When I looked at the defrost plate rankings, I thought there were more options than I expected. They’re convenient when you want to quickly defrost frozen ingredients, and they can also be used to remove leftover heat from bento boxes—so having one is really handy.

When I look at the top entries in the defrost plate rankings, they’re all aluminum and have good heat conductivity. The #1 defrost scissors, Hammin Fine, apparently melts ice in 2 minutes and 12 seconds, so it’s for people who prioritize speed. However, since it’s a bit small, it doesn’t seem suitable for people who want to defrost large cuts of meat all at once.

Personally, I was interested in the #2 defrost plate, Eco-chan. It’s big enough to fit chicken thigh meat, and even to place it whole, and it melts ice in 3 minutes and 22 seconds, which is fast enough. Since the defrost plate rankings also say it’s easy to maintain, it seems like a good choice for people who use it every day.

There are also cheaper options around 1,000 yen, and there’s a Nitori product that serves as a four-in-one multipurpose tool. Refer to the defrost plate rankings and choose based on how you plan to use it—that seems to be the right approach. If you’re only defrosting small ingredients, a cheaper one is fine, but if you’re using it for your family, I think a larger one would be better.