Defrosting my Mother's fridge

Okay, not the most exciting title and its not a euphemism, but whilst my Mother's refrigerator has a chance to breathe new live into the assorted liquids, solids and those that live between the two states; it still needs to be defrosted as the ice box gains more ice than Chilean glacier during a period of hot sun.

It has an old pull handle reminiscent of the large and old American 'fridges that Smeg embraced when they redesigned the pantry hardware. You then pull on the vertically channeled handle and there is a reassuring clunk as the mechanism detaches from the lock. It does not have the same snug fit around the door seal as it would have done when it was first purchased due to the material becoming perished and that no doubt leads to the increased accumulation of the frozen water in the ice box.

Admittedly, the ice box currently has the unimaginable maw of a potential Abominable Snowman or a Yeti. Knowhow.com describes the two forms of ice buildup in fridges - powdered ice and solid ice. The former that looks like Jack Frost has been popping into the fridge and dusting the food with delicate ice crystals or maybe it was one of those delicate fairies from Fantasia. 

Basically it means that warm air has got in either due to lots of opening and closing from frequent trips to see if the light really stays on when it is closed (see further down for that point) or that you have a poor seal.

(Source - Flickr)

The latter, the scourge of solid ice, is due to the freezing of water that has found its way into the fridge. Bugger.

So as to the light conundrum, this fridge takes away the problem of the unknowingness of the light being on and/or off. It has a bayonet fitting at the back of the fridge, so you just take the bulb out and remember not to get a potential electric shock. Out of the time that the fridge has been in the pantry, over fifty years, no-one has had an electric shock. The controls for the fridge are equally easy - it has two settings on opposite ends of the spectrum.

This Methuselah of the domestic equipment is supplied by the GEC and is made to the British Standard 922

The BS933 seems to have been written in 1959, Amazon has a link to a binding of the British Standard for Electrical refrigerators and food freezers for household use. After two hours, the ice box still resembles a mouth of a yeti. (All uncredited photos are the authors, which I took with my slowly dying Bleckberry, may get a new one - things aren't built to last nowadays).