How do I get rid of this iceberg in my fridge?
 

http://www.kainproductions.com/images/freezer.jpg

As you can see it's massive. I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm moving out at the end of the month and don't want to leave a big puddle in the kitchen after I unplug the fridge. Any ideas?

Empty the fridge.

Unplug the fridge.

Lay a pile of towels in the bottom of the fridge to absorb some of the water.

Get a hairdryer and speed the melting process...

Use an icepick or screwdriver or butter knife to chip at the ice... NOTE becareful not to damage the freezer or you could end up leaking coolant everywhere and wrecking the freezer... it is best to be patient and let the ice melt... it should come out in big chunks.

dizamn man... thats crazy... how long has it been since you defrosted the thing???


if you can get a buddy to help you move it outside i would do that... and just let it sit in the sun with the doors open for a little while...

Moving out? Sounds like you're in an apartment.
Just call your landlord and ask what to do, you might get lucky and he'll say leave it.

Looks like your landlord is too cheap to upgrade to a frost-free 'fridge, so I'd say it's his problem not yours.

I think I heard of someone using a Super Soaker filled with very hot water to help seperate the ice from the structure.

Work and fun at the same time- I like it! Maybe I should go see if ours need defrosting!

I agree with taking it outside to defrost. It will probably soak through a lot of towels and you would have to keep replacing them. The supersoaker idea is the best yet though :)

You totally have to make a sculpture out of that first!

You could make some archeological dig out of it and find out what food is under all that ice.

But seriously, I carry mine outside and let them sit for a day or two.

Flip it forward and let it thaw until the block falls out. After that, you can either haul the thing to the bathtub or bring it outside and sculpt it with a chainsaw.

I have a frost free kegorator, between kegs I have to defrost it. I turn it off. There should be a drip tray that I empty every 1/2 hour or so, I have used the hot water trick, and the hair dryer trick, but it is a pain, and you have to work on it over and over.

Or do what my parents do....move the thing outside if it's easy to do...and let it sit.....MSD's trick sounds the easiest so far.

I just unplug my lil fridge, take everything out, and lean it back against the counter and let it melt. A hair-dryer helps. For something that big, u might just wanna take it outside.

My dad, after jamming a knife in his freezer to pry out the ice, and spraying himself with freon and compressor oil in the process: "I guess that sticker said not to use sharp objects when defrosting the freezer for a reason." ;)

You should be safe to chisel out the ice in the middle of the freezer, but use hot water and/or a hair dryer for the rest.

I thought those were for relatives caught in a downpour enroute to the reading of Grampa's will.

I saw smaller glaciers in Alaska!

holy shit man, my way out of that situation would be with a hammar and chizle (sp). in my ipinion it would be fun. You could even get some ice climbing gear and scale the fridge before hand!!

Impressive.

I took my freezer outside and sprayed the inside with a garden hose. 10 minutes and it was ice-free AND ready for the next important step: cleaning!

From the picture, I don't even see how you get the door to close.
:eek:

buh-dum-chhh (rimshot)

That ice is mad.. besides doing a funny ice goatse with it...

you could unplug the fridge.. then let it melt for a half hour or whatever (so hopefully the stuff against the sides is getting slippery), then take your hands, put them into the middle.. and pull the ice.. if all goes as planned in my head.. the whole chunk will slide out.

That looks like the same mini fridge I have....Once every 9 months or so I do what Charlatan says.....minus the hair dryer.

Just unplug it, open the door, and lay some towels at the bottom of it and around the front of it. After about two hours (depending on the temp in your room, just start pulling those chunks out.
Thanks for the reminder, I'm gonna clean mine up tonight.

yeah, you don't wanna defrost that thing inside unless you have an army's supply of towels handy...

outside, or chisel away at it slowly and toss it in the sink....

An actual customer call-an apartment dweller-I did building maintenance for the owner

Me: Hello?
Customer:I was trying to defrost the freezer and I think I broke something
Me: What were you using?
Cust: An ice pick
Me: And what is the freezer doing now?
Cust: Hissing
Me: Yes, you've broken it.
Cust: So what do I do now?
Me: Open the windows, take the girls and go for ice cream down the street.

After that was a discussion about coolers, ice for temporary food storage and tenant responsibility for damages.

Yes... I should have noted that you need to be really careful when cleaning the freezer... An icepick or screwdriver are probably just asking for trouble... It has been some time since I had to clean a freezer like this (I'm frost free baby!)...

Now that I think about it, I just used a butter knife... and then mostly just using to pry out some larger and loose chunks.

well you could get a sodering tool and melt lines in it for a future fracture once it started thawing a bit ...

No ice pick! No knife! The odds are real good that you'll nick a tube and get a freon leak. Years ago, an appliance repair guy told me that the majority of calls he got for refrigerators are from people who tried to hack out freezer ice with a sharp object.

If you don't mind spending a half-hour or so....

Unplug the fridge and go at the block of ice with a hairdryer. Be sure to concentrate the hot air around the edges of the ice, near the walls of the freezer. If there's a drip pan, empty it continously as you do this. If there isn't, well, just take everything out of the fridge and put a bunch of old towels in the bottom (and yes, on the floor in front).

Every so often, put your hand into the middle of the ice block and tug on it. Eventually, a layer of meltwater will form between the walls of the freezer and the ice, and the whole damned thing will come sliding out, either in one huge chunk or several large chunks.

The idea of doing that sounds so fun I might actually try it next time I have to defrost something.

I aquired a countertop high minifridge that had its freezer almost completely iced up, couldn't even shut the door to the fridge all the way. Because of boredom and impatience, I made a project out of it. I went at it with knives, scissors, put a cubic asston of salt in there thinking it might help (and if not it would be fun to try), and tried heating up the room it was in too. I had it halfway in my shower this whole time, so I put the shower curtain around the fridge and turned the shower on full heat full blast until the entire bathroom was filled with steam. The idea was this would help melt it. I don't know if it did that, or if instead it just caused more condensation and ice on the existing ice, but fun to try nonetheless. Something I did worked, it only took about 3 hours and the thing was completely cleared of ice.

Snow cones for the whole block!!!

Maybe get some extra $$$... :D

Mine wasn't that bad when I moved out a few weeks ago, but basically, I just put a giant pot of hot hot water in it to help melt. As the water dripped, i emptied the tray until i could get the chunks of ice off the bottom and then the sides, and by that time everything was melting pretty good.

that happened once for us. we have a large commercial grade frig/freezer, and we got a block of similar size once while on a trip. i just grabbed a small propane torch from the garage and melted it by hand. real quick and easy.