How Long Does Manual Defrost Take. Regardless of which steps you take to get rid of frost buildup, you should regularly defrost a chest freezer for maintenance purposes. Do not try and speed up the process, it is important to leave the appliance to defrost on its own.

Defrosting the ice maker using the reset method usually takes around 24 hours in case, you are doing it manually with the help of a hair dryer it can take upto to a few hours depending upon the first build up. While the defrost is running, you may feel like not much is happening. You may hear water dripping or sizzling as it hits the heater.