I'm not sure how they advised to use the defrost setting. Perhaps it was an overnight operation. I know it was never used on our Westinghouse. My mom just wanted to get it overwith.
I used to have an old "Defrost-It" timer box with three different settings on it. It basically shut off the fridge for a designated period of time once each day to allow the condensate to melt into the glass dish below the evaporator (as was the arrangement on my little '39 Westinghouse). It sort of worked, but after each cycle, droplets on the bottom of the evaporator would freeze, and over time, they'd become long icicles. It couldn't be used on the '49 Westinghouse because the meat drawer was directly below the evaporator, and that drawer did double duty as the pan to contain the melted condensate during the defrosting process.
I used to have an old "Defrost-It" timer box with three different settings on it. It basically shut off the fridge for a designated period of time once each day to allow the condensate to melt into the glass dish below the evaporator (as was the arrangement on my little '39 Westinghouse). It sort of worked, but after each cycle, droplets on the bottom of the evaporator would freeze, and over time, they'd become long icicles. It couldn't be used on the '49 Westinghouse because the meat drawer was directly below the evaporator, and that drawer did double duty as the pan to contain the melted condensate during the defrosting process.