(no subject)

[listersgirl]

Fitting 10 bagels into a freezer the size of a microwave (a freezer that incidentally is full of nuts, blueberries, ice cube trays, veggie burgers, and a very large bag of cornmeal) was not an easy task. I had to eat a bagel or two* in order to make the remainder fit. Shame, that.

Of course, I realized that there would have been much more room if my freezer weren't completely encrusted in ice. Which means I need to defrost it. Which is made more complicated by the fact that it's one of those lameass "freezer compartments", inside the fridge.

Has anyone had any experience defrosting these? I read the instructions on the back of the door, and it seems like I'm going to have to leave the fridge off, and the fridge door open. Which means the rest of my food will...go bad? How long does it take to defrost the fridge anyway? I suppose it'll be that much quicker in this heat, but the food will also spoil that much faster. Maybe I'll just see how much of it I can eat before the weekend, and do it then.

*I had a poppy seed one with veggie ham, avocado and sundried tomato havarti for dinner, and a sesame one with cream cheese and black currant spread for...dessert? Shut up.

Comments

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you have to plan for it like you were going away for a long time. Eat up all the food that you can and don't replace perishables, that kind of thing. It sucks.

[listersgirl]

If only I'd noticed this before I bought all the yogurts. Sigh.

[bruiseblue.livejournal.com]

I used to put the food in a cooler on the counter, and then use a lot of boiling water in baking trays, my hair-dryer, hot wet towels etc. to melt the ice cave - it's messy, and it takes hours, but it works.

Just don't try and scrape it off with a tool - my sister did that, punctured the case, and all the freon hissed out and boy, was her landlord angry!

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

I'd try to get a cooler of some sort for the food before defrosting the freezer. Even if the frozen food doesn't go bad per se, the whole freezing, then defrosting, then freezing again probably won't do much for the flavour and texture. And the stuff in the fridge--especially milk--will probably have a shortened shelf life, or even go bad, if you leave it out while the fridge defrosts. Meat would be even more of a problem, but if you're using vegetarian substitutes they might survive a warm spell more graciously.

[listersgirl]

I'm not too worried about the stuff in the freezer, because it's mostly nuts, or else things that were my flatmate's and have been in there since I moved. Those I think I can get rid of. :D I'm mostly just thinking about the fridge foods (the yogurt, the soy milk, and the like), but a cooler's not a bad idea.

[jeejeen.livejournal.com]

Just eat up all yer food & then do it. Wait till you're running really low on groceries, and unplug the beast.

[kylegirl.livejournal.com]

Word. It's the only way. Freezers suck.

Defrosting

[rightfin.livejournal.com]

Love those cheap-ass freezers.

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.

Re: Defrosting

[listersgirl]

Hahaha! Damn.

I have a vague memory of defrosting a proper freezer once before, and there was this one piece of ice that just WOULD NOT GO AWAY. So annoying.

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

My mom always put the food in a cooler. If it wasn't too hot, she would put out things like jam and ketchup and pickles on the counter, since they could set out for a couple of hours without going bad. Also, she would put pans hot (not boiling) water in the freezer to accelerate the melting.