Tell me adults of mumsnet - how do you defrost a freezer?

[Punkypinky]

It was advertised as frost free but 4 years in and there is about an inch and a half of frost on the top of my freezer. I bashed at it with a knife a bit earlier and got fed up as nothing came away.

Is there a trick to it? Do I pop a streaming kettle near the ice or something? Help me adults of mumsnet I have somehow got to the age of 40 with no idea how to do this!!

Take all the food out. Turn it off. Leave. Mop water & clean it. Turn it back on & put the food back in it.

Oh! But how long does that take?? Won't the food all defrost??

As above but I put a washing up bowl of hot water in it to speed it up and to help catch the drips.

If you bought it from new I'd be complaining like mad. Has it ever been left open by accident?

Take the food out. Put it in freezer bags, or a cardboard box with a blanket over it.

Switch the freezer off, and leave it, with the door open, for about half an hour. Attack with a fish slice, if you have one. Don't use anything sharper than a table knife. If you stab hard enough, you can wreck the whole thing.

Once one chunk comes off, the rest gets easier.

As above, plus pack the icy parts with lots and lots of old towels, kept in the garage for just this kind of occasion.

Swap towels for dry ones, wring out and air dry the wet towels.

I use a hair dryer or rather I did before first free.

Big bowl of boiling water at the bottom and smaller bowels/mugs of boiling water on any shelf you can fit them on. Leave the door open and replenish the boiling water as needed.

you’ll start hearing satisfying cracks as the ice begins to loosen then you can chip away at it with a table knife - carefully!

Put the food in cold boxes/ bags while you’re doing it. In addition to what PP said, I also use saucepans /bowls of boiling water to speed up the process and steam off the ice. If you manage to carry out the process quickly then you don’t need to throw out defrosted ice cream etc. You need a bowl or tray to catch the defrosting ice and a towel on the floor at the bottom to soak up what melts down the back. The ‘steaming bowls’ method dramatically speeds up the process.

Oh yes, the food needs to come out!

you might get away with piling it in the bath and covering to insulate it a bit.

Food out, turn off
Metal pans on all the shelves and keep refilling with boiling water.
Tea towel across door for drips.

For big chunks of ice I cover with a tea towel and pour the boiling water onto the towel.

I deliberately empty it out of food for a few weeks first.

Then I switch it off, layer up with towels to catch the drips and speed the process up significantly by bashing any big lumps off very very carefully with a small hammer I have.

If you damage any of the cooling tubes though its new freezer time so be careful.

I use a hairdryer too and chip the ice away

much quicker also have an integrated freezer

I had a bloke round recently to check something in my fridge freezer and he defrosted it while he was here. Took 20 minutes.

Turn off power.

Take food out which will stay frozen.

Use the steam from a wallpaper steamer/stripper thing and mop up water with towels.

Turn power back on.

Easy.

I defrost mine in winter when it's very cold.
Run the contents down first.
Put everything in bags or boxes and turn freezer off. In a warm room it takes about 3 hours.
The food is fine.

Empty by eating as much as you can, probably not all in one day.
Steaming bowls of water+hairdryer+mop+towels.
Do NOT hammer the ice off the sides like I my friend did.

As above but I would try to spend a few weeks using up as much as you can from the freezer first.

Baking tray on the floor in front of the freezer to try to catch as much water as you can.

Also some freezers have a little spout thing at the bottom that you pull out to direct the water. I had no idea what it was for until after the event sadly.

Ok great thank you everyone. I'm glad I asked I'd have been chipping away with the butter knife for a long time 😂.

It was on my list of things to sort this weekend but maybe I'll tackle it when the freezer isn't so packed. Mind you if I manage to shift it quickly hopefully I won't need to throw out anything.

I've taken on board the need to be careful too. I do love being able to consult the mumsnet hive mind.

I rarely (if ever) say this but I need this bloke in my life!! 😝

I put the food in the other freezer or cool bags. Saucepans of boiling water on the shelves, hairdryer, a roasting tin on the floor to catch any drips, towels to mop up any water on the floor. A plastic spatula to smack pieces of ice off.

In the days when I had an ancient old freezer that needed regular defrosting, a steam cleaner with the nozzle pointed at the ice got the job done in a few minutes.

Plenty of water results very quickly, so I put a large flattish baking tray at the bottom of freezer with a towel inside it to catch the drips. There will ALWAYS be water though, but it's easy to mop up.

I cannot recommend a steam cleaner enough for this awful job. Very quick indeed.

Put a big tray at the bottom with a towel underneath.
Put all food in a cool box.

Use the bowls of hot water and blast with a steamer. So satisfying.

Don't bash it with a knife for starters. My friend broke a freezer by doing that!

Before you do anything put to a few freezer ice blocks in to freeze. Once they’ve frozen take the food out , wrap it in newspaper, put it into a cool box or cardboard box, alongside the frozen ice blocks. Cover with a blanket.
I leave the door open to allow the warm air fro the kitchen to speed up te process. Use a plastic spatula to chip away at any stubborn ice.

HAIR DRYER! I'm shouting because you seem to have missed the other posters saying it. It's a game-changer.
HAIR DRYER- seriously you have to try this!

Do make sure you have sufficient towels to soak up water from the front if using a hairdryer, especially if you have to plug it in to an extension socket on the floor near the freezer. Also watch out for drips from above.