Defrosting Freezers

[yogitunes]

The kids were in school, didn't feel like getting a tattoo or something pierced, and the bears in leather didn't showup for my birthday....so I thought I would defrost the freezer (manual defrost)....what a pain in the butt....had the floor steamer, plus the iron and a blow dryer, trying to melt and scrape the ice from in between the racks, water everywhere....next time I'm going frostless...but anywho I usedto have a chest freezer with the flash defrost option, open the lid, pull the button, and by the time you unloaded it, the ice melted enough to fall from the sides, 30 minutes toatl start to finish....

My actual question to you guys is....What or how do you defrost your freezers?...and how often?

 

[yogitunes]

Sorry about the double post!!!

 

[58limited]

Look on ebay, you can find a vintage electric defroster - basically similar to an oven element with a shield. They work great and take less than an hour, even with a heavy frost accumulation - see link below. They come in round or elongated shapes, mine is elongated.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Refrige...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item563a614b38

 

[tomturbomatic]

Towels in bottom, pans of hot water on frosted up shelves and blow dryer or heat gun to train on stubborn things like the accumulator and tight places. I put a big trash bag in a big trash can and load all of the stuff in that right beside the freezer. I have another container close by for the big pieces of ice. Since it only has to be done every few years, it's not a pain.

 

[brisnat81]

When I defrost the Chest freezer here, I empty it into boxes and wrap into towels, get a 10L bucket of hot tap water and then pour it down the sides. The ice melts/slides off and then I use a towel to mop up the water. The freezer is back on in about 30 mins.

We have a frost free freezer in the fridge for every day stuff, so the chest freezer gets defrosted every 2 years or so.

 

[58limited]

Since it only has to be done every few years, it's not a

Wow, must be nice. I live in a humid area and have to defrost every few months, even though I run a dehumidifier in the house.

 

[supersurgilator]

I HATE defrosting the freezer. We have a 1989 Magic Chef in the garage, and my mom would always use the pans of hot water as well, with towels in the bottom. We would use the handle of a wooden spoon to go poking at the ice. Thankfully, I convinced my parents to just not stock up on frozen foods, so we could just unplug this freezer and use the one in the house in the refrigerator.
Speaking of which, self defrosting freezers, do they would like heat pumps, just pump the heated refrigerant through the coils to melt the ice?