On Thu, 11 Mar 2021 04:05:51 -0800 (PST), Scribbles
wrote:

snip

Why? Because, like I said, I loathe defrosting and, in the days before I discovered frost-free appliances, would simply ignore the task until so much ice - several inches - had built up that the doors wouldn't close.

'Needs must'. ;-)

A bowl in the fridge and towels, etc around and under it never succeeded in containing all the mel****er. (I realise this says more about me than about the fridge/freezers but let's not go there).

Not necessarily. As mentioned elsewhere our old Zanussi under counter
freezer has a little plastic guide about the size of a playing card
that clips into a slot in the lower front edge and the design of the
innards of the freezer are such that any melt-water that escapes any
containers and runs out the bottom is guided to the middle, out over
the edge and rather than being drawn underneath by capillary action,
is drawn onto said 'chute' and then can be guided into a suitable
container, like a large dinner tray or shallow baking tray.

This allows you to simply sponge it out and into a bucket etc ... no
need for towels or wet floors. With aid of a hot air gun the whole
thing takes about 30 minutes, even when it's quite bad (if you heat
the right bits the ice tends to fall off in large chunks that can be
lifted away, rather than melting etc).

I wonder how many people have freezers with such a feature but have
'lost' their chute, were never given it (if the appliance was
installed for them) or still have it but simply don't know what it's
for?

snip

Cheers, T im