Why does a refrigerator have a light, but a freezer doesn’t

If you want to grab a snack from the refrigerator at night, fortunately the light switches on so you can see what you’re secretly gobbling up. But if you’re going for ice cream, you have to get out your flashlight. Why isn’t there actually a light in the freezer?

Apparently, consumers aren’t willing to pay extra for convenient lighting in the freezer, is economist Robert Frank’s theory. He explains that the missing lamp in the freezer is the result of the cost-benefit principle: the costs must be balanced against the benefits. If people are willing to pay a lot extra for a freezer with a light, producers can spend money installing that light as standard.

Open, close, open, close

So, it comes down to the question: why don’t consumers want a light in the freezer? Apparently, we open our refrigerator more often than the freezer. And when you open your freezer, you can probably quickly find what you’re looking for: hand over that tub of Netflix & Chill’d!

So frozen

Another theory: a light in the freezer is pointless because it gets covered in ice in no time, and then it’s no use to you. And by the time those handy self-defrosting freezers were invented, everyone was already used to a pitch-black freezer.

Also read:

• Can you put hot food in the refrigerator or freezer?
• 3 surprising things to keep in the freezer too
• Do you also wonder how that puddle ends up in your refrigerator?

Source: Mental Floss