# Who remembers doing this?  Defrosting the freezer.



## Pappy (Aug 7, 2018)

What a job it was. Grandma would put in a tray of hot water and let it set. Then the chiseling began.


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## Aunt Bea (Aug 7, 2018)

I remember!

We had a refrigerator similar to this one.  The freezing compartment was just large enough for a couple of aluminum ice cube trays and a half gallon of ice cream.  

Remember your fingers sticking to those aluminum ice cube trays.


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## RadishRose (Aug 7, 2018)

I remember, too. My mother defrosting with a knife!

I remember those ice-trays and that bottle of Gulden's mustard in the pic. I guess that family drank a lot of soda. I remember glass milk bottles delivered, but not paper tops, they were metal-covered cardboard and we had a special "opener".






Also, I think we had one or two of those white enameled fridge containers as well as some glass ones. My chocolate pudding was always in the blue glass container with the clear top,


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## Falcon (Aug 7, 2018)

I never let it get THAT  bad.  I just turned the fridge  OFF  for several hours  with a pan under the cube  trays.


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## Ruth n Jersey (Aug 7, 2018)

I do and still have to do it in my old chest freezer that I have that my parents got when I was about 10. It still runs and Ireally don't mind doing it.. I found a rather unsafe method of doing it these days. I stand a plastic bucket upside down in the bottom of the freezer then stand a small electric heater on top. Shut the lid and and pug it in. Then in a little while I pull the plug and open the lid. If I'm not electrocuted by then I just have to mop up the water with a couple of rags.


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## jujube (Aug 7, 2018)

Hey, I still have to do this.  Our RV refrigerator's freezer gets quite iced up and about every six weeks, I have to defrost.  What a mess.  I use a hairdryer.

I learned the hard way back in the late 1970's why you're not supposed to use a sharp knife to pry the ice loose.....hisssssssssssss goes the sound of escaping Freon.


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## SeaBreeze (Aug 7, 2018)

I remember having to defrost the refrigerator freezer every now and then, never used hot water though, just emptied it, left the door open for awhile and chiseled away, never was that bad though.   Yes, I remember my fingers sticking to the ice cube tray, my mother used to make some tang orange juice in summer and pour it in there with toothpicks to give us kids a cooling treat.


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## ProsperosDaughter (Aug 7, 2018)

My 2nd apt had a old thickly coated refrigerator with the box freezer. It was think with ice when I moved in and it was when I left and possibly is to this day.

I do recall my mom defrosting the old one in the house when I was little; it was very funny. Watch closely folks will the lady of the house triumph over the freezer or . . .well the floor needed washing too.


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## Keesha (Aug 7, 2018)

Yes! I remember.


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## Meanderer (Aug 7, 2018)




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## Butterfly (Aug 7, 2018)

Yes, I do remember.  Yuck, what a job!!!


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## terry123 (Aug 8, 2018)

I remember. Thank God for frostless!!


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## twinkles (Aug 8, 2018)

i rented a mobile home after my divorce and that freezer had to be defrosted every week---i put some plastic containers in there to catch the water and turned on a fan


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## Rainee (Aug 8, 2018)

I still remember but now never let my freezer which is on top of fridge , get too bad defrost it every 6 weeks .. easier now than years gone by ..


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## Marie5656 (Aug 8, 2018)

*Frost free is the way to go.  I hated doing that.  

*


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## Gary O' (Aug 8, 2018)

Seems Mom always defrosted in the summer

I was about four, maybe five
Those chunks of ice were irresistible
Cold, but not much on taste

Never quite understood why all the fuss, but she really got upset


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## rgp (Aug 8, 2018)

I remember my mother doing it, and i did it as well in my first apartment . Frost-free after that.


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## Meanderer (Aug 8, 2018)




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## RadishRose (Aug 8, 2018)

Sold!


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## hollydolly (Aug 8, 2018)

I still have to do it in the freezer part of the upright fridge/freezer in my kitchen...The fridge part is self defrosting but the freezer part isn't ..it's a PITA... 

I've also got a Chest freezer, and that has to be done every once in a while  too...


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## gennie (Aug 8, 2018)

Fridge was bad but chest-type freezer in the garage was worse.


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## Serena77 (Aug 8, 2018)

I still have the original upright freezer in my garage that was purchased some thirty years ago. It's still running!  Some things they made years ago were better made, less electronic gadgets and they lasted forever!
This one still needs defrosting once in a while!


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## Meanderer (Aug 8, 2018)

Funny fridge....


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## Olivia (Aug 8, 2018)

Ugh! Don't remind me.


