chest freezer cleaning

dontwannabeindebt

Hi, just wondering if you can help me?
basically I go on my hols for 2 week tomorrow and I have just emptied my chest freezer so only the fridge/freezer will need to stay plugged in. Anyway I have scraped all the ice from round the sides, but just wondering if there is a way of cleaning it that is better than others,

also while I'm away it won't be switched on so do I leave it with the lid open OR closed.

thanks in advance

Pink.

Hi dontwannabeindebt,

When you go away it's best to leave the lid open to air it.......assuming it's somewhere that small children or animals won't have access to and manage to lock themselves in it.

There's a good thread here with lots of hints and tips on defrosting and cleaning out freezers that might help:

How Do you Defrost Your Freezers?

I'll merge your thread with that one later to keep all the suggestions together.

Pink

beemuzed

Definitely keep lid open (have you something you could just wedge it open with??) or it'll smell very musty on your return.

dontwannabeindebt

thanks for that P-W,
no there won't be any animals and the children are coming with me, so there will only be my dad and if he was to start climbing in chest freezers I WOULD be worried, lol. Good points though.
thanks again

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

wipe around the inside of you freezer with comfort/fabric softener..it will stop the smell and when you switch it back on ..the next time you defrost it it will do so quicker..the comfort stops the ice freezing as hard..it drops off in sheets, and i have never had it taint any food...
as everyone says wedge it open..and put a saucer in the bottom with a couple of new tea bags on...they will absorb the moisture - a tip i picked up from the removal guys last time they were taking my stuff to Germany
hope that helps

Hapless_2

I let mine defrost and the suck all the water out with my vax

dontwannabeindebt

Some FAB tips there,
thank you very much, I look forward to coming home to a nice clean/ fresh freezer. (love the lenor idea)

thanks again

:T

lil_me

If you don't have a vax, when we had a chest freezer we used to throw towels in the bottom to soak the water up then vacuumed the 'bits at the bottom' like stray peas, breadcrumbs etc up with the vacuum cleaner as non of us were tall enough to reach the bottom without falling in (whatever was on bottom was put in carrier bags so we could grab it, family of shorties). I sprayed my second freezer which I'd emptied with a little milton solution when we went away, came back and still smelt nice. If it's not in a dusty area etc I'd leave the lid open aswell if possible.