Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning windows was
indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely brilliantly
sparkling clean )

We tend to be a bit lazy in defrosting the freezer and haven't done it in
over a year so it's desperately in need of sorting. I saw a gleam in her eye
as the idea to use the steam cleaner bubbled up to the surface but again, I
had serious misgivings about it so I googled and found dozens and dozens of
people who use them for that purpose, so off she went.

Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice on
it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

Amazing.

Pete

On Sat, 5 Sep 2009 18:11:13 +0100, Pete Zahut wrote:

Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning windows was
indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely brilliantly
sparkling clean )

We tend to be a bit lazy in defrosting the freezer and haven't done it in
over a year so it's desperately in need of sorting. I saw a gleam in her eye
as the idea to use the steam cleaner bubbled up to the surface but again, I
had serious misgivings about it so I googled and found dozens and dozens of
people who use them for that purpose, so off she went.

Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice on
it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

I've used the hose end of a wallpaper steamer for that very purpose -
indeed, some time after, I saw a stripper advertised as being useful for
that. Our freezer was a bit dodgy and needed doing every month or so, but
we've got a frost free now and that just needs the thermistors replacing
every 5 years or so, much less hassle!

SteveW

In article ,
Pete Zahut dont@bother wrote:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning windows
was indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely brilliantly
sparkling clean )

But where does the gunge on them end up? Running all over the frames and
down the walls?

--
*You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Pete Zahut dont@bother wrote:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning
windows was indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely
brilliantly sparkling clean )

But where does the gunge on them end up? Running all over the frames
and down the walls?

I was actually out when she did it so I don't know for sure but the steam
cleaner came with a squeegee attachment so using that in conjunction with
our own squeegee and a cloth sorted it. Water runs down to the cill then
gets mopped up just as when using a bucket of soapy water on the outside.

In article ,
"Pete Zahut" dont@bother writes:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning windows was
indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely brilliantly
sparkling clean )

We tend to be a bit lazy in defrosting the freezer and haven't done it in
over a year so it's desperately in need of sorting. I saw a gleam in her eye
as the idea to use the steam cleaner bubbled up to the surface but again, I
had serious misgivings about it so I googled and found dozens and dozens of
people who use them for that purpose, so off she went.

Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice on
it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

Some 40-50 years ago, my grandfather set about defrosting their
new Hotpoint Iced Diamond fridge, in the same way he always did.
With the door open and the one-bar electric fire pointing in,
he retired to the living room to listen to the News. On returning
after the news, he was horrified to find the fridge liner hanging
off in large loops of molten plastic. This was the first fridge
he had with a plastic liner, the previous ones all being enamel.
Anyway, he called out the Hotpoint engineer, who exclaimed he'd
never seen a fridge go like that before! (Not sure if my
grandfather told him what had happened.) Anyway, they delivered
a new one.

25 years ago when I was living in digs, I decided we needed to
defrost the freezer. To speed it up, I put a deep metal baking
tray in the bottom and filled it with water from the kettle,
and shut the door to keep the steam in. When I came to remove
the try later, the previously flat bottom of the freezer now
had a heavy crinkle finish.

So do be careful with high temperatures on parts that were never
designed to handle them, particularly steam.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Sat, 5 Sep 2009 18:11:13 +0100, Pete Zahut wrote:

Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice on
it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

Hum, I'd be a bit worried about heating the thing up to fast and
causing expansion of the refridgerant (liquid to gas or just gas)
faster than the system is designed for. I'm sure I've seen warnings
about that ITFM.

I stand a fan heater on a stool in front of the open door and wait.
Just emptying the bowl under drain as required. Takes about an hour
and no faffing about with a hot hose.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In message , Pete Zahut
writes
Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice on
it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )
Tumble drier hose poked into the freezer and a decent load of washing on
a rainy day always worked for me before we got a condenser drier.

Amazing.

Pete



--
Clint Sharp

Pete Zahut wrote:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning
windows was indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely
brilliantly sparkling clean )

We tend to be a bit lazy in defrosting the freezer and haven't done
it in over a year so it's desperately in need of sorting. I saw a
gleam in her eye as the idea to use the steam cleaner bubbled up to
the surface but again, I had serious misgivings about it so I googled
and found dozens and dozens of people who use them for that purpose,
so off she went.
Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice
on it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

I use a carpet extraction machine on ours. Spray on hot water, vacuum up
defrosted water.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Pete Zahut dont@bother wrote:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning
windows was indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely
brilliantly sparkling clean )

But where does the gunge on them end up? Running all over the frames
and down the walls?

Either the water is removed by a squeegee or the tool has an absorbant towel
fitted.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:

Pete Zahut wrote:
Well, since Dave (The Medway Handyman) said that steam cleaning
windows was indeed OK, she's done them - and he's right; absolutely
brilliantly sparkling clean )

We tend to be a bit lazy in defrosting the freezer and haven't done
it in over a year so it's desperately in need of sorting. I saw a
gleam in her eye as the idea to use the steam cleaner bubbled up to
the surface but again, I had serious misgivings about it so I googled
and found dozens and dozens of people who use them for that purpose,
so off she went.
Just 20 minutes ago, each shelf of the freezer had at least 1" of ice
on it - and now, it's darn-near all gone! )

I use a carpet extraction machine on ours. Spray on hot water, vacuum up
defrosted water.



My freezer in it's current state would need an SDS.

Or






Wait for it










Angle grinder!



There, said it