This time of year, we all need all the freezer space we can get, as festive food shops are quick to hog the entire space. Before you bring that frozen turkey home, experts have revealed a clever hack that uses aluminium foil to remove excess ice from your freezer.
Freezers can quickly become iced up, limiting storage space and reducing the efficiency of the appliance. There are a number of reasons why ice builds up in a freezer, and if you’ve found this has happened to you, the aluminium foil hack is a good way to defrost a freezer.
The simple hack uses a roll of aluminium foil and a bowl of hot water to gently melt the excess ice in your freezer and defrost a freezer quickly. Here’s how it works.
How to remove ice from a freezer with aluminium foil
If you’re struggling to organise your freezer, trying this hack first can help give you more space.
First, switch your appliance off before putting a layer of aluminium foil over the interior of your freezer. Then, place a bowl of boiling water inside the centre of your freezer and shut the door. The hack uses the foil's heat conductivity to help melt the ice, and after 10 minutes, the ice should be loosened enough for you to remove it.
‘This can be a good method to use as the foil will act as a heat conductor, and it will help to distribute heat and steam from the water to make the ice melt faster than if the hot water was used by itself,’ says Steve Larkin, a kitchen expert from Kitchen Door Hub.
Should you use this hack?
This hack is great if you want to defrost a freezer fast. However, Steve warns you should never use the foil itself to try and scrape the ice away.
‘This is because using it to scrape ice risks damaging freezer components or scratching the inner plastic lining of the freezer. When the inner lining of the freezer is compromised, this can allow moisture to build up between layers and potentially cause more issues related to a buildup of ice in the future,’ he says.
You should also remove the foil after finishing the hack, as while it may seem like a time-saving way to stop ice from building back up, it can have a detrimental effect.
‘Lining shelves or walls with foil to “make the next defrost easier” is a bad idea because it can obstruct airflow, trap condensation, and leave edges that nick door gaskets or the liner. The better approach is to defrost when frost reaches about 1/4 inch, keep door openings brief, check the door seal, and store food covered so moisture doesn’t migrate into the cavity,’ says Viktor Velikov, Director of ELSERVE.
After you have used aluminium foil to remove excess ice from your freezer, it’s worth investing in some handy storage solutions to make the Christmas prep even easier. This is what we recommend.
I use Souper Cubes and swear by them for meal prep. They're excellent for freezing individual portions of soups, stock, stews and even gravy.
These stackable dishes can handle your oven and your freezer, making them a great choice for easy batch cooking.
These trays are an affordible alternative to Souper Cubes. I haven't tried them myself, but reviews say they make storing food in the freezer easier.
No one likes the effort of defrosting a freezer, so give this hack ago and see if it could save you a little effort this festive season.
