Defrost Timers (for manual defrost fridges)

[rp2813]

Does anyone use one of these on their refrigerator?

 

I have a small '80s GE 3.5 cf fridge in the office room and I'm thinking of hooking it up to a nifty little Telechron defrost timer I picked up quite some time ago. 

 

My concern is how often I'd need to empty the "chiller" tray below the evaporator cavity.  The fridge is located in a corner so the door won't open far enough to allow me to remove the tray, which is very shallow.  Sopping up the condensation with a sponge or rag would be the method I'd have to use, and it occurred to me that I could try leaving a sponge in there and just squeeze the water out of it once its saturated.

 

I'm wondering if it's worth that kind of trouble as opposed to defrosting it maybe once a year or so.  

 

I'm also concerned about effectiveness.  Back when I had the '39 Westinghouse I had an old "Defrost-It" timer hooked up to it for a while, but all it did was convert the frost to icicles that collected on the bottom of the evaporator.

 

Any input or experiences to share?  Here's a picture of the timer:

 

[mixguy]

Defrost timer & Emptying chiller tray

My mom has a defrost timer on her 1950s Hotpoint Refrigerator. The first timer she had was a Paragon model that lasted over 20 yrs. When it was noticed that it was no longer working she was unable to locate another defrost timer. She purchased an appliance timer and set it for 2.5 hr off time which is long enough for the frost build up to melt off into the drip tray. Since that time, that timer died too and she was able to locate and new old stock defrost timer at the hardware store. Mom was really happy finding one! She empties the tray once every 5-7 days and the ice is about 3/4 of an inch thick.

 

[rp2813]

Thanks for the info Russel.  I'll see if I can come up with a way to extract the drip tray.  This fridge could easily be cycled off for a couple of hours or even longer during the middle of the night and have plenty of time to recover before being accessed the following day.  I'm pretty sure I only have two options for shut down periods based on the position of the switch at the bottom of the red pointer, so would opt for the longer of the two.

 

[vintagekitchen]

wow...

I feel so dumb. I had a wonderful early 50's philco fridge when I was first out on my own, and I spent countless wasted hours either fighting the frost with fans and a hairdryer, or later, with one of those oh so unsafe electric refrigerator defrosters, which was nothing but a cord, a calrod type heating element, and a metal box type enclosure around the element. I actually ended up leaving it in a move, as someone had left a crappy late 80s BOL roper at the place I was moving, and it was frost free.

I had not a clue back then about defrost timers, nor using a regular appliance timer. I feel so dumb now, and part of me really wishes I had kept the philco.

 

[rp2813]

Well Kevin, now that you know about this convenience, it's never too late to hunt down a vintage fridge.

 

I have one of those calrod defrosters and I couldn't live without it.  Defrosting the GE Combination is a cinch with that thing (using a defrost timer isn't an option with the Combination's two-door arrangement).  The ice comes of in sheets and I can have the whole job done with freezer wiped out and restocked  in around 45 minutes, and I can tend to other things while the heater works its magic.  Water drains away, albeit circuitously, into the condensate pan under the fridge.  It's the next best thing to a frost-free model.   It takes longer to defrost the big upright Monkey Wards Tru-Cold in the basement, but still faster than pots of boiled water, etc.

 

I won't use such a device on the little office room GE.  I tried that only once and due to the evaporator being open at the top, it started to melt the liner in the ceiling.  Since that incident, I make sure to keep the heater a safe distance from any melt-able surfaces on the Combo and the Tru-Cold and have never had any problem.

 

[vintagekitchen]

vintage fridge

Actually I have a vintage model now, a frost free wizard citation bottom freezer model. Should it meet its demise though, I will be going back to a classic style single door vintage fridge, as the wizard citation is sooo huge it seems a bit of a wast to have all that space, that is mostly empty.

 

[rp2813]

That Wizard is both rare and beautiful.  I'd use that thing until the compressor gave out or it suffered some other type of failure that couldn't be easily and inexpensively repaired.

 

Can we see money shots please?