Defrosting the freezer

Uniscots97

You get special freezer de-icer spray from Lakeland and Kleeneze but its not worth the money, the glass/ceramic bowl of hot water trick as mentioned by nikibella works the best. Catching the water, I use a couple of cheap microfibre towels from the pound shop and wring them out every so often.

Lyndsay_21

well i've done it :T
used the bowl of hot water, hairdryer and as in some places it was really thick a cup of warm water poured over, the best bit was when the ice was coming loose pulling it off in chunks.

thanks for all the advice just glad i wont have to do it for at least 6months now.

Solomon_Broad

I've used a steamer (about £30 from Argos, etc) to clean my freezer. Makes the job much easier. It's also great on the hob as well. Gets right underneath the gas rings, where you simply can't get a cloth.

npsmama

I've done a search and not found anything so forgive me if this has been asked before.

What's the best way to defrost my huge upright freezer please?

Thanks

Justamum

Do you have a free-standing fan at all? If so you could open the door, put a large baking tray on a shelf and switch on the fan. I've done this and it really works.

You can also buy a spray from Kleeneze I think which will defrost it. It's probably just anti-freeze. Or you could use anti-freeze, though I don't know how suitable it would be to use in a freezer.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is to open the door and leave it to (very slowly!) defrost. I'm sure others have better ways of doing it, which I'm very interested in knowing about too!!

lil_me

I open the door, put a bowl of hot water inside which I change as it goes cold, usually manage to defrost mine, clean it out and switch it back on well within an hour. I usually put a few towels from laundry basket (so were going to be washed anyway) on floor to catch any water that comes out.

boybeck

Hi
I aim a hair dryer at the door opening about 18 inches away so the heat does not to damage the sides and also bearing in mind the safety point about water and electric dont mix,but i can do it in about 20 mins

lil_me

I tried the hairdryer one and set the hairdryer on fire as it got too hot :rotfl:

Quasar

Personally I won't use extra electricity (fans etc)to speed up defrosting, but then I have only a small fridge with ice compartment, so that's not a big job unless I let it get really really full of ice. However, I tend to defrost it frequently, so that half an hour of open door does it for me.

Sharra

I did mine recently - I used a mixture of: washing up bowl with boiling water inside, pouring hot water through the shelves into said washing up bowl, a hot water bottle and of course the old knife/fish slice attacking the ice trick (just be careful not to damage the freezer) - it was very therapeutic but my arms ached the next day!