On Thursday, one of my workmates defrosted her freezer… with a pointy knife. Bang… hiss… dead freezer.
Friday, another of my workmates did exactly the same thing, though to be fair her partner was wielding the knife. Both these colleagues live in the same area of Glasgow – my neighbourhood, in fact. I recommend not stepping out for a few days, particularly if it’s sunny. That much CFC floating around can’t be a good thing.
CFC’s in thereselves are not particularly dangerous as they are very difficult substances to break down.
Er.. the ‘A’ rated Bosch white obelisk (“All hail Obelisk, Preserver of food”) in the old flat had a severe warning in the manual (yes, I actually did read the instruction manual for a fridge..) about using a knife in the course of defrosting.. Risk of Explosion.. (propane coolant). So, yes destroying the planet slowly is bad, but self destruction along with part of a building not great either.. definitely worth letting fridges defrost by themselves.
Hairdryer (if, er, you have an SO you can borrow such a thing from ) set to blow but not heat is a good way of chivvying things along.
Hot water bottle.