Basically the title: If I leave the freezer door slightly open it seems to be “more frozen” than before – big chunks of ice on everything, stuff frozen together. Why is that? The food can go bad in this state but it LOOKS colder (I know this is stupid). In my mind it should just melt and warm up 🤷🏻♀️
In: Physics
A tidbit I didn’t see anyone explain, is that cold air holds very little moisture, so normally the inside of the freezer would be essentially dry, any moisture that was in there having frozen at some point.
Then, when you let warm air in, there’s a whole new load of moisture that gets to freeze, therefore more ice.
(This next bit is more of an assumption)
While it’s open, the freezer is still trying to run, so ice may form as the air gets cold, then the cold air gets replaced by warmer air, and it just kinda continues until the freezer cant keep up anymore.
There are 2 parts to this:
1. You let in moisture by leaving the door open, which then freezes to everything, giving the appearance of being colder
2. more uneven temps. With the door open, the cooling elements will work constantly, meaning the first things they reach will be kept colder, while the stuff near the opening will likely be somewhat warmer.
After you close the door, the cooling will have kicked up to try to compensate for the heat that has come in. Sometimes this can temporarily spike the cold in your freezer or refrigerator, and in the case of the refrigerator you will notice some items near the vents frozen because they are near the source of cold.
Because it has to work harder its access to air also means it will freeze the water molecules within air
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