Anti-frost mat for freezer... snake oil?

[Lobster]

Spotted an advert in this morning's paper for a device which purports to keep your freezer free of ice...

(see

immediate reaction is that it's total and complete bullshit, particularly having read the blurb under 'How antifrost mats work':

"An Anti Frost Mat is a specially-coated mat on the bottom of your freezer is marketed as preventing frost from forming. It also minimizes blockages in freezer drainage tubes that can lead to "icebergs".

In physics, heat is the transfer of energy from one part of a substance to another, or from one body to another by virtue of a difference in temperature. Heat is energy in transit; it always flows from a substance at a higher temperature to the substance at a lower temperature, raising the temperature of the latter and lowering that of the former substance, provided the volume of the bodies remains constant. Heat does not flow from a lower to a higher temperature unless another form of energy transfer, work, is also present.

If solid surfaces in contact with the air are chilled below the deposition point (frost point), then spicules of ice grow out from the solid surface. The size of the crystals depends on time and the amount of water vapor available."

So that explains it then... (?!)

Comments? David

[john]

I'll exchange it for some Slick 50! I wouldn't bother with it, it seems a bit far fetched to me. There are materials and specialist coatings around that will prevent water and ice sticking to them, but your whole freezer would be extremely expensive.

[Andy Hall]

Not very convincing is it? They have placeholders for testimonials - always a bad sign - but don't have any.

This does seem to be at a price point where people will chuck it if it doesn't work rather than send it back.

[Peter Parry]

If its a mat containing a moisture absorbent like silica gel it should do the job after a fashion for a short time by absorbing moisture in the freezer air introduced whenever the door is opened and closed.

After a relatively brief time it will become ineffective.

[Bovvered?]

It's complete bollox. The only rational explanation is that it's some kind of silica gel pouch but if that's the case it won't last very long anyway if you open your freezer as often as we do. It's a shame that internet advertising isn't covered by the ASA.

[RobertL]

Could it be a mat whose internal structure has a lot of spiky surfaces that encourage ice to form there rather than elsewhere on the smoorth surfaces of the freezer. When it's full of ice you take it out and dry is on the clothes rack, then put it back?

Robert

[Lobster]

It was advertised in the Times originally - the URL was in the advert.

David