Problem with my shatter, can anyone help me?

Actually totally normal. We have not thawed either of those in about 2-3 months. We can't use frost free in the lab bad for specimen and reagent stability. We have to transfer contents and thaw every 4 months.

That much ice buildup isnt normal. There are many causes for it and how to prevent/stop it without constantly thawing.
http://removeandreplace.com/2014/09/16/how-to-fix-ice-buildup-in-your-refrigeratorfreezer/

I could be Wrong. But that will not solve our problem. This isn't an issue with refrigerators. And we cannot use frost free or defrost timers. That leads to degradation. Some of our extracts are precious and that causes degradation overtime. I may not know everything about refrigeration, or anything for that matter, but this I know as far as storage and what we have to adhere to in order to pass inspection. And I'm sure our ice builds up faster than a normal use freezer. We are constantly in and out of it 24hr/day,365 days/year. Everytime it's opened it draws in warm air and moisture. And sometimes we have to hunt for things and temps can rise a good deal. You have to consider those freezers see a couple thousand openings very easily a year and have about 10 million + specimens through them in the same time. These aren't just opened from time to time.

Though also out of curiosity I'll measure RH again with that same meter after the next defrost and temp stabilization For both my -20 & -80. There are about 50 others on site all monitored and linked together centrally I could compare to. Not only temp and RH, but ice formation as well. Though I'd suspect the rate snd duration of opening the door plays a huge role in that. Though I can certainly check and see if RH values are considerably different from fresh in use to after being in use for sometime as the current measures were. Now I'm not discounting you. You have me thinking though. I just don't expect much difference in moisture from a standard freezer and Ice formation. I think the more consumer common -20 which are particularly frost free are going to be the only ones that don't have much or any ice. Though to not go too off track here.If winterizing in a frost free stealing could help but if in a deep freezer or what ever you guys call them, those are more apt for ice accumulation due to lack of freeze "thaw" auto cycles and constantly being opened drawing in more warm air containing moisture to condense/coalesce and end up forming ice.

gk skunky said:

Not sure if anyone gave a shit but measured the freezers for shits and giggles since I never have. As it would seem just by visual observation frost free is definitely lower, ~2%. Standard freezers were both close to 30% RH.
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Looks like the first freezer is not reaching 0C, which is the point that relative humidity should approach zero.

Some super cooling may occur, where water vapor stays liquid below its freezing point, but I'm surprised it is as high as 2%. Part of what it is measuring may be air that has entered when you opened the door.

First freezer is -13*C by air -17*C by liquid monitor. The second was -78*C when measured. Keep in mind those are standard manual defrost and not frost free just like a chest freezer. And yeah the frost free was more than likely detecting incoming air because it was --- when i opened and then would go to 2%. Got a brand new manual -20 being installed right now. Once it gets to temp I'll check it's humidity. Probably be sometime tomorrow.

Here's some pics of the crumbly stuff I've been talking about. First pic is right out of the vac chamber. Second pic is crumbled a little for a different view

After seeing picture im gonna go with fade and say its nucleation from moisture.

I hope so, it would be great to have the problem identified so I can focus on doing something about it.
This is a batch I had winterizing when I posted the other day. After reading the replies I expected this result, it really backs up what's been suggested so far so i'm feeling encouraged. I'll do a qwiso run sans the winterizing in a day or so, I'm anxious to see the results!

Cool man post the results. Anymore questions just ask. Theres a good group of regulars here who are more then willing to help

Hell yeah the help I've gotten here has been great! And it's greatly appreciated. I will definitely be back shortly with my results.

Ok here's what I got. No nucleation this time! However it came out kinda sticky and a bit stretchy although it'll break after stretching a bit so it's not quite like taffy, but not quite shatter either. It's been in the vacuum chamber at around 120f for 3 days. Any ideas on why it's so soft?

Another pic kind of showing the pliability I'm talking about.