Dedicated defrosters are the newest kitchen innovation. But do you need one? I took one for a spin to find out

If you’re reading this out of sheer curiosity because you don’t quite know what a defroster is, don’t panic, you’re not alone. I’ve been reviewing kitchen appliances for over 15 years and I’ve never used or reviewed a product like this Drew & Cole Dual Defroster.

Essentially this thing combines a fan with an aluminium tray that supposedly conducts heat from the room to the food, to defrost it quickly. Right now as I write this, having not yet tried it, I’m on the fence as to whether this is a genius invention or an unnecessary gimmick.

But what I do know is that I, and most likely you, have done a bit of rogue defrosting over the years. You know what I mean, like defrosting prawns in warm water, or leaving meat on the side and letting it get a bit too warm, alongside likely unrecommended usage of one of the best microwaves. So is this defroster the answer? Read on to find out.

Drew & Cole Dual Defroster product specs

• Weight: 580g
• Size: H 18.5cm x W 36cm x D 25cm
• Power: Rechargeable via USB C
• Battery life: 2 hours

Unboxing and first impressions

Naturally, this compact appliance comes in a compact box. I’d have preferred not to have the foam pieces in there as I don't think they’re recyclable. That said, unboxing it and assembling it was fast and straightforward.

The aluminium defrosting plate sits on top of a plastic drip tray. There’s an arm that clicks into the drip tray and this supports the fan. On the top of the fan is small lid covering the water reservoir.

It comes with a USB cable for charging, but I had to hunt around for a plug that I could use it with. The first thing I did was get it on charge and once plugged in, two tiny lights on top started flashing blue, signalling that it was charging.

According to the manual, the lights turn solid blue when it’s fully charged, or if they flash red, that tells you it’s low on battery. The controls consist of just two buttons, one on either side of the lights. One button switches the fan on and the other switches the mist function on.

The arm that supports the fan is adjustable, there are eight notches that allow you to place the fan and mister closer to, or further away from your food. I discovered this a bit by accident because there's nothing in the manual telling you it can do this.

To give an idea of what you can fit below it, the space between the fan and the defrosting plate is roughly 13.5cm when it’s at its maximum height. The water reservoir protrudes lower though, so there’s only 10.5cm clearance below this part.

The manual only gives very basic advice on how to use it and clean it. I had been hoping for some guideline times for various foods, but there’s nothing. So I had to just give it a go and see what happened.

What is it like to use?

Chicken breast

The first thing I used it to defrost was a chicken breast. I popped it directly below the fan, filled up the water reservoir and turned on both the fan and the mist function. And for comparison, I placed a second chicken breast on a plate on another surface in my kitchen.

With no idea how long it would take, I just kept returning to it every so often to give it a poke and see how it was doing. And it didn’t take long for me to notice it would be defrosted much sooner than I anticipated.

After just 30 minutes the chicken breast was almost completely softened. I used my meat probe to check the temperature which was -2C in the thickest part, though it had reached a mildly worrying 18.5C in the thinnest part. The thickest part was still a little icy, but it was soft enough to cut into chunks and I didn’t want to risk the thin part getting any warmer.

Meanwhile, the one that had just been on a plate on the other side of the kitchen was still rock solid, with only the very thinnest part on the end beginning to soften.

It was speedy, but I should caveat this by saying that it was a warm summer day and my kitchen was a balmy 24.5C. I wonder if it might take a bit longer in the depths of winter when my cottage kitchen can remain rather chilly all day.

Initially I was concerned about leaving raw chicken uncovered in the kitchen, especially as it was summer, I didn’t want to attract flies. But this wasn’t an issue for two reasons. Firstly, I think the combination of the fan and the mister would be enough to deter any flies that might come near. And secondly, the process was so fast that it just wasn’t an issue.

Sausages

After recently reviewing some of the best BBQs, I had a glut of cooked sausages in the freezer. So I spread out six across the defrosting plate, with the aim of testing out the evenness of defrosting across the full width of the plate.

I didn’t turn or move them at all during the defrosting and after 15 minutes the two in the very middle were pretty much fully defrosted, with a temperature of around 1C. Meanwhile the ones on either side were close at -4C, and they just needed another 5 minutes.