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## Meanderer (Aug 10, 2018)




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## HazyDavey (Aug 11, 2018)

jujube said:


> Hey, I still have to do this.  Our RV refrigerator's freezer gets quite iced up and about every six weeks, I have to defrost.  What a mess.  I use a hairdryer.
> 
> I learned the hard way back in the late 1970's why you're not supposed to use a sharp knife to pry the ice loose.....hisssssssssssss goes the sound of escaping Freon.



I do the same, I use a hairdryer for our small freezer out in the garage about once a year. It works really well.


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## Pappy (Aug 11, 2018)




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## Camper6 (Aug 11, 2018)

I was given that job once.  A chest freezer. I emptied it and then I used a heat gun to melt the ice.

Then I broke it up and sucked up the water and broken ice into my shop vac.

Wiped it out with vinegar and dried it and put the food back in.


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## Sunny (Aug 11, 2018)

I remember having to defrost the freezer part of the refrigerator. Seems like a very long time ago!


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## Pappy (Aug 12, 2018)




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## Elsie (Aug 12, 2018)

Pappy, this apartment had a refrigerator freezer compartment that size when my 3 children were living here.  How I managed to keep enough food frozen at a time was a miracle.


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## Phoenix (Aug 25, 2018)

I still do it.  The freezer was here when I moved in in 1991.  It has to be at least 43 years old.  The house was built in 1975.  It's an upright. It's still going strong.  I take a hair dryer to it. The food does not dry out in this one, like it does in the frost-free kind.


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## MsMeerkat (Sep 27, 2018)

Yes, thank goodness for frost free freezers.


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## Serena77 (Sep 27, 2018)

One of the best inventions, in my book. Lol


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## Trade (Sep 27, 2018)

I defrosted one with a screw driver once. Well started to anyway. It did not go well. Punctured a gas line and killed the refrigerator.


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## Furryanimal (Sep 27, 2018)

Mine is so old it still has to be defrosted.Will be doing it soon


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## hearlady (Oct 1, 2018)

I just did that yearly job on my second freezer. 
There's supposed to be something better about a non frost free but I can't remember what it is.
It did keep the food frozen well during our last power outage.


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## Aunt Marg (May 1, 2020)

I used to boil a pot of water, stick the pot inside, close the freezer door, close the fridge door, and wait for the heat and steam to do it's thing. What a mess it was!

Still plenty of prying, chipping, and coaxing... towels to sop-up water all over the floors and inside the freezer compartment, ice chips all over the kitchen floor, and when all was said and done, I remember the finished result never lasted for long.


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## terry123 (May 1, 2020)

I remember all that.  Thanks to the person that invented the frost free ones!


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## Llynn (May 1, 2020)

I remember it. Hot water, every bath towel in the house to clean up spills, scraping and chopping the ice, being oh so careful not to punch a hole in anything.


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## Ken N Tx (May 2, 2020)

Aunt Bea said:


> I remember!


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## treeguy64 (May 2, 2020)

Very first hour in my college rent house: The freezer was iced up, terribly. I started chipping at it. Psssssss........... I had gone right through the gas line. I had thoughts of how I'd survive without any money, after the repair. 

Fortunately, the landlady, Mrs Burdett, knew she had messed up by not defrosting the fridge, before I moved in. Her handyman repaired it, no charge. 

Mrs. B. stuttered, uncontrollably, with everyone, but me. She was one of the biggest influences on me, in my later life, to buy up houses, and be a great landlord.


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## StarSong (May 2, 2020)

I remember defrosting freezers.  What a pain that was.  Ugh.  Glad that job is permanently in my rear view mirror.


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## Aunt Marg (May 2, 2020)

StarSong said:


> I remember defrosting freezers.  What a pain that was.  Ugh.  Glad that job is permanently in my rear view mirror.


I couldn't agree more, Star! A royal pain it was!


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## fuzzybuddy (May 2, 2020)

My tiny NYC apartment had a fridge, you had to defrost. I'm not the de-frosting type of guy. My ridge used to look like a scene from " Dr. Zhivago. See, that movie is taking you back.


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## old medic (May 3, 2020)

We still have to on both fridges we have....


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## Mister E (May 3, 2020)

We have to defrost both our freezers , normally twice a year .


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## JaniceM (May 3, 2020)

Ick, yes, I remember defrosting freezers!  One part of it was piling all the frozen food on the table and covering it with towels so it wouldn't start defrosting while I was defrosting the freezer..  but it was a rather uncomfortable task in general because that ice in the freezer was _sharp-  _it wasn't unusual to get scrapes and cuts on my knuckles. Definitely prefer these self-defrosting models!


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