I had a busy weekend. It seems like I always have 20 things to get done in 10 items worth of time. At least, we didn’t have anything scheduled so I was free to spend the majority of my time on stuff that needed to get done. Something that has been bugging me for several years was that our deep freezer needed to be defrosted.

After last summer, we cleaned out my in-laws freezer (20 cubic ft, which was completely full) I could barely fit the contents in our freezer. It was not like it was particularly full, but the usable space was probably reduced by at least a third due to ice buildup. This wasn’t new news to me, It just put it in perspective that something needed to be done.

The worst time to defrost the freezer is when it is full. The second worst time to do it is in the summer, unless it is completely empty, then of course it is the best time. I was giving it some time to get emptied out, but I also wanted to get it done before it was warm. Not too warm, because I needed to transfer everything to coolers while I executed the process.

We bought this freezer for $50 in 2005. In fact, we used the U-Haul that we were moving stuff from the storage unit to our house to pick it up. So, it has been plugged in since that time and this is the first time I have ever defrosted it. There have been a few times over the years that the door wasn’t shut which is what started the ice growth in the first place.

Can I be honest? This is probably the best $50 ever invested. The amount of money we have saved by buying beef at $2 / pound when the going rate was $4 for hamburger, we have literally saved thousands of dollars and ate like kings. There is hardly a day that the door is not opened. Additionally, we have frozen berries on sheets and temporarily housed stuff for others. For me, a freezer is a must have.

We have to talk about the science of freezing for a minute. When ice melts, we know it turns into water. That water is 32 degrees (or a hair higher). In effect, it insulates the remaining ice as long as it is in contact, considering the outside temperature is 55 degrees. Why is this important? It means that the first step in defrosting is physical removal of as much ice as possible. Not only is this less total mass to melt, but it translates to speeding up the time dramatically.

That seems straight forward. I used a hammer and a wide putty knife to try and get under the ice that is caked in the coils. You need to be very careful not to damage the coil or you will have a ruined freezer. In my case I had ice above and below the shelves so I tried to chisel in the putty knife and lift.

Your best friend in defrosting is actually the ambient temperature. This is partially why I waited until spring was showing to do this. The other tool I used was a heat gun. This worked really well in melting small spots and places frozen around the tubing but it was slow. Literally, all of the freezer was dripping and melting while I concentrated on a small area with the heat gun.

You want to get all the water out. That will just re-freeze and begin the whole cycle over. So, I washed the dried blood out (that was from putting a whole fresh beef head in the freezer last year) and the sticky who knows what. Then I took a dry towel and absorbed any drops I could find.

All told, this probably took 12 hours to do. I did leave for four hours in the middle to attend the gun show. While I was gone, the ice was melting away just sitting there. I also took the opportunity to clean the outside and sweep all the junk from behind and under the freezer. For some reason, there was a lot of dog food. In fact, I even found dog food in the freezer. I am not sure how that got there, but I suspect the kids had something to do with it.

It doesn’t look like that much ice in the picture. This made being able to stack two pounds of burger to now being able to stack four pounds. Granted, it wasn’t that bad on every shelf but the top shelf I had already removed all of the top ice before I took the picture. In that case, I could only stack one whole chicken high. The other added problem was that the surface was not level and stuff had a tendency to slide or fall out if not precariously organized.

My mom used to defrost the freezer once every couple of years. We tended to fill it and then empty it growing up. In my case, inventory is constantly ebbing and flowing which makes it harder. One more tip, we didn’t have a heat gun so she would use the blower exhaust from the vacuum. It doesn’t get nearly as hot, but it does push a lot of volume of air. Finally, be prepared for water everywhere. Have towels and catch basins available. I did it in the garage, so the wet wasn’t a problem but a finished floor would have been a disaster.

End Your Programming Routine: I am happy this is done and I am glad that I spent my time on it. I can see everything and I have a lot more room. Like I said, this is something I have been wanting to do for years. Maybe I won’t wait so long next time (or maybe I wont have kids that don’t close the door properly). And, everything was still rock solid in my coolers when I went to put it away – no extra mess.