How to defrost a freezer quickly

MossRoad · Oct 2, 2010

Mine's just finishing up defrosting as I type this. I unloaded everything into our new one first. Then I propped the door open, pointed the fan into it, set it on high, opened the drain plug in the bottom of the freezer, put the drain hose into a garden hose and put the other end of the garden hose in the floor drain in the basement. Took about an hour. Now I'm just letting the fan run to dry it out. Pretty simple.

Don't most freezers have a drain hose on the bottom?

keegs · Oct 2, 2010

This is somewhat off topic but I thought I'd share.

I have a Kenmore Elite (yeah I'm a liberal from the Northeast and I have an Elite) refridgerator/freezer (freezer on top) and for the past few months water has been accumulating in the fridge. We had a little plastic tray catching most of it but some would collect in the crisper bins and on the shelves.

I looked it up on "the google" and found that during the defrost cycle condensation forms and weeps through a tube to a pan down by the compressor where it should evaporate. The tube can get clogged with mold and bits of food causing ice to form in the freezer and the water to drip into the fridge below.

Today I used the hair dryer to get the ice out and a piece of 75 ohm coax to snake out the tube. I've got flow now...hope it does the trick.

woodchuckie · Oct 2, 2010

keegs said:
This is somewhat off topic but I thought I'd share.

I have a Kenmore Elite (yeah I'm a liberal from the Northeast and I have an Elite) refridgerator/freezer (freezer on top) and for the past few months water has been accumulating in the fridge. We had a little plastic tray catching most of it but some would collect in the crisper bins and on the shelves.

I looked it up on "the google" and found that during the defrost cycle condensation forms and weeps through a tube to a pan down by the compressor where it should evaporate. The tube can get clogged with mold and bits of food causing ice to form in the freezer and the water to drip into the fridge below.

Today I used the hair dryer to get the ice out and a piece of 75 ohm coax to snake out the tube. I've got flow now...hope it does the trick.

Air pressure is also good to open the drain.
My freezer is the type where the shelves are also the evaporator so I have to remove the food putting it into an ice chest. With the chest full even the bread doesn't thaw out after several hours while waiting on the ice to melt.
I'm in no hurry. I do put a fan blowing room air into the freezer with a storage tub to catch the water.

keegs · Oct 3, 2010

woodchuckie said:
Air pressure is also good to open the drain.
My freezer is the type where the shelves are also the evaporator so I have to remove the food putting it into an ice chest. With the chest full even the bread doesn't thaw out after several hours while waiting on the ice to melt.
I'm in no hurry. I do put a fan blowing room air into the freezer with a storage tub to catch the water.

The hair dryer made quick work of the surface ice but it was much slower getting to the ice in the drain tube. I ran out of patience and that's when I got the idea of using the coax to help things along. I suppose I'll know in a week or so if this does the trick.