Defrosting the freezer

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

As well as defrosting Fridge and Freezer at next Freeze, the above item will be reconoitured into fly killing as the boiling steam will kill off the little barstards that greeted me as I returned from holiday, it is also humane and not noxious insecterside.:beer::beer::money:

ceebeeby

My freezer food is put into a black bin bag, that is then wrapped in a duvet and put upstairs in the bathroom (which is quite cold) - can stay like that for hours without defrosting.

I do the hot water bowl method and just let it get on with it itself and at the end go and mop it up. I do it on a wash day, and use all the 'dirty' towels to prevent water leaking out, they're going in the machine anyway.

borokat

I came up with a good method of defrosting the freezer last night so thought I would share. Got all the drawers out, switched the freezer off, then I put a plastic washing up bowl in the bottom of the freezer to catch water, and a towel on the floor. Then I soaked another towel in very hot water and put it on the top shelf. I re-heated the towel a couple of times, and then used a knife to get the really stubborn bits of ice at the back (although with more patience I am sure they would melted anyway). It worked really well and took less than an hour so no danger of food thawing out.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I am not worrying anymore-subject to testing delivery when it finally arrives as the Wallpaper Stripper seems more than adequete for my needs.
I am waiting on delivery. Thanks to MSE for suggestion which hopefully should solve my problems and means I won't wish to replace Fridge and Freezer so hastily.
:money::beer::A

Moorhen

I don't have to defrost my freezer this winter as unfortunately when we were away on holiday in the summer the electricity tripped and it defrosted itself.

We lost loads of food and I had to claim on the insurance but every cloud has a silver lining and now I don't have the job of defrosting it!!

hmc

hi, im sure there is a thread somewhere lol
i need to defrost the freezer, hate this job
how long do i realisticly have with the food out of the freezer?
i will put it in a tesco cool bag with some frozen ice packs
i do it as quick as i can with bowls of boiling water

thankyou

Kaz2904

I can have mine done in an hour from opening the door to empty it do shutting the door once all done.
I empty mine out and put all of the food into cool bags. These are then wrapped in duvets and left on the kitchen floor (solid and cold). I then get in and scrape off as much ice as I can get to and dispose of that. Once that's done, I put a great big towel folded up at the front to save my knees and a big bath towel folded up on the bottom to absorb water. I get out my hair dryer and start blasting away at the top of the freezer. My thinking behind this is that the drips from the top will melt the other layers on their way down.
Last time I did it, I came up with a brain wave plan which I was going to use next time I do it but I'm stumped if I can remember what that plan might have been .
Good luck, I hate doing mine and wish I had a frost free one!

hmc

thanks. i thought you had to be careful scraping cos if damaging something?
what do you scrape with?
hairdryer is a good idea
i had a frost free and left it with the ex more fool me lol

Kaz2904

I use an ice scraper for the car. I used to have one for the freezer but it got lost so now I just use a car one. It's only plastic so won't do really tough stuff and it doesn't get it all clear. I wouldn't go scraping with a knife in case you punctured any of the pipes. That's why I also use the hair dryer. That's not that safe though so you have to be really careful about not getting drips on it and not putting it down in wet bits. I also use it on an extension cable with a circuit breaker thingy.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

I have a chest freezer which I defrost by using bowls of hot water and by spraying the really frozen bits with a warm salt water solution.

Whole job done within an hour.

I aso put the freezer contents in freezer bags and wrap in a blanket.