Almost time for the annual defrosting the freezer Holiday extravaganza!

[Recovering EE]

When I was a kid, we'd make a small snowman, then divvy up the frost and have a snowball fight.

Needless to say, we'd look forward to the middle of September, as this was a pre-back-to-school ritual.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Um, 15 cu ft full meat is a little hard to eat all at once.
I didn't buy a big freezer with the assumption I'd have to fill it, then gradually empty over the course of a year so I can defrost it. We keep it full-ish, stock rotated. Buy stuff in bulk when it is cheaper, then use it, and when we have another big sale, stock up again. Right now, it is fairly full with ground beef, sausage, and some whole chickens we got on sale over the last few months.

thats exactly how I learned as a kid, My grandma was a mom during the the great depression, and never missed a single chance to save. For me as a child grandma always had two of the largest coffin freezer's and food would be bought when it was advantageous and rotated through. even home grown produce/wild game got rotated through.

 

[Bluedog225]

Mine has a hose fitting on the bottom. Super convenient.

Also reminds me it’s time for the annual nose hair mowing.

 

[wpns]

My upright freezer got to the point where it wouldn't cool off very quickly, turned out the ice built up inside the door and other insulation till it reduced the R-value of the insulation. Thawing it to debug it turned out to be the solution. Red is upright freezer, Blue is chest freezer, Green is solar hot water tank:


See how it was really struggling to cool off? Also effects power use and efficiency.

Back to normal below before we turned it off. The occasional longer cycle when we opened it and put more stuff in to freeze, but back to normal cycles:

Always have a spare so you can thaw one without any time constraints, and always monitor temperatures!

 

[JRH]

As the Seasons roll round, and the deep freezers build up ice on the insides, eventually it reaches the time to shutdown and defrost. The younger crowd might not be aware of this Holiday since much of the newer more modern freezers (and almost all the refrigerators) have auto defrost. The problem with auto defrost from an off grid perspective is that it requires a heating coil in the freezer and that takes more power. An additional problem with auto defrost is it shortens the time you can store frozen food.

So the Holiday begins with digging through all the unused frozen goods from who knows when you put it in the freezer. You pick those items you really need to eat for the holiday meal to avoid having to throw away things of value. You also might toss the helplessly out of date heavily freezer burned items so to free up more space once the freezer is placed back into service. Once the freezer is bone empty the defrost begins!

The freezer thermostat is turned off or it is unplugged. Door is opened for more rapid ice removal (though some innovators place a hot kettle of water inside with the door closed to start a quicker thaw). As the ice melts and floods your floor below the freezer it is only a matter of hours until the holiday runs its course. Once all ice is gone the freezer can be turned back on and the frozen food restored to it.

Happy Defrost day everyone!

Yes …I just had my freezer holiday last week…I have two a year… freezer is 10 degrees colder and the refridge too. all works great… 9 years and counting on this Norcold 8 cubft RV refer…
If will fail I will upgrade , but it keeps on keepin on…

Yee Haa…..J.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Mine has a hose fitting on the bottom. Super convenient.

Also reminds me it’s time for the annual nose hair mowing.

Annual?

Lucky.

 

[Bluedog225]

Annual?

Lucky.

Modified grooming standards

 

[cs1234]

Mine has a hose fitting on the bottom. Super convenient.

Also reminds me it’s time for the annual nose hair mowing.

Just pull them out a few at a time while reading diysolarforum!

 

[lscotte]

more than once have gotten stuff untouched from the year prior

Heh, we typically find things that are three or more years old in ours when we get around to cleaning it. Dry climate here, so frost isn't much of an issue, so we are lax at cleaning it out. It'll be fine, right? Hmm, well don't want to risk it, so we'll just put it back in the freezer until next year rather than deal with it now. :⁠-⁠)

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Heh, we typically find things that are three or more years old in ours when we get around to cleaning it. Dry climate here, so frost isn't much of an issue, so we are lax at cleaning it out. It'll be fine, right? Hmm, well don't want to risk it, so we'll just put it back in the freezer until next year rather than deal with it now. :⁠-⁠)

It’s fine just some flavor loss due to freeezer burn. For meat or veggies use it in stew

 

[Recovering EE]

Mine has a hose fitting on the bottom. Super convenient.

Also reminds me it’s time for the annual nose hair mowing.

Annual? I wish!

 

[JerryK]

Living here in Minnesota I usually hold off for this project until the middle of January, we pick a day that's going to be well below zero all day.
Load up a few boxes/coolers with frozen goods, put them out on the front stoop or in the unheated garage.
Open the door, take a big 18 inch fan blowing air into the standup freezer.
It has a plug on the bottom pull the plug there's a hose connected to it going right to a floor drain. 3 or 4 hours later it's completely thawed, including the moisture that built up within the installation of the door which has now stopped dripping.
Wipe it down, dry it, refill it.