How Long a Liebherr Freezer Takes to Get Cold — and Why It Shows Two Dashes

The number, from the maker

How long does it take for liebherr freezer to get cold has a published answer, which is unusual and useful.

Three to five hours, depending on the room, to reach freezing temperatures from a cold start.

That is Liebherr's own figure, published in its manual, and it comes with an explanation of the thing that worries people most.

Two dashes is not an error

The freezer temperature display will only show temperatures that are below freezing.

So when the appliance is warmer than that — because it has just been switched on, or because the power was off — there is nothing in range for it to display, and it shows two dashes instead.

That is the display working, not failing. It is also, judging by the search data, one of the more alarming things a new owner encounters, which is why it is worth knowing before it happens rather than at nine o'clock at night.

What makes it take longer

A warm room. A closed Miami kitchen in August is a different environment from the one a European manual assumes, and the five-hour end of the range is the realistic one here.

A load of warm food. This is the big one. Filling a freezer that is still coming down does two things: it adds heat the appliance now has to remove, and it can trip the temperature alarm on the way, which then worries you about a second thing that is also not a problem.

A cabinet that has just been moved. Let it stand for a few hours before switching it on. That is about the refrigerant settling, and it applies to any cold appliance that has been tilted.

Load it after, not before

Wait for a number on the display. Then fill it.

If you must fill it sooner, do it in stages rather than all at once, and expect the alarm to sound while it catches up — that is the temperature alarm doing exactly what the manual describes.

When it is genuinely wrong

• Still two dashes the next morning. Past the window, with none of the causes above. Worth a call.
• Reaches a number and drifts back up. Different problem, and a more interesting one: it can make cold and cannot hold it, which points at seals, airflow or defrost rather than at refrigeration.
• Alarm sounding with the door shut and nothing new inside. That is the appliance saying it is not cold enough and cannot explain it away.

The same clock runs after a power cut

A freezer that has been off for six hours is doing a pull-down when the power comes back, not recovering from damage, and it shows you the same two dashes for the same reason. That matters in this city, because the question usually arrives the morning after a storm rather than the day a new appliance is delivered.

What is different after an outage is that the appliance kept a record while you were not watching. Touch the alarm icon and it will show the warmest temperature it reached — which is the number that decides what is safe to keep, and it is a better answer than opening the door to feel the food. Read it first, clear it second, and then let the pull-down run without opening anything.

If the display is still showing dashes well past five hours with the door shut and nothing warm loaded, the pull-down has stopped being a pull-down. That is the point at which it is worth a call, and it is worth saying on the phone how long it has been and what the room temperature is.