This is gross: I had a vacant rental in which I had a large freezer full of meat. I was unaware that for about two months, a fuse blew in the garage (where the freezer was) and all the meat got pretty bad...real bad! I had to pay a kid to haul all of the rancid meat to the dumpster. I had the freezer cleaned, but the strong smell of old Arizona summer road-kill is still there. Is there anything I can use to get the smell out of this freezer? Its brand new! I did throw a couple of boxes of Arm&Hammer in it, but it is not working.
The only thing I could think of would be to scrub it down with bleach a few times and let it air out for a week.
Thaw likely seeped into styrofoam insulation... bacteria city. Bit of a pain to disassemble, remove offending foam, clean thoroughly, replace foam, reassemble & hope you did it right.
Just be glad it wasn't fish if it was you would definately have to throw out the whole appliance. I'm assuming that it was defrosted and cleaned thoroughly with baking soda/water, if so there are a couple of other tricks you can try. Empty out the fridge then fill some cereal bowls with fresh ground coffee and run the unit empty for a couple of days. You can also try putting a couple of ounces of imitation vanilla in a shallow saucer and run empty for a few days. Best of luck!
I had the same thing happen when I moved into a basement apt and the previous tenants left a fridge of meat and vegetables (with fuse box breakers off)... fridge was outside in the carport in the Hawaiian summer heat, and the flies found their way in first. I opened the door and EVERY surface was crawling with maggots and coated with eggs. All the walls and racks were moving. Hello dry heaves!! I hosed it out and disinfected it 4-6x, but there were maggots and flies in all the ventilation systems and everywhere. It was a write off... and then I came home from class one day to find out that the landlord had moved it into my apartment!!! AGH! It reeked horribly with a goat-gagging stench, which was marginally helped by turning the fridge back on. I literally sprayed it out with Lysol and Ajax 2-20x a day, just to keep the smell out of my little apartment (never put ANYTHING into it). Moved out of there in a few weeks for a better place. Throw the freezer out.
A repair guy told me yesterday that I need to unplug it and let it air for a month. The smell is bateria that has yet to die off.
Peter, Send it over to Allan so he can make another coffee table! http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11121 DL
Call your insurance guy. Bet it's covered by your homeowners, including the value of the tossed meat and the disposal ofsaid same. Might be enough $$$ to warrant a claim. Take a shot, nothing to lose.
The same thing happened to me when I moved into a condo before I was married. The landlord sent over a cleaning crew that took care of it. It took a few weeks for the smell to completely go away, but this is what they did. They removed all the meat and washed out the freezer completely, they then put a few boxes of baking soda and a lot of charcoal briquettes in the freezer. They also sprinkled baking soda of all the furniture and carpet. After a few days the smell was mostly gone, so we cleaned up all the baking soda. But, like I said, it ultimately took a few weeks for the smell to be completley gone. For that few weeks that it still smelled, we burned a lot of scented candles to mask the smell. It seemed to work allright. Good luck.
MJG...Was this two weeks with the fridge running or unplugger? Insurance claim??? And give those crooks another reason to raise my rates? No friggen way! Yes, it can hurt!
It is homeowners right? Not your car insurance. Homeowner's is a whole different game. I'd ask, can't hurt.
I put it in front of my garage with the door open. I'll let it air out for a couple of weeks. Hell, it just may keep burglars away!
There is a drip pan located under the freezer that has collected the defrosting water and meat "juice", this is where the smell is coming from. If you cannot remove the drip pan and clean it, just fill it with bleach. In about one day the smell will be gone. Last summer I lost power after a storm (5 days), and a honest repairman told me how to correct the problem without replacing it. It worked for me. Tom
We found a lasagna in the bottom of a closed frig after about 2 months (warm). Lots of clorox, open air outside eventually saved it but the lasagna was contained in a glass tray, so no seepage. If you have rotten blood into the cracks and insulation, its a goner. Did you get a good deal at Jeffrey Dahlmer's yard sale?
I'm pretty sure a can of wd-40 and a lighter would get rid of the stench. I'll show you next time I come up and you'll learn the proper tecnique.
Cover the inside with yoghurt... a eeh sour one.... I don't know what they are called outside of my own country And let it stay there for a day, and then clean it!! It works.... !!!!!! The sour stuff in it, will eat all bacteria and it's not bad for the environment or YOU