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View Full Version : Westinghouse freezer - can it be made manual defrost?



billv
02-01-2009, 02:57 AM
Hi

We have an old frost free westinghouse sillouette II freezer and because of the defrost cycle it forms a thin layer of frost on top of ice cream, meats, breads etc

My wife hates this because we have the same problem with our brand new refridgerater so I've told her that perhaps we can disconnect the defrost element in the old freezer and to make it a manual defrost type.

Is this a safe thing to do and what implications will this have? Will the freezer have to be defrosted every 6 months or so like the manual defrost types or will this cause other problems?

Are the water collection trays the same between manual and auto defrost types?
Many thanks in advance for the advise.

cheers
Bill

billv
02-01-2009, 11:59 PM
Anyone?......

nike123
04-01-2009, 09:53 AM
If you keep your food in plastic bags when you loading food for freezing, then main reason for ice formation on top is not from defrosting. Main reason is frequent door opening and/or worn door seal.
With every defrost cycle you lowering amount of moisture in freezer for equal amount of water in condensate pan after defrost. So that is beneficial action, and disconnecting of defrost heater is not solution. Solution is discipline in opening of doors and change of door seal if needed.

billv
04-01-2009, 01:14 PM
Nike123
Thanks for your post.

We do keep everything in bags
we do have a new fridge/freezer and the freezer temp is set to -18 degrees but when it defrosts the temperature increases to zero and takes a while before it gets down to -18 again.

The only freezers that doesn't do this is an expensive GE model I saw at a Kleenmaid shop.
It worked like this, When it was about to defrost, it would first drop the freezer temperature to -40 degrees
and during the defrost cycle the temperature inside the freezer wouldn't get anywhere close to zero degrees so frozen goods wouldn't defrost.

With any other freezer, If you have ice cream and the defrost cycle starts the ice cream will melt on the surface, it won't go bad but it does not last for as long as it would otherwise last.

The biggest problem is breads, we buy or bake breads and freeze them and the freeze/defrost action makes them ice up even though they are well
sealed in plastic bags.

After a few weeks the breads start to change colour and on the surface they look like they have frost bites.

nike123
04-01-2009, 02:51 PM
If freezer works good, than food should not melt at any point. Only what should be melt is ice formed on evaporator of freezer which is melted by heater placed on evaporator. During defrost, fan should be off. If fan is on, then you could experience what you are describing here.

paul_h
04-01-2009, 05:19 PM
Fan forced freezers need defrosting every few days, or the whole thing turned off for a day with the door left open. There's no easy way to defrost a fan forced freezer manually without a source of heat or a long time turned off.
Nothing in the freezer should get close to 0C anyway, as the defrost termination is normally a klixon or thermistor on the metal evaporator which is attached to the metal heater terminates at ~4C. Direct evap contact to the heat source which stops at ~4C is means no chance of any stored goods at -18C in the freezer on the other side of an insulated layer is ever going to get near 0C as you claimed your freezer does.
Sure, maybe your sensing thermistor (which is behind the ductwork and above the heater may read 0C), but the food in the freezer etc which is insulated from the heater/evap will not be getting to 0C
edit:
If you have a frost build up in an old freezer, possible cause is blocked drain/faulty drain pan heater, faulty fan/airflow from iced up duct etc.

billv
04-01-2009, 08:30 PM
Fan forced freezers need defrosting every few days, or the whole thing turned off for a day with the door left open. There's no easy way to defrost a fan forced freezer manually without a source of heat or a long time turned off.

Paul

Thanks for the reply, so are you saying that this type of freezer will not work with the heating element disconected?

If that's the case I should buy an old 2nd hand freezer which requires manual defrost every 6 months or so?

New chest freezers in the shops come with manual defrost but they take a lot of floor space and are a pain to get things in and out.

cheers