Defrosting freezers?

tbourner

We've got 3 freezers, I'm pretty good at defrosting them. Is it something I could do part time? Would there be much call for it?

I'd need to buy a heat gun probably rather than the wifes hairdrier, and some insulated cool bags for frozen goods would help, I've got plenty of old towels.

Just seems like the kind of thing that people hate doing. How much would you pay for someone to do it? Considering it usually takes well over an hour.

//edit: would I need insurance in case I cut through the gas pipes?

geordie_joe

tbourner wrote: »

We've got 3 freezers, I'm pretty good at defrosting them.

Sorry, but you don't sound that good to me.

tbourner wrote: »

Is it something I could do part time? Would there be much call for it?

I doubt it, most people can do it themselves.

tbourner wrote: »

Just seems like the kind of thing that people hate doing. How much would you pay for someone to do it? Considering it usually takes well over an hour.

Who are you kidding? There's old ladies in the old style board that teach people how to do it in 20 minutes.

tbourner wrote: »

//edit: would I need insurance in case I cut through the gas pipes?

Well I've been defrosting freezers since the early seventies, and never even come close to cutting through a pipe. To be honest, I wouldn't let you anywhere near my freezer.

tbourner

geordie_joe wrote: »

To be honest, I wouldn't let you anywhere near my freezer.

I didn't realise we'd met! When was it you saw me defrosting a freezer?

Jackop

geordie_joe wrote: »

Sorry, but you don't sound that good to me.



I doubt it, most people can do it themselves.



Who are you kidding? There's old ladies in the old style board that teach people how to do it in 20 minutes.



Well I've been defrosting freezers since the early seventies, and never even come close to cutting through a pipe. To be honest, I wouldn't let you anywhere near my freezer.

Thats some good encouragement/advice there!

Im not sure if there would be a market but id definately put the word around any OAPs you have in the area, i suppose it would be difficult for some of them to defrost theirs. Apart from that im not sure who might be interested.

But good luck anyway, i would let you near mine if it wasnt a frost free one! :T

tbourner

TBH I don't expect many people from this forum to be interested, we all seem to be pretty prepared to do those 'easy' jobs ourselves. But I know my mum pays people locally to do odd jobs, and she hates defrosting her freezer! Plus I used to help my dad when he worked for a frozen food delivery company, and they did it as a free service to their customers (put their food in the van while it was being done), I went on quite a few jobs with him and plenty of people said they loved having someone do it for them. But then it was free!

worriedfirsttimebuyer

What unhelpful advice from the second poster - I don't think there was any call for that.
It's not a bad idea - you'd be surprised what busy people wil pay for. There's a chap on our estate who hoses down and bleaches wheelie bins for £2 a go and makes a fortune! Might be worth putting some printed leaflets through doors locally? How much do you think you would charge?

geordie_joe

tbourner wrote: »

I didn't realise we'd met! When was it you saw me defrosting a freezer?

I don'tneed to seeyou doing it, this convinced me

//edit: would I need insurance in case I cut through the gas pipes?

If you do it right there is absolutely no chance of doing that. So what are you doing that makes you think it might happen?

tbourner

worriedfirsttimebuyer wrote: »

Might be worth putting some printed leaflets through doors locally? How much do you think you would charge?

No idea really, probably £5-£10 depending on the freezer.

geordie_joe wrote: »

If you do it right there is absolutely no chance of doing that. So what are you doing that makes you think it might happen?

Various people have told me the gas pipes are very thin walled and brittle due to the temperature and any sharp metallic object would go straight through. Someone told me today in fact that his son-in-law popped a pipe when he was doing someone's freezer and it had to be thrown away.
I don't know why me asking about properly insuring myself means you wouldn't let me anywhere near your freezer though? Do you always employ odd-job men who have the ability to leg it with your money and leave you to pay for the damages?

sobrokeithurts

Yep, I know about popping pipes too as it happened to me. I was being too impatient with a freezer I'd badly neglected though, and was going for gold with a hammer and chisel, lol.:rotfl:

geordie_joe

tbourner wrote: »

Various people have told me the gas pipes are very thin walled and brittle due to the temperature and any sharp metallic object would go straight through. Someone told me today in fact that his son-in-law popped a pipe when he was doing someone's freezer and it had to be thrown away.

So why haven't you learned from that and decided NOT to use sharp metallic objects?

tbourner wrote: »

I don't know why me asking about properly insuring myself means you wouldn't let me anywhere near your freezer though?

Because you know how it could happen, but instead of making sure it could never happen, you think about insurance for when it does happen.

tbourner wrote: »

Do you always employ odd-job men who have the ability to leg it with your money and leave you to pay for the damages?

I don't employ odd job men, because they usually do an odd job. Especially the ones who know how accidents happen, but don't take the appropriate steps to prevent them.

Also, having insurance is no guarantee they won't leg it anyway. And I doubt any insurance company would pay out if you used a sharp metallic object on the gas pipes and burst one. They'd simply get hold of the manufacturers user guide, show you the page that says not to do that, then tell you it's your fault.

tbourner

geordie_joe wrote: »

Because you know how it could happen, but instead of making sure it could never happen, you think about insurance for when it does happen.

Now you just sound ridiculous. I only asked if I needed any, obviously I'm not going to go slashing at the pipes with a sharp knife.

I'm just dumbfounded that you said you "wouldn't let me anywhere near your freezer" when I asked if I needed insurance, and that I "don't sound that good to you" for seemingly no reason and with no basis! Where do you possibly think you get the right to tell someone you've never met or know anything about that they're not any good at something? You're shit in bed BTW and you can't make a cheese toastie to save your life.