Kitchen appliances chat

I need to defrost my freezer but it has food in it and I can't see a point when it won't have food in it.

How do people deal with this? I've got a cool bag and a few ice blocks but I can't see that keeping stuff frozen for the length of time it will take to defrost (or am I overestimating how long that will take)?

I always think about doing it when it's below zero outside as I figure then it should work with bags and ice blocks.
Then I am lazy and do nothing until next winter.

Good modern coolboxes keep stuff frozen for comfortably 24hrs, pushing 48 if full enough. Should be plenty if you clear the big chunks out. Keeping it outside is a great shout.

My tip for defrosting freezers is to empty (put food in cool box or whatever) then fill each of the drawers with hot water, put them back in, close door, and you'll have the freezer done in an hour. The ice either melts into a drawer or you can chip it of with a wooden spatula once its loose.

I did it a few months back and had the food and some ice in the sink (don't own a cool box) and nothing defrosted.

Do you have access to a steamer?

Ime it takes under an hour start to finish to defrost a freezer including clean up.

If you do the boiling bowls method, it takes a bit longer, but it's still OK.

I'd smash up the coldness for a day with some freezer blocks. Then decant the freezer contents into a cool box and crack on.

Defrosted ours on Friday night, just stacked the drawers up and used hot water in baking trays etc.

nothing faster to defrost than a powerful fan (I use the vacmaster that I use on turbo)

Chip the ice off with a knife.

Don't have one of those, and before I'd buy any big boxes there is tons of crap that needs to go that's not food related...
But our low frost thingy looks ok right now, approach last time was to just buy a new fridge/freezer.

Where do you even buy these old fashioned freezers these days? Mine has been running for 5 years now and there is not a single ice crystal on the walls.

Cheers all. Seems I may have overestimated how long it takes to defrost.

Saying that, a decent cool box would probably also be useful. Although there does look to be a very wide range of prices on these (surely the middle of winter would be a good time for a sale) if anyone has any suggestions (although not strictly a kitchen appliance).

The ones you never have to defrost are more expensive?

Maybe buy vintage?

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Scope creep on freezer defrosting = spending £350 on a cool box

Ha, this is pretty much what happened. "I've heard of yeti, maybe I'll get one of those. How much!"

Could have shown that to our fridge to make it feel bad.
With Bosch fridge freezers there's a price step from low frost to no frost.
But you maybe bought something from Korea, and they probably all have it.

I made a mistake and bought something from China, Siemens.

I like our Chinese Bosch.

Scope creep on freezer defrosting = spending £350 on a cool box

Don't let me stop you. But if it's for the period while defrosting I've manage with my £15 one from amazon with a hole in the top*.

*for my sous vide wand

Ah no it's actually Siemens.
We're happy, vegetables do actually keep longer.

Hair dryer makes quick work of defrosting the freezer

Not really a kitchen appliance but...

What are Roombas and their copies like? Our vaccuum has been broken a few times and is on its last legs so I was thinking about getting a robot cleaner instead.

How effective are they compared to proper vacs?
How are they with *cough pet *cough hair?
Can you program them to do certain rooms at certain times?
Do they learn your whole house and actually cover it?

What's the best bang for buck version? They seem to go from £100-£1000!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lefant-Cleaner-Robotic-Suction-Self-Charging/dp/B09WMV9MQK/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/iRobot-Roomba-connected-Automatic-Disposal/dp/B08377KZTT/

Any that are good at carpet, laminate and tiles?

I asked this, might have been in the home automation thread will likely get one made by anker who make all those iPhone chargers and power things. Or another brand that was recommended. Don’t want a mop function and no bin sized base station. Couldn’t believe how much those roomba things are!? £250 is all we are going to spend.

I use and recommend Anker battery/cable products. Didn't know they did vacs!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/eufy-Connected-Pathfinding-Ultra-Slim-Cleaning/dp/B0BGHRY96M/

"eufy Clean by Anker RoboVac"

I saw them but didn't clock the Anker bit.

Gets mixed reviews regarding its navigation.