The other day, I was defrosting my deep freezer and thought I’d share some tips that may be helpful for some. Most people now days have a self-defrosting freezer, but we still have an old freezer that has to be manually defrosted. So if you’re like us and still have to defrost, this post is for you.
Our freezer was really frosted over this time. I’d put it off for so long. To tackle this, I first turned off the freezer and switched the alarm to off (usually found on the very bottom of the freezer). Then I removed all the food and put in coolers. This is a good time to throw out food that is old or severly freezer burned. Here’s what it looked like before I started to defrost.
I put a few pans on the shelves to help collect the ice and water. I also put a couple towels on the bottom of the freezer and on the floor.
I have a Scunci steamer, but any steamer should work. I position the steamer hose on the top of the ice near the metal grates. It’s best to start at the top of the freezer and move down as the ice melts off.
I use a nylon spatula to help loosen the ice as it starts melting. At the beginning it takes some patience, but as the ice starts melting through, the process starts going quicker. When all the ice is melted and removed, I dry the whole inside of the freezer with towels. I then let it sit for a few minutes just to be sure it’s completely dry.
I replaced all the food, then turned the freezer back on. It felt so good to re-organize all the food and know what I have. You’ll also want to be sure you turn the alarm switch back on when you’re finished. Because our alarm is really sensitive, I have to wait about 6 hours for the freezer to refreeze well before I can turn it back on. I was so excited to be finished, that I neglected to take a finished picture of the defrosted freezer before I put the food back in. But it looked brand new! Whew, so glad to have that project done!