Sadly, I've had to deal with them in the past, and have tried nearly everything to remove crusted ice, and have made some tremendous mistakes.
Do: - Remove everything perishable from the fridge to coolers/ friends/ neighbors for at least two days. - Open the door, pack the lowest points of the fridge with rags/ towels to soak up water. - Wait. And wait, and wait. - Fight the urge to speed the process up.
Do Not: - Chip, chisel, hammer, scrape, pull away, dislodge, strike, whack, grind, torch, or attempt any other verb other then wait. Regardless of whatever tool you might use; if it affects ice, it will sever the cooling lines first. - Boil kettles inside the fridge. It is the cruelest of urban myths that a "friend-of-a-friend" tried this successfully. The plastic surrounding the freezer compartment is scientifically engineered to warp, twist, and disfigure exactly 2 degrees below the boiling point. - Pour warm or hot water over the ice. While this doesn't seem to hurt, it *does* provide a temporary source of amusement, will rapidly educate you in the laws of thermal dynamics, reaffirm your belief that winter really does take a long time to go away, and will definitely increase the volume of water to mop up afterward.
Several years ago I shunned my own advice and used a plastic ice scraper on the offending build-up. When I reached the 80% finished point, I heard the telltale sound of escaping gas. Despite a very carefully prepared, and finely crafted, excuse (Read: Lie) involving barbed-frozen-crab-legs-in-the-shell-shoved-into-the-frozen-pit-with-great-force; the repairman saw completely through my ruse. They apparently finance university educations on supremely expensive freezer repair jobs by nearly everyone foolish enough to speed up melting ice.
Defrosting
Sadly, I've had to deal with them in the past, and have tried nearly everything to remove crusted ice, and have made some tremendous mistakes.
Do:
- Remove everything perishable from the fridge to coolers/ friends/ neighbors for at least two days.
- Open the door, pack the lowest points of the fridge with rags/ towels to soak up water.
- Wait. And wait, and wait.
- Fight the urge to speed the process up.
Do Not:
- Chip, chisel, hammer, scrape, pull away, dislodge, strike, whack, grind, torch, or attempt any other verb other then wait. Regardless of whatever tool you might use; if it affects ice, it will sever the cooling lines first.
- Boil kettles inside the fridge. It is the cruelest of urban myths that a "friend-of-a-friend" tried this successfully. The plastic surrounding the freezer compartment is scientifically engineered to warp, twist, and disfigure exactly 2 degrees below the boiling point.
- Pour warm or hot water over the ice. While this doesn't seem to hurt, it *does* provide a temporary source of amusement, will rapidly educate you in the laws of thermal dynamics, reaffirm your belief that winter really does take a long time to go away, and will definitely increase the volume of water to mop up afterward.
Several years ago I shunned my own advice and used a plastic ice scraper on the offending build-up. When I reached the 80% finished point, I heard the telltale sound of escaping gas. Despite a very carefully prepared, and finely crafted, excuse (Read: Lie) involving barbed-frozen-crab-legs-in-the-shell-shoved-into-the-frozen-pit-with-great-force; the repairman saw completely through my ruse. They apparently finance university educations on supremely expensive freezer repair jobs by nearly everyone foolish enough to speed up melting ice.