Defrosting the freezer

in-it-to-win-it_4

Anyone want to come swimming in my kitchen????

My freezer section was looking a bit like a view of the swiss mountain in dec. All of my drawers in the freezer now are broken due to the fact that it get's iced up. I've turned it off, been using bowls of boiling water and towells to mop up.

Thing is I only did this 6 weeks ago and as soon as I switched the freezer back on it seemed to ice up again really quickly. I did however put the food back in straight away. I've never had this with a fridge freezer before and i'm guessing it's on it's way out as although it is only a few years old it's not a quality make. I can't afford a new one right now but was wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

Should I let it freeze up before adding the food? Does a freezer work more effectively when full?

God I sound so dumb sorry but thanks for any advise.

squeaky

Hmmm... sounds like your doors are not sealing properly and so letting outside air in; and any moisture in the air will freeze out.

Try using a small piece of paper and when the door is shut - see if you can slip the paper past the seal anywhere.

Skint_Catt

in-it-to-win-it wrote: »

Does a freezer work more effectively when full?

Yes it does. IIRC I've been told if you have any empty drawers then you should fill them with inflated carrier bags(?)! :rolleyes:

kraftykat

in-it-to-win-it wrote: »

Anyone want to come swimming in my kitchen????

My freezer section was looking a bit like a view of the swiss mountain in dec. All of my drawers in the freezer now are broken due to the fact that it get's iced up. I've turned it off, been using bowls of boiling water and towells to mop up.

Thing is I only did this 6 weeks ago and as soon as I switched the freezer back on it seemed to ice up again really quickly. I did however put the food back in straight away. I've never had this with a fridge freezer before and i'm guessing it's on it's way out as although it is only a few years old it's not a quality make. I can't afford a new one right now but was wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

Should I let it freeze up before adding the food? Does a freezer work more effectively when full?

God I sound so dumb sorry but thanks for any advise.

Probably a silly question, but did you dry the inside of the freezer after you defrosted it?

If not this could cause it to ice up quickly again.;)

LameWolf

The only way I can think of around this would be to remove the fuse for the ring main (do I have the right terminology?) from your fuse box while you defrost the freezer. Nothing else on that circuit would work during that period, but it'd turn the freezer off!

Anyone else got another idea?

andrewmp

Just turn off your power to your house!

hotcookie101

I had this problem with a fridge freezer in my old flat-and I had to turn the power off to the kitchen-it is a bit annoying but I could think of no other way (I didn't turn off power to whole house though )

andrewmp

In my house there are no other devices which would suffer from being powered off for a few hours whilst a fridge defrosts. I also don't have my fridge hardwired into the mains though!

jollyjojo

Hi I hope this is in the right place, please feel free to move me if it is not.

On a whim this morning I decided that I really ought to defrost the freezer (it is horrendous!)

Anyway I emptied it, put everything into cool boxes, but have just realsied it is going to take forever to defrost because it is so bad.:rolleyes:

Does anybody have any tips on speeding things up a bit!

I did think about holding a hairdryer in there, but have to go out in a little while and wondered if there was anything that would speed up the porcess with minimal help from me for a few hours.

Thanks

Jo X

Magentasue

I used to fill metal baking trays with boiling water, and put them on the shelves, almost closing the door.

Fastest way was a hand held steam cleaner.