Every so often it’s essential that you defrost your fridge / freezer. This keeps it running efficiently and also ensures that your food is kept at the correct temperature. You can tell it’s time to defrost your fridge / freezer if you can see a build up of ice on the inside or if it the fridge stops cooling properly.
If you have separate (under counter) fridge and freezer then you can defrost them separately.
If you have a taller combined fridge / freezer (usually fridge compartment on top and freezer compartment underneath) then you’ll need to defrost BOTH compartments at once.
We recommend that you start defrosting first thing in a morning as it can take a long time and you need to be present to mop up any water every hour or so as the ice melts.
Here’s what to do:
- Remove all food from the unit. If it’s a combined fridge/freezer then remove the food from BOTH the fridge and freezer compartments.
- If there are removable drawers in the freezer then remove them.
- Turn the unit off at the wall socket.
- Leave the unit door(s) open for 24 hours so the ice can melt properly. Let it melt and drop off naturally. You can remove any ice chunks that drop off naturally and put them in the sink to melt.
- If you want to try to speed up the melting a bit then fill a bowl with hot water and place it in the bottom of the unit. You’ll need to keep replacing the water every half hour or so as it cools.
- We recommend putting a towel down in front of the unit to soak up any water as the ice melts. You’ll need to keep mopping up the water and squeezing out the towel regularly.
- Once it’s full defrosted clean and dry the compartment(s) then turn it back on at the wall and close the door(s).
- It will take around an hour to start getting cool then you can put the food back in.
Stay Safe
If you follow the instructions above then deforsting your fridge / freezer is safe and easy but there are some things to definitely avoid doing as they can be very dangerous :
- NEVER try to remove the ice with a knife or scraper. This can damage the coolant gas pipes and the gas is dangerous.
- NEVER use a pan of water you’ve heated on the stove as a hot pan will melt the fridge.
- NEVER try to use a hair dryer or heater as electric and water are a lethal combination and it could kill you!