The two sausages at the outer edges of the plate were still fairly frozen at the 15 minute mark, and despite removing the others once they reached a defrosted state, I left the outer ones in the same position just to see the difference in defrosting time. In the end these ones took almost double the time at 28 minutes.

So I think this highlights the fact that the closer the food is to the fan and mister, the quicker it’ll defrost, which doesn’t really come as a surprise. And therefore, you’ll get the most even and speedy results if you move and rotate foods during the defrosting process.

Prawns

I emptied a 200g bag of raw frozen prawns onto the tray and switched on both the fan and the mister. I tried to group the prawns below the fan, but without piling them on top of each other. And I was super conscious about letting them get too warm, so I moved them around, mixing them up every 5 minutes or so to make sure they would be evenly defrosted.

After just 12.5 minutes they were thoroughly and evenly defrosted with a temperature of around 5C, which is approximately fridge temperature. I think this was much better than defrosting in cold water and quicker too.

Chicken stock

I wanted to try defrosting something that couldn’t be removed from its packaging and I had a tub of homemade chicken stock in the freezer that needed defrosting. Not only does it need to stay in the tub while it defrosts, but it’s also a dense hard lump so I was intrigued to see how quickly it would defrost.

I took the lid off and placed the tub on the defroster plate. I wasn’t sure whether to use the mist function or not for this one, but figured it couldn’t really hurt. Then I left it going until the stock was completely defrosted into a liquid.

It took a lengthy 90 minutes and while this is admittedly quicker than simply leaving it out on the worktop, I think it would have been better to defrost this lump of frozen liquid in the microwave, or even by tipping it into a saucepan and warming it gently on the hob.

The water reservoir is small, but I didn’t ever need to refill it during defrosting. There was still a small amount of water left unused after the long 90 minute chicken stock test, but you’d need to refill it if you were using it for any longer.

In terms of noise, the fan isn’t silent, there’s a very audible drone of fan noise coming from it while it’s on. It measured around 62dB on my noise meter, which isn’t loud. But it’s constant, which some people might find mildly annoying.

Battery life

During my tests the battery lasted approximately 1 ½ hours, when using both the fan and the mist function for the duration. It ran out while I was defrosting the chicken stock and I was thankful to discover that it will work when plugged into the charger. So all is not lost if it runs out of battery mid-use. A full recharge took approximately 1 ½ hours.

What's it like to clean?

There’s very clear signage on the aluminium tray to say that it’s dishwasher safe, but in the manual it says the plastic drip tray has to be hand washed. It’s mildly annoying to be able to put one in the dishwasher but not the other. But they’re easy to clean nonetheless.

While you can wipe the outer plastic of the fan housing with a damp cloth, it’s not possible to get to the inner workings. And with it being frequently so close to raw meat and fish, I do worry about it getting splattered with bacteria, but I’m hoping the mister helps to avoid this.

Should you buy the Drew & Cole Dual Defroster?

The Drew & Cole Dual Defroster is a surprisingly efficient little gadget for defrosting foods and it’s very reasonably priced, as well as compact and easy to store. I’d say it’ll come in particularly handy if you don’t have a microwave for speedy defrosting. And even if you do, there’s no danger of partially cooking foods during the defrosting process as can happen in your microwave.

What I would say is that depending on the food, defrosting can be uneven and this could be potentially problematic from a food safety perspective. So you do need to keep an eye on the temperatures of the food as it defrosts.

I think a decent digital probe is a must so that you can monitor the temperature during the defrosting process, especially for high risk foods like raw meat and fish. And it has to be said that the safest method of defrosting is nearly always to do it overnight in the fridge.

With all that being said, this defroster isn’t the gimmick I expected it to be and it does do what it claims to do. So if you feel like this is something you need in your life, rest assured it’ll get the job done.

About the review, and the reviewer

After completing a Home Economics degree, Helen went on to work for the Good Housekeeping Institute and has been reviewing home appliances ever since. She lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire in the UK, where she reviews all sorts of home and garden appliances using her wealth of experience.

As someone who loathes pointless gimmicky appliances, Helen went into this review with a certain amount of trepidation. But she gave it the benefit of the doubt and used the defroster in her own kitchen for a week to get a real feel for what it’s capable of. And its surprisingly good performance is a testament to why we like to get hands-on with products before making judgements.