On 10 Mar 2021 at 21:55:40 GMT, "Scribbles"
wrote:

Something I should have included above is mention of the only day-to-day
maintenance problem I ever encountered with a self-defrosting appliance was
when I noticed puddles of water forming in the bottom of my old Hotpoint
fridge-freezer.

Some DiY investigation revealed that the little drain hose and drip tray at
the rear had become clogged up with dust, grease and the odd dead spider. The
appliance was over 30 years old at this point and owed us nothing but two or
three times a year, we pulled the thing out of the awkward corner it
occupied, cleaned out the drip tray and reamed out the little hose with a
pipe cleaner. It continued to work well for a further 3 or 4 years until we
pensioned it off at the time of a house move.

The advantage of having the top of the hose accessible inside the fridge or
freezer, as it is in some models, is that it can be cleaned from inside with
the machine in situ, and you really don't have to know what the inside of the
evaporation tray looks like.

--
Roger Hayter