Landlady warmed up to me but fridge got cold!! (apartment, tenants, frozen)

[rlrl]

Seems that ever since my landlady saw that I did NOT gang up on her by signing a petition complaining of insufficient water pressure and hot water(i never noticed that problem) she's gone from cold to lukewarm with me now. Now she calls me by my nickname!!! And she lets me use the elevator as much as I need to!! Democracy, yes!!

But my fridge has been giving me trouble tho i fixed it. Hopefully this will be the last time it acts up again

2 years ago I defrosted my top freezer because it was frozen shut. That only took a few hours and was no big deal but recently my fridge had a huge iceberg jutting from the left rear corner of the fridge which got bigger and bigger and there was water leaking down into the vegetable crisper. I kept putting off the defrost job because i had perishables which i didn't know what to do with but finally i just threw them out and started over. Took me at least 12 hours.

After unplugging the fridge at 6PM, at about 12 midnight the iceberg was still stuck solid on the top rack so fiercely that the only way to get it off was to put it all in the bathtub and thaw it with hot bathwater. When i did that there were 2 cans of iced tea and a can of Monster energy drink stuck in there, all of which burst open over the months and contributed to the leaking

And the freezer was on it's way to where it was 2 years ago. But by 7AM next morning all was defrosted and done with. it's clean now and nothing is leaking

But is there anything i should know? How did that huge iceberg form? Was it from my keeping too many things in the back of the fridge? Is there something fault in the drain mechanism? Seems fine now. Anything i should do or not do to avoid this nightmare again?

[virgode]

Good grief, I'm spoiled, forgot this type fridge was still around.

[Steve Bagu]

After the problem with his fridge I am going to replug my old 25 yr old unit back on with it's flunky freezer and return the newer one I bought.

Heck...my old one is new compared to the OP fridge.

[Hollytree]

I found this handy guide from India (LOL) for you. It says defrost once a week not every two years....

http://aavaas.com/2007/11/14/defrost...a-small-guide/

[bentlebee]

If you freezer doesn't close airtide it can happen overnight...check on that, maybe it can be the issue, specially when ice has been build up the door won't close very well and the issue will become worse.

[Ultrarunner]

Grandma would defrost every two weeks in summer...

It was pretty simple... we put perishables into a cooler with some ice and she put in a pot of steaming water that made quick work of the ice... I think she could have easily gone a month

She also had a Plug in defroster that would work very fast...

We have some cryogenic freezers at work that must be manually defrosted... a portable hair dryer makes quick work of the job...

Leaking Refrigerators and Appliance issues in general are why I no longer supply any free standing appliances...

Many of my Tenants scored Brand New refrigerators and pilot-less ranges totally free from a program offered through the utility company and the State... a few were disappointed because their refrigerators were not old enough to qualify

[moved]

I lived in an apartment at one time with a non-frost free freezer. I normally would defrost it anywhere from every two weeks to once a month, depending on the ice buildup. It was a real pain to do it, too. I put my perishables into a cooler, and heated up all my pots with boiling water. Then I put them into the empty freezer, and let them sit in there for about 10-15 minutes. When I opened the door, I could slide the chunks of ice slide right out.

Nothing to it, just a pain!

[rubytue]

I recently (2007) had a non-frost-free fridge in an apartment. Not a really old apartment building either, but a nicer, newer (late-80s/early 90s) style place. I was surprised to see frost building up. Anyway, we defrosted it when we moved out, but we only lived there 6 months, Jan-Jun.