"Robert Green" > wrote

> "Nancy Young" > wrote in

> Perhaps it's not. Frost-free freezers cause far more freezer burn than
> manual defrost ones because they actually have heating elements in them
> that
> turn on at intervals to defrost the coils.

Ah, I thought the issue was trying to write on boxes and your
mother trying to see what the item was. I hate to think of her
wiping ice off like that. Tough on older hands.

> A second type of "burn" happens because the process of melting the coil
> ice
> also removes moisture from the air of a frost-free freezer. This makes
> items that are not wrapped in moisture proof containers dry out much more
> quickly than they would in manual defrost unit.

Again, I thought you were talking about stuff in sealed boxes or
containers.

> Didya ever wonder why ice cubes just seem to disappear if you leave them
> in
> the tray too long?

No, I know why. I used to bring my own ice to my inlaws,
and also make new cubes for them while I was there. They would
just be withered away. Ice cubes are certainly not in a
moisture proof container, although if I'm saving up for some
reason, I put them in a tightly closed plastic bag. Sometimes
I'd bring bags to the inlaws to provide some kind of thermal
help for their mostly empty freezer.

Ice is very important to me. No lie, I probably go through
4 trays a day. Easily. Probably more.

> Well, "frost-free" is why. Ice cubes don't evaporate
> like that in a manual freezer. The dehumidification process is also what
> makes a clogged refrigerator whizz all over the floor when something goes
> wrong (usually). There's no free lunch.

Never happened to me, but boy did defrosting a non frost free
refrigerator make a hell of a mess.

> My concern that the old stuff be constantly rotated to the front and the
> new
> stuff to the back is simple inventory management of perishables. First
> In,
> First Out. I also want to make sure that things are rotated around so
> that
> nothing spends too long a time on the bottom part of the freezer where the
> frost-free heating elements are found.

Yes, that's why I thought being able to stick labels to relatively
dry boxes/whatever would help you out.

> To do that easily, I need some indication of when stuff came in. A nice
> little freezer label with Oct7/5 or something like that is just what I
> need
> to keep track of the freezer inventory. Using just a dry marker has
> *really* helped cut down on food that has to be junked from freezer burn.

I hate when that happens, that's why I bought a Tilia, but that's
neither here nor there regarding your situation.

> Thanks for you input. If you want to buy my Mom a new refrigerator, I'm
> all
> for it. :-)

(laugh) The way money's been flying out of here lately, not on my
'maybe next month' wishlist. I do have a brand new dishwasher, but
it's not frost free, either.

nancy