Not to be trusted with sharp tools..

[peter]

That's me.....

Cleaned the fridge at work, found some four month old milk.

Decided to poke some of the ice off the ice-box.

You know what's coming next don''t you

My collagues have now christened me "Minus 007", licenced to kill fridges.

I'm maintaining it was euthanasia, or at least a mercy killing after what I found inside it.

[Chantal]

I did exactly the same thing a few years ago

I heard a nasty hissing noise and rang the (then) electricity board to ask

a) what I'd done and
b) what I should do.

The nice lady on the phone said I should

a) open all the doors and windows
b) not light any naked flames
c) try not to breath in too much
d) go outside until the hissing stopped
e) take the fridge to the tip
f) buy a new fridge &
g) not sunbathe in the garden for a year or two as I'd personally destroyed the ozone layer over my house.

The good news was that I claimed on the insurance for the fridge under accidental damage as I sure as hell didn't deliberately stab it to death and they paid out

[richard p]

wouldnt turning it off for a couple of hours be less hassle

[Chantal]

Possibly but it was a fridge with a little ice box that had dodgy door so was covered in a LOT of ice and would have flooded the kitchen if I'd just left it. Back then I was young, foolish and very impatient You learn...

Quite what Peter's explanation will be I don't know

[peter]

After leaving it for several hours it still had a two inch covering of ice all round, which would have flooded the kitchen floor over the weekend.

[Tigger]

Pan of boiling water, regularly refreshed, is the answer!

[peter]

Tigger, if I am "Not to be trusted with sharp tools." who the heck would trust me with a "Pan of boiling water."?

[Smurfy]

When i was a student a housemate of mine invented the 'defrostatron' which was a very impressive piece of machinery. It consisted of 2 hairdryers selotaped to the back of a chair, switched on and aimed at the inside of the freezer.

everything was going well until after about half an hour one of the hairdryers blew up!

I favour the bowls of hot water approach though, less risk of explosion or damage to the freezer!

[Elaine]

Get a frost free fridge freezer like I did! absolutely marvellous! No more stabbed fingers or scalded hands for me cheers, Elaine.

[Chantal]

They hadn't been invented when my fridge was born. I do have two of them now, but then...

[richard p]

how do frost free fridge freezers work?

if wet air gets into a cold box the water vapour condences on the walls and freezes. the only way i can see to automatically get rid of that ice is to allow the freezer to warm up above melting point so the ice melts... hence the drain tube onto the hot compresser to evaporate the water from the melted ice ... guess ive aswered my own question....... but that means that the food in your frost free fridge freezer is in a continuous cooling and warming cycle , which dont seem right to me

[Shallot Man]

richard p. Seem to recall reading somewhere that automatic defrosting Freezers were expensive to run, due to them continuously defrosting themselves.

[Elaine]

I have had a frost free fridge freezer for over 10 years without any problems at all. It doesn't appear to be any more expensive to run either. Any how, if it was, avoiding all that hoo-ha with defrosting would be well worth it!!!