The Craftiest Workshop

First off, I should reveal that my freezer is an upright freezer. We bought this freezer when we moved to Orleans ON in 1996. That makes it 25 years old this March and it has survived through seven moves! I really enjoy having an upright over a chest freezer. What I do NOT like is having to defrost it. Every time I go to defrost it, I forget what I used to collect the water, how long it took to defrost and how long before it was ready to use again. So, this post is more for me than for you.

This is one of those jobs I tackle every six months or once a year. For some reason, I seem to get more ice build up in the summer. More people go into the freezer to get freezies or ice cream and the door doesn’t always get fully closed. By the time it has accumulated enough ice that I want to defrost it, it is time to harvest the garden and I need the freezer. So, for me, it ends up that I tackle defrosting in late January or early February. This allows the remaining Christmas baking to get eaten and many of my harvested vegetables have already been consumed in stir fries or soups. This time of year also lends itself well to putting things outside if the refrigerator freezers are full.

I emptied out the contents filling the fridge freezers and only ended up with a chest cooler full of broth in yogurt containers, mini pizzas, frozen apples and raspberries. I put the cooler out on the back deck which is sheltered from any sunlight that might poke through. It was cloudy out and -21 so I assumed everything would stay nicely frozen. I was hopeful that the ravens would not find it; they are constantly scavenging.

Here is the empty freezer. The ice had accumulated heavily at the top.

This is our first house with the electrical outlet high above the freezer so I didn’t have to move it out in order to unplug it. I just unplugged it, turned the dial to off and propped open the door.

It took a good hour before things started melting steadily.

I placed a towel on the floor in front and under the door. I noticed later that under the door needed a doubled up towel. I put a cookie sheet with a high rim in front of the open freezer. The plastic tubing connected to the freezer needed to stay in the cookie sheet so I set a 2X4 on top of it. This kept it aiming downward which prevented water from backing up onto the floor. I removed the plastic plug from the bottom of the freezer to allow water to drain.

Once the ice began to fall, I used a turkey baster to move the water from the pan and into a pail. In the past I tried to use a siphon but the water wasn’t really deep enough to make that work.

When the ice could be loosened off the shelves, I removed it and put it in the pail.

This meant less water to squeeze out of the pan later making the whole process go a lot quicker.

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I unplugged the freezer at 9am and at noon almost all the ice was gone.

Next, I wiped it down with some warm water and vinegar. After that, I dried it well with towels and let it air dry for about an hour. Last year I didn’t let it air dry and some frost accumulated instantly after it refroze. It is close to the furnace so there was definitely enough air movement for it this time.

Around 6pm, I put back the items that were outside in the cooler. The ravens had left it alone…thank goodness and everything had stayed nicely frozen. I added a fresh box of fridge n’ freezer baking soda with the screen. The next morning, I moved the items back that I had put in the fridge freezers.

I am not sure this post will help anyone with their own defrosting but I know it will help me the next time I go to defrost my freezer.