The freezer in our 5er is frosting up something fierce, much more than our previous trailer. I understand putting charcoal in there will keep the frost down by removing moisture from the air, but is there a way to get out the frost I have now, without shutting down the fridge and just letting it melt? Thanks, everyone.

You will have to turn off the fridge in order to defrost, but I wouldn't let it "just melt."

I put very hot water in a dish pan, put it in the freezer, close the door, and let it sit for perhaps 30 minutes. By that time, whatever remaining ice is attached to the walls of the freezer is very easy to scrape off with a PLASTIC spatula.

We defrosted ours last week by forgetting to change to 12 volt when we left camp. It got the floor clean, too.

Linda

We use a hair drier about every 3-4 months. I also hear a little fan will help.

I use a blow dryer too. I don't get much of a buildup or that frequently, but if I do, the blow dryer and nylon spatula takes it right off. The small fans are used in the fridge section to keep the cooling fins free of ice, they can be found in any Wal-mart store. They are powered by 2 'D' batteries. george

I don't know if this is advisable in an RV fridge, but when I had a regular S&B fridge that needed defrosting, I would wipe the sides of the freezer with vegetable oil. It didn't stop the ice from building up, of course, but minutes after would turn off the fridge, the ice would fall off the walls of its own accord. I'd just have the remove the chunks, wipe down the walls, reoil them, and put the food back in. It'd take me less than 10 minutes to go from a full icy freezer to a full deiced freezer.

As a matter of fact, I did mine this afternoon for the first time in several months. I use a blow dryer but I don't use utensils of any kind to scrape or chip. I just stay with it until the ice melts, which really doesn't take all that long. I had the fridge and freezer both done in about 30 minutes.

What I really dislike about it is that it takes about 18 hours to get back down to an efficient temperature. Food doesn't spoil in that time, but I like milk really, really cold and I hate having to wait. I'm a milk junkie, to the tune of about half a gallon a day.

Bev

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Hello! Oh - I know about this! I had a terrible time with frost in the fridge and defrosting the freezer when we first started out in our motorhome. Now, I think I've found the perfect combination and this chore gets done quickly and easily.

First, the freezer. Our own Mark Nemeth wrote about a painless defrosting method that works very well for me. We published his idea in Club News in 2006. Here's a link to the archive http://www.escapees.com/ClubNewsArchive/06-06-02June%20...snow%20in%20July.pdf. I do not use a battery-operated fan, though. I use a small, electric one. Everytime I defrost the freezer, I thank Mark. No blow dryers, no pans of water!

As for the frost that builds up on the fans in the fridge, turning the refrigerator off just one night a week (off at bedtime/on at breakfast) melts the frosty icicles away but your milk and other perishables stay cold. That's an effortless solution I got from another RVer.

Good luck.

Yeh, Nancy!!!!!!





Hugs,
Kellie

I use the hair dryer too to get the frost out of the freezer. BUT I do not use it on hot. I put it on cool. That way the freezer doesn't get all heated up and would take forever to cool down enough to put the food back in. Turn the refrig/freeezer of and put the food from your freezer in your sink and cover with some towels. Put a pan in the bottom of the freezer and go at it with the hair dryer. In our old 5th wheel I stacked stuff on a chair and had a table fan blow in the freezer.

It should not take you longer than 10 - 15 min.

Ann