Would you risk it?

[PredatoronthePrairie]

About two months ago, had a deep freeze stop working. Luckily noticed it probably the day after it stopped working. Things were just starting to thaw out on top. Made a mad dash and got all the elk steak, burger, and roasts to a differnt freezer.

I'm out of room everywhere else with like 5 pounds of ground pork and some frozen corn left to find a home. So I start messing with the freezer to find out what is wrong. Turned out the wiring somehow got a little twisted out or pulled on and it just stopped. So I plugged it in and it worked.

Told the wife, and she said that's good, before we put everything back. I want to clean it out and defrost it. Said ok, which was my assumption that she was going to do that.

Today, I say should we move everything back, and she goes. But it still needs to be cleaned. (Mind you, she's a teacher and has summer off). I say ok. Go out there to start the process and am immediately hit with the stench of death. The pork and corn is now a meat soup in the bottom. Ask her what happened and she said she needed to unplug it to finish painting the entry way...

So...

My original plan was to take the chest freezer on my elk hunt this fall, and if I knock one down just load up the freezer. Hook it up to the generator, freeze everything solid that night and head home the next day and stop and fill with ice as needed.

This begs the question.

After bleaching and cleaning the freezer out today, and letting it air dry for 3 days. Would you run the risk of still using said freezer. Or is that thing permanently screwed?

 

[Drenalin]

Sounds like the original issue is fixed, so the freezer is mechanically fine. And bleach and sunshine takes care of the rest. I’d do it and don’t think there’s anything to worry about. If it did crap out on you during the trip, it’s still a big insulated box that’ll hold a bunch of ice.

 

[roadrunner]

Why is it permanently screwed? Did it leech through the inner wall and into the insulation?

 

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Just thought the stench of the meat soup that sat in there would permeate the whole thing and never come out, ha.

 

[sjwfarms]

I'd say your good to go. Been there and done that. Spent a day a year ago cooking up an entire season of ducks, doves, Pheasant, quail and venison due to a similar incident.

My pro tip for meat freezers, buy a $5-10 power outage alarm.

 

[Theringworm]

I had a breaker flip and it killed the power to chest freezer with 3 whitetail and an elk in it. I found it 2 weeks after it happened. My initial assumption was, “unload the stench into the dumpster and then dump the freezer as well”. Figured it was non-recoverable. Well, that was over 7 years ago. Still going strong and zero smell to this day.

I washed it thoughly with hot soapy water. I would insure it completely dried before doing it two more times. Then I washed it with lots of bleach. Then the last thing I did which is the most important IMO. I filled it full of newspaper and shut the lid. Every 3-4 days I would throw away the newspaper and replace with new newspaper. I did this 2-3 times and then 2-3 times more after I plugged it in and lets it freeze. It definitely works for me. It’s a labor intensive process but is salvageable. Just depends on if your time is worth more than the effort required.

 

[insanelupus]

Throw a bag or two of charcoal in after cleaning, replace as necessary. Had worked in the past for others i know.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

If it got into the insulation, not good. My friends freezer had a problem and it thawed out with FISH in it. The smell got into the insulation and freezer was lost. Aside from that the freezer had a minor issue which would have been easy to repair but after two weeks of trying all sorts of stuff, out to the curb it went for trash pickup.

 

[BTLowry]

Throw a bag or two of charcoal in after cleaning, replace as necessary. Had worked in the past for others i know.

This ^^^

Or throw an ozone generator in there for a bit (if you have one for your clothes/equipment)

 

[GSPHUNTER]

go out and buy a frost free freezer.

 

[Sturgeon]

I have an alarm on my freezer. The other day the power went out at our house while my mom was home with the kids. So they all got to hear what the alarm sounds like and I guided my mom how to silence it. Luckily power came back on a couple hours later.

 

[Zeke6951]

I have never tried it but I have heard the charcoal deal. I also heard to put coffee grounds in the freezer to absorb the odor. Of course after the repeated cleanings.

 

[Rich M]

I have trouble trusting freezers after they fail. Will upgrade after losing a freezer full of meat and stuff. Only had to do that once.

 

[1brad]

You’re good to go. Just pray and don’t look back.

 

[jeff0517]

I have one in the garage that I lost everything in a month ago. After unplugging it a friend suggested I plug it back in after a few days. It's working perfectly for 3 weeks now. I still haven't put anything in it yet, same question if I can trust it. I figure I'll look for an alarm soon and fill it again. Jeff

 

[NRA4LIFE]

OK, this is a method I use with my fish coolers. Throw in a mixture of Super Dawn dish detergent and bleach and some water. Rinse all interior surfaces with this mixture and close it up for a day. Then scrub the heck out it with said mixture, rinse and let dry a day. Then close it up at room temp or garage temp for a day or 2. Then open and do the sniff test with your head completely inside of it. If it smells OK you're good to go. If it doesn't, you'll know very quickly it's junk.

 

[TXCO]

If youve fixed the issue, itll be fine.

I had a freeze come unplugged once. Cleaned it thoroughly. Theres a faint smell if we ever move it and unplug it but otherwise everything is all good and its almost 20 years old.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Boarmaster]

Back in the mid 1990s my housekeeper decided to mop my utility room where my chest freezer was. I had just had a deer processed into summer sausage and a second deer ground into burger in the freezer week before.
She evidently knocked the plug out while cleaning. I was out of town fishing that week and came home to a real mess. I plugged the unit back in and refroze everything. After it was refroze I dumped the whole mess out in the yard and just wiped the freezer clean With a vinegar and baking soda solution then a rag with bleach. It was dang near clean after dumping it. I never noticed any smell the 10 years after that I used it.

 

[Laelkhunter]

Put a box or two of baking soda in it (don't dump it, leave it in the box.) The brand name baking soda (yellow box) has perforations in the box to tear it open and it leaves a piece of filter looking material that allows air to flow through. After Ida, I had the same problem with my freezer after two weeks without power. After thoroughly cleaning it out, the final addition of boxes of baking soda to absorb odors worked well.
You can also just dump some baking soda on a paper plate and leave it in the freezer while you are waiting for the odor to leave.

 

[mt terry d]

New appliances are more prone to failure than ever before ( but you can hook up your bluetooth and tiktac crap to them ). I'll bet there's 30-50% in the first month.

We got our chest freezer from my grandma when she died 40 years ago. She'd bought it used.

It lives in the garage and I put a little night light in the same outlet to alert me if for any reason the breaker kicks out. And breakers fail, too, especially GFCIs.