SO the story is, I have a 1.3cu foot fridge in my office, sitting on a desk, right next to a bunch of computers.
I can move it (now that I’m not pregnant, unlike when I moved into this office) to the floor, unplug it, and let it defrost.
But I don’t want a wet carpet, either.
There is a “defrost tray” that came with it. Looks like I can put the defrost tray right under the freezer shelf and let the water drip there.
I’d like it to drip all day today, while I’m here, and some into the night, so I can lug it off tomorrow.
So … unplug it, move it to the floor, put in drip tray, and leave the door open all day? Should that do it? The frost on the freezer compartment is very localized (the open door side) and about 3 inches thick in the thickest spot.
Yep, that would be my plan. You can speed the process along by putting a pan of hot water in there to raise the temp, or hit the freezer compartment with a hair dryer, but that much ice may take more than today to melt. You might not be able to haul it off till Monday.
We have a small fridge in our home office as well. What I do, is unplug it, take it out to the porch, open the door and wait a couple of hours. Dry it out with a towel, then carry it back to the office and plug back in.
It should only take an hour or so to defrost something that small.
well, a couple hours later I had a pan ful of water (and a smaller, if firmer glacier) so I stuck a towel in the pan to soak up the water.
About 12 noon, I ripped the glaceirs out and it’s done.
That was easy. Now I just have to convince Ramit he can do it to the identical group’s one at work and not steal mine from me for his own personal use …
The easiest way is to tip it a little backwards against a wall or something. Then you can guarantee that it won’t leak and you can just bail the water out with a cup or bowl when it is done. I used to do this all of the time in college.
3 inches of frost? HA! The mini-fridge at my job has 7 inches of solid ice that has entombed a frozen dinner (really frozen!) and ice cube tray, and extends down and forms a solid mass with the drip tray. Everything put into the fridge freezes solid. No one seems to care. I am new here, and have volunteered to defrost the empty fridge. So what have my co-workers done? Filled it up with food. Now I have to bring in a cooler and ice to keep their food cold while I defrost. My plan is just to unplug, put a dishpan in to catch the drips and a couple towels for wayward drops and then wait for the ice to melt to the point I can hack it out. I like the idea of tilting it backwards…it sits above the microwave and the key-cutting machine, so we don’t want flooding.
Back when we had refrigerators you had to defrost, we used the hot water in the freezer method. If the compartment is metal, putting the hot water dish (metal) next to it sometimes helps. No matter how you are tempted, don’t use a chisel! I’d be worried about the quantity of water if you just let it melt by itself.