Defrosting freezer compartment(s)

[Second Chance]

My wife thinks she came up with this idea... I think I read it on another forum. Either way, she asked me to share it with everyone since it saves us (me) so much time...

Those of you who weekend/vacation camp may not have much problem with the freezer compartment(s) in your RV refrigerator building up thick coatings of frost. It's a different story for those of us who full-time or snowbird in our rigs. For some reason, it is part of my chore list to defrost the freezer compartments when they need it. We carry an extra cooler (one of the Coleman electric units), mostly for containing my bubbly waters on the road. Its second role is to hold the freezer contents while I defrost the freezer. In the past, this involved turning off the frig, moving the freezer contents to the portable cooler, and using my wife's hair dryer to hasten the melting process. I would put a terry cloth towel in the bottom of the compartment to soak up the water as the frost and ice layers melted. The whole process took at least 30 minutes and I had to wring out the towel multiple times.

Then this new idea floated into our lives. It doesn't approach the level of an epiphany or a "Road to Damascus" experience, but it really helps. After getting the compartments defrosted, clean and dry, we trimmed four (two for each compartment) of the thin plastic "cutting boards" to fit the back walls of the compartments. We put them in place - overlapping since they weren't quite tall enough for the compartments, and held them in place by putting the shelves back in. The bulk of the frost forms on the back walls since that's where the cooling plates are. The frost still forms, but now we can just pull out the plastic cutting boards and the ice falls off in thick chunks and can be picked/scooped up out of the bottom of the compartment. A minute or so in each compartment compartment with the hair dryer finishes up the job and the food can be put back in and the frig turned on. This week, the whole process took me about 10 or 15 minutes.

Now - since it's not a travel day and I'm trying to delay going shopping with Laura, I'll tell a little story. In the '70s, I was stationed at the Carswell Air Force Base hospital on the northwest side of Fort Worth, TX. There was a young internist assigned there whose last name was Dryer (a good German name, as I learned). He had come to CAFB from Germany so, one day at the coffee pot, I asked him how he liked his tour in Germany. He said it was great - with one exception. I asked him what that was and he said it was how the folks there, both US military and German locals, addressed him. He said they would not call him "Dr. Dryer," "Captain Dryer," or even "Major Dryer" after he was promoted... they insisted on calling him "Her Dryer." Seems they thought it was funny.

Rob

[happy_camper_nj]

We have more of an issue with the fins in the refrigerator freezing up than we do with the freezer. Our solution is to spray the fins lightly with PAM at the beginning of the season and use a small portable ceramic heater when we need to defrost. The PAM puts just enough oil on the fins so the ice slides off easily. The ceramic heater can just sit on the shelf for a while and sure beats holding a hair dryer, unless you like that sort of thing
The ceramic heater also works well in the freezer compartment provided it sits on top of something to avoid getting wet. Whole process takes less than 10 minutes. Don't even need a cooler for the frozen stuff. Still need the towels though.

[LV Naturist]

... they insisted on calling him "Her Dryer." Seems they thought it was funny.

Rob

Ha! That is funny. And having been stationed in Germany, I could see how a German national would call him Mr. (Her in German) innocently, and realizing how it sounded it spread uncontrollably.

John