Defrosting Stand up freezers

[solargeek]

We have 2 of the largest stand up freezers Maytag ever made. But they have to be defrosted. Although it would seem old hat, I find most people do it the hard way. Ours now is completely defrosted in .5 hours (30 minutes) and then I turn it back on empty for 2 hours and then reload. Here are a few tips that have cut the time and necessary attention to it in 1/3rd.

Unloading: we have food by shelves or type; beef, pork, poultry, homemade soups etc. I pack them in SEPARATE coolers so as not to make more work later.

1.Instead of the hair dryer everyone told me to use, I use the largest fan we have and keep moving the "tilt" to hit each tray/shelf (we have 3 shelves in each plus the top cooling grid). ON high.

2.Then, instead of being passive, I gently tap everywhere with either a mallet or today since I couldn't find it, the back blunt side of an ice pick. I do this on the shelf at which the fan is pointed and it just falls down to the bottom. I keep doing this without stop but gently.

3. Rather than letting towels or the drain do the work, I actively use my gloved hand to shovel out the ice chunks that are now raining down! Yes it means on my knees, then up, then back on the knees but remember only 1/2 hour! I toss the ice in a bucket (where I do also wring out the towels catching the water and ice I miss- see 4.)

4. Of course I use the towels at the bottom rather than using the drain as it is tooooo slow. This catches any extra water.

5. Last, when the ice and water are gone (1/ hour!) I wipe it all down inside.

Reloading: I have an Iphone but any phone with recording works. SO as to rotate food, I dictate the contents of each shelf into the NOTES function that came with the phone as I am about to re-load it. For guests and big parties at the holidays this was a must. Then I email it to myself and print it out and put it on the freezer. Totally worth the 10 minutes extra it takes. I switched from handwriting it as my hands even in gloves are too cold and wet.

Ok, maybe everyone knew all this, but it took many tries to get it to this short of time for me.

[Skandi]

I'm horribly lazy, when I need to defrost an upright freezer I take it outside open the door and walk away, but then we don't have american style HUGE uprights!

[here to stay]

I wait til mid winter and put the stuff in the snow. But then I'm lucky to have snow while the garage is well above freezing. The drain hose gets put into the end of a garden hose that runs outside. Old towels sop up the remaining moisture. It takes 24 hours but the work itself is minimal.

[kkbhf]

On my small chest freezer I do it pretty much like solargeek, except I use a dust pan to shovel the ice chips. Keeps my hands from getting too frozen!

[Melissa]

You can put a few pans of boiling water in there to speed up the process even more.

[spacecase0]

I have 2 chest style freezers,
have never defrosted them in many years
if you don't open them often the ice builds up slower than if you open them all the time

[manygoatsnmore]

Melissa , I do the same thing.

It also helps if you don't wait until the ice is really built up before you defrost. They say more than a 1/4" of ice really affects the efficiency. In an upright where the cold air is falling out every time you open the door, every bit of efficiency is important. Most of the stuff in my upright freezers is either large items like turkeys, or in boxes. I can just lift out the boxes, put the big stuff in laundry baskets and coolers, cover it all with a quilt to insulate further, and then I use the pans of hot water, a rubber mallet, a dustpan, gloves to keep my hands from freezing and towels to catch the ice and any melt water. The washer is right next to the freezer, so the towels go straight into it as soon as I finish defrosting. Only takes a few minutes if the ice isn't built up, longer if I've been neglectful.

I'll have to see if I can figure out how to use my phone to dictate my inventory - I have one on paper, but it's really hard to keep it current, especially as I'm not the only one removing food from the freezers.

eta:  I have to agree with spacecase0 on chest freezers.  They are more efficient and seldom need defrosting.  It is a little harder to get to the food near the bottom, though.  There's a trade off with everything.  I have a couple of each kind.

[Skandi]

Nov 1, 2016 7:16:52 GMT manygoatsnmore said:

eta:  I have to agree with spacecase0 on chest freezers.  They are more efficient and seldom need defrosting.  It is a little harder to get to the food near the bottom, though.  There's a trade off with everything.  I have a couple of each kind.

I use stacked bread cases in my chest, they fit it almost perfectly, and can just be lifted in and out when you want something from a lower case.

[manygoatsnmore]

Skandi, hmm, I have some of those, but I don't know if they are the same size as my big chest freezer. I'll have to bring one in and see. Thanks!

[susannah]

Nov 1, 2016 10:14:14 GMT Skandi said:

Nov 1, 2016 7:16:52 GMT manygoatsnmore said:

eta:  I have to agree with spacecase0 on chest freezers.  They are more efficient and seldom need defrosting.  It is a little harder to get to the food near the bottom, though.  There's a trade off with everything.  I have a couple of each kind.

I use stacked bread cases in my chest, they fit it almost perfectly, and can just be lifted in and out when you want something from a lower case.

Oh my gosh, I love this idea!  I've been using plastic bins, but sometimes they have "balance issues" if the bin below isn't level.