Gutted - lost meat

[mxracer317]

Just lost all my deer, elk and antelope meat. An electrical company came out to our home and tripped my GFI and didn’t reset my freezer in the garage.

Left for Canada for a week.

I’m so gutted over this.

I actually have “sensor push” sensor and that was on the same circuit. So when that went off, I didn’t get a push notification that the temperature was out of whack.

Sharing this for someone to learn from my mistake.

So now I need to get rid of all the rancid meat and blood pools with my pressure washer.

Any advice on cleaning out the standing freezer so there is no smell whatsoever left over?

 

[Hunt&FishCO]

Bleach and a trip to Texas sound like they’re on order.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Sorry, that really sucks and that smell is a terrible one.

 

[mxracer317]

Sorry, that really sucks and that smell is a terrible one.

 

[JLS]

I had this happen years ago. I turned the freezer back on to get things solidified, threw them out, bleached it, and then rotated baking soda boxes for the next three years b

 

[Robert N]

Oh geez man. Happened to me about ten years ago. I went out of town, Power went out and tripped a breaker. Lost well over 100# of prepped meat.

When I came home a week later - gawd that was awful. I duct taped the freezer and called in for a special pickup. Nasty!

I bought a “screamer” alarm after that. Runs on a 9-volt and when the power trips the screamer alarm goes off and does not stop until you hit the reset button. Basically it forces a response out of you.

Kinda like one of these things.

ENDMAN Power Failure Alarm for Freezer Alarm, Power Outage Alarm,Power Loss Alarm with Rechargeable Battery (Included) >95dB https://a.co/d/bLxjAZJ

 

[Robert N]

Ps: under sink water alarm screamers are a total lifesaver too!

 

[D_Walt]

That sucks, I’ve had a freezer quit before and it’s kind of a sick feeling throwing meat away. Luckily mine was only about a month before deer season.

Last year some illegals left the freezer in my hunting camp open and we lost about 100 quail that we were planning on cooking for a party the next week.

 

[mxracer317]

I had this happen years ago. I turned the freezer back on to get things solidified, threw them out, bleached it, and then rotated baking soda boxes for the next three years b

Did it take that long to get the smell out?

 

[tarheel]

Baking soda and 2 or 3 bags of charcoal (lump) closed up inside. Even at that it could take a couple of years and many days of lid open exposure to sunlight to rid yourself of the stink.

 

[JLS]

Did it take that long to get the smell out?

It took a long time. The charcoal is a good idea.

 

[Boarmaster]

20 years ago I left for a week long spring gobbler hunt. My house keeper decided it was a good time to move stuff around in the utility room that housed my washer dryer and freezer.

Being early spring the freezer was full of my game meat. Three deer, a few wild boar and a dozen pheasants. One deer i had processed into summer sausage. While she was cleaning she knocked the plug out of the socket or unplugged