To Defrost a Frost Free Freezer or Fridge Freezer: Professionally engineers recommend you remove all food and containers in the freezer and leave it switched off with the door open for a minimum of 36 to 48 hours to ensure all ice has had chance to defrost.
This can take several hours. Do not try and speed up the process and do not use sharp objects to remove ice. Whilst the freezer is defrosting, quickly clean the appliance's interior using a damp cloth. Before turning your fridge freezer back on, make sure to dry the interior.
Unfortunately you cannot. The evaporator is behind the panel in the fridge and provides the cold for the fridge and the freezer. You may be able to defrost it by removing the panel at the back of the fridge and defrost the evaporator with a hair dryer. Do not chip the ice off of it though.
Do you need to defrost a frost-free fridge freezer? A frost-free freezer functions with an automatic fan that helps remove the warm air from the freezer to prevent ice build-up. These freezers help you to save time and make life easier as they do not need any defrosting. You do not have to defrost the freezer.
2. Slightly Higher Energy Consumption. As mentioned earlier, the defrost cycle does use additional energy. While modern frost-free freezers are designed to be as efficient as possible, they may still consume slightly more electricity than manual defrost models.
Frost free fridge freezers are great because you don't need to manually defrost them. Instead, they use fans to blow cold air around and get rid of any ice. But you can get a build-up of ice if you leave the door open for too long or if you overload the fridge.
DON'T Use an ice pick, knife, or other sharp object to punch through the ice. You may puncture the walls and damage the unit. If you need to scrape off some material, use a plastic spatula instead.
Leave the door open during defrosting to let warm air circulate and help expedite the process. Put shims underneath the front feet of your freezer to help with drainage.
Turn off the refrigerator and unplug the unit. Leave the door open to start the defrosting process. Remove all the food from the freezer and refrigerator compartments, discarding expired or old food.
The most common frost-free fridge freezer fault is a build-up of ice on the evaporator. If evaporator ice builds up, it's going to affect the airflow, resulting in the temperature never getting low enough.
"Frost-Free" refrigerator/freezer units usually use a heating element to defrost their evaporators, a pan to collect and evaporate water from the frost that melts from the cold plate and/or evaporator coil, a timer which turns off the compressor and turns on the defrost element usually from once to 4 times a day for ...
The average lifespan of a fridge freezer is around 10 years. However, with proper maintenance and careful usage, it can last even longer. Regular cleaning, ensuring adequate ventilation, and avoiding overloading the fridge can help extend its life well beyond the decade-long expectancy.
During defrost there will be no running sounds, no fan noise and no compressor noise. Most models will defrost for approximately 25 to 45 minutes, usually once or twice a day. You may hear water dripping or sizzling as it hits the heater. This is normal and helps evaporate the water before it gets to the drip pan.
Temperature is set too low
Check the set temperature – if it's too low, adjust it slightly so that it is within the recommended range of 2 - 4 °C. On some appliances you set the temperature using a scale, e.g. 1 – 5, with 1 being the warmest and 5 being the coldest.
STEP 3: ALLOW ICE TO MELT
If you're crunched for time and need to defrost more rapidly, try placing pans of hot water in the freezer with the lid open to speed up melting, or use a plastic scraper to help remove frost as it softens.
Choosing a freezing cold winter day for your defrost is ideal as you can place the food into a cool box, cool bag or even a large plastic lidded container and leave it outside until you are finished. You really need the temperature outside to be below 5°C and keep it away from any direct sunlight.
First, switch the freezer off and leave its door open. If the room is warm, that will help speed up the thawing. You might try turning up the heating a bit in that room as well.
Never thaw food in a garage, basement, car, dishwasher, plastic garbage bag, in hot water, out on the kitchen counter, outdoors or on the porch. These methods can leave your foods unsafe to eat. For safe thawing methods, see: The Big Thaw.
No. Defrosted food should not be refrozen unless first cooked to over 75 °C and should not be refrozen more than once following this cooking step. However, many manufacturers will put a statement on their foods along the lines of 'This product has been previously frozen but is suitable for home freezing.
On the other hand, a Frost Free freezer functions with an automatic fan which removes warm air from the freezer to prevent ice build-up. Frost Free freezers help you to save time and make life easier as they won't need any defrosting.
It is recommended that a 4-star freezer needs to operate at -18 degrees Celsius as a minimum. This will prevent bacteria from growing and will keep your frozen food fresher for longer. Whilst it is recommended to keep your freezer below -18 degrees Celsius, it is important to not drop the temperature too low.