Defrost Freezer: Best Ways to Approach

While more than ninety-nine percent of households in the United States own a refrigerator or a freezer, almost half of these households have a problem with their appliance maintenance. Refrigerators and freezers, however automatic in some of their functions, also need some manual maintenance like cleaning them up regularly for energy efficiency and for keeping the stored foods safe from bad bacteria or fungi which may start to build up on the interiors, thus putting your health at risk for eating food which may already be contaminated.

Cleaning a refrigerator or a freezer can also be tedious because before you can even start the process, you first need to turn off the thermostat, unplug the appliance, take out all the contents one by one, and for the removable parts, you have them all taken out too and washed separately.

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To wash the interiors and the racks and compartments, some prefer to simply use warm water with laundry soap and rinse after with clean warm water. Others would prefer mixing the warm water with a little vinegar. This helps clean out the fridge or freezer well and also kill the bacteria and fungi-causing germs which may start to build up especially where meat, dairy, and bread are kept. The vinegar also helps to get rid of the odor inside.

To defrost freezer is one important task one should always remember when cleaning the freezer. It is surprising to note though that even as most of us know that this is basic in freezer maintenance, some still have a tough time figuring out how to do it. Some people would use sharp, pointed materials like knives or ice picks to chip away the frost buildup in the freezer. This would actually cause more harm than good as it will only damage the freezer’s interiors. Use a spatula instead to remove the ice crystals.

Normally, you should defrost freezer once a week or when the ice buildup has come to about one-fourth of an inch already. Doing this maintenance on your freezer can help you save on energy because when thick ice builds up, this already becomes an insulator and begins to slow down the freezing process of your freezer, in turn making the machine work harder to keep the cold temperature.

For freezers which have the auto-defrost mechanism, just check regularly if this is working properly as some tend to not follow a timed setting. The older types of freezers or traditional freezers need the manual defrosting and in some cases, some people would simply just unplug freezer overnight or for a few hours and leave a drip pot to catch the melted ice. While this works, it can also get messy.

Some have resorted to tricks on how to defrost freezer the easier and more convenient way. The more effective ones include putting a jar or bowl of steaming water while keeping the freezer door open. The warm steam will hasten the process. Or if you’re not feeling too tired standing on your feet, you can hold a blow-dryer onto the freezer interior, carefully concentrating on the thickest part of the formed crystals to melt it faster.

Another trick that works is to thoroughly wipe the whole interior of the freezer with a clean cloth or paper towel poured with a small amount of cooking oil, after you defrost it. This will ensure that the next time you try to defrost your freezer, the ice will be thinner and will come off easily when you scrape it out. And while you’re at it, try wiping the exterior coils of your freezer. Keeping it clean won’t make it work harder, so that’s saving energy again. Well, that’s freezer maintenance.