Defrosting a Small Non-Defrosting Refrigerator Freezer

flyinglentris

flyinglentris

Disabled and Retired Veteran
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Let me give you all something to laugh at. :woot:

I have a small refrigerator with a small part dedicated to a freezer section. I went to get something and found the freezer door frozen shut.

So, I set about defrosting the hard way, with a hammer and chisel to break up the ice. For a small freezer section, I got about three buckets of broken ice, three hours of work and a broken plastic door hinge to the freezer section. The metal of the ice chest is bent here and there, but when all was done, the damn thing still works.

This amounted to most monumental project I have engaged in, almost all year.

These little refrigerators are cheap and maybe, I ought to go get one that automatically defrosts. I had put a desiccant canister that is safe for food in for a while, but forgot about it and the great freeze-up was the result.

This sort of freezer defrosting is worse than taking out the garbage or hand washing my pickup truck.
 
The bottom freezer of the Fridge is self defrosting. It still needs to be be cleaned on a regular basis. The two 21 cubic foot, upright freezers in the shop are manual defrost. That was a deliberate decision. Food keeps longer in a manual defrost freezer than in a self defrost freezer. I recently defrosted and cleaned both of the shop freezers. Fortunately G has many large ice chests. I tackled the project when G was out of town. He is a hoarder. Tossing anything causes him to have a panic attack. It took three days to complete the job. I donated an ice chest of food to our local homeless diner. A turkey and processed venison sausage and venison ground meat. I tossed a large garbage bag of Jurassic food. Food that 4, 5 up to 7 years old. Done with that.
 
mjd said:
Sorry you went through so much to get it done. I usually just moved stuff to another fridge or cooler and unplugged mine. A blow dryer helps too.
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Yes - patience is required. Unplug and place an old towel on the base inside and on the floor in front to catch drips. Wait. Eventually the ice will melt enough to be removed in chunks. No chiselling.

Its my most hated kitchen job next to cleaning the oven. I never do the latter. I get a professional oven cleaner in once or twice a year.
 
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Our main freezer is frost-free (wouldn't have anything else in an upright freezer), but this reminds me the chest freezer in the garage needs defrosting. I use a hairdryer every time.....so much quicker and easier :okay:

Morning Glory said:
Its my most hated kitchen job next to cleaning the oven. I never do the latter. I get a professional oven cleaner in one or twice a year.
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Agreed.....oven cleaning is an awful job and is worth paying a professional to do it.....our's is being cleaned as I speak (type) :okay:
I'm pretty certain that when I replace my oven I'm going for something with pyrolytic cleaning.
 
Morning Glory said:
Yes - patience is required. Unplug and place an old towel on the base inside and on the floor in front to catch drips. Wait. Eventually the ice will melt enough to be removed in chunks. No chiselling.

Its my most hated kitchen job next to cleaning the oven. I never do the latter. I get a professional oven cleaner in once or twice a year.
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Mine was on the ground floor so I just put it on the driveway or back porch to let it drain.

Oven cleaning is the worst. I know a few people with the self-cleaning ovens and they seem to be hit or miss with some loving it and some hating it.
 
Morning Glory said:
Sounds like a good move!
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I shopped the web last night and went out early this morning to buy a new fridge at the store.

The old refrigerator is now officially retired and a nice new one with partial automatic defrosting has taken its place. It has a larger freezer section and so, the fridge section is smaller. It is otherwise the same size as the old one. That nasty aluminum ring freezer is gone, replaced by a freezer section with all plastic or acrylic walls.
 
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