40°F and 35°F ... which of course is above freezing.

The compressor normally runs enough to keep the FREEZER section at 0°F while cooling the fresh section to the target temperature. The cooling coils are in the freezer section, some of the cold air from there is diverted into the fresh food section ... just enough to cool it down while also keeping the freezer section well below 32°F.

If the garage is cold ... below 40°F ... for an extended period of time, there may not be enough heat gain into the fresh food section to trigger the thermostat and run the compressor enough to keep the FREEZER section as cold as it should be ... so the FREEZER section temperature will increase .. above 0°F, above 15°F, above 25°F, maybe above 32°F.

An upright freezer wouldn't have a fresh food section, would it? I thought upright freezers are all freezer, no fridge.

@dadoes My, my, so many CAPITALS. As noted above, she asked about a FREEZER in the garage. READ the POST.

https://www.consumerreports.org/freezers/should-you-put-a-freezer-in-the-garage/

Right, the article is about "freezer/fridge" but you linked it.

Freezer-only units do perfectly fine in an unheated garage.