I have a side by side we moved into an unheated but insulated pole barn this winter. We had a couple weeks of single digit outside temps and a power outage that began with a few minutes of low or about half power but I got the breakers shut off pretty quick to try and avoid any issues from that. 4 days later went to get something out of freezer side and some things had started to thaw. Trying to reset it involved turning it off and on, unplugging for a few minutes, end result is its running but freezer side is staying about 20 and fridge side 30. Is that probably just normal for unheated garage that's about 20 itself? Thanks for any input, found you by searching thermostat heater kits for use in unheated locations, is that something I might need?

Okay, so are there any that are? I had an older top freezer fridge that worked okay out there for years. Are all the newer ones that way, or is it just side-by-sides?

I did push the plunger 5 times fast and it seemed it triggered a defrost because some slight creaking, cracking sounds started and then about an hour later the freezer was down to 0 for the first time and the fridge was still 32.