Defrosting a stand up Freezer

Defrosting a stand up Freezer

It was this full last time it stopped... sigh.

Maybe the door wasn't shut tight, something was in the way & pushed it open, or somehow the freezer just stopped working, but at least once a year I've had my freezer die on me.  I've gotten it down to a science now.  Here is what you do.

1st buy a freezer alarm!  This would save me a lot of headache, and will from now on. After extensive research I bought the cheapest one I found and it works great. (CDN) When the freezer goes above or below zero by 15 degrees, it will start beeping and stop when it returns to zero.  This means when I'm loading the freezer from a big shopping trip it will probably beep before I'm done, but it will stop when it cools back down.  Love it.  Not loud enough to hear very well on upper level of house, but loud enough that I'll probably hear it in less than 20 min if I'm home.  This has been tested.   Volume was a universal complaint on all freezer alarms even the expensive ones, so I'm happy with the $17 I spent.

#2.  Now if you just found this and haven't yet done step #1 and you have dead freezer because door was left open, all is not lost.  At least mine has started back up every time so far.

Empty contents of freezer into coolers. If most things are still frozen, they should keep themselves cold in the cooler for the couple hours till things are working again. If not, maybe add some dry ice on top.  Be smart about what you re-freeze, if it's totally thawed and warm, you'll have to throw some things out. My large freezer can all fit into one giant white cooler, and 2 smaller ones.






#3.  Boil 2 large pots of water. Place a drip pan on bottom of freezer and 2 pans on shelves.  Now start chipping off the ice with a PLASTIC ice scraper or equivalent tool.

When you've got all the ice melted and out, dry it up with towels and close the freezer.  Let it sit for about 30 min-1 hr.  Plug it back in and if it starts up, you're in business.  It's optimal to wait for an hour to refill the freezer so it can cool down before adding the food back.  If it was all still frozen, it's not such a big deal.

This whole process  took me about 2hrs start to finish & reloaded.

Update: Now that I have a freezer alarm and a thermometer in my freezer, when it has gone off and I find it quickly, and temp hasn't dropped below 40 and most things are still frozen and not a lot of ice buildup. I've just locked the freezer door (This is the same effect as putting it all in a cooler), unplugged the freezer and put a fan facing the condenser (bottom side where it's really warm). Wait an hour or 2. When freezer feels cool to touch on outside where it used to be warm, plug it back in and see if the condenser starts back up. This has worked every time. It's just a matter of letting the condensor cool off and start back up. If a lot of ice has built up, it's best to to the cooler method and start fresh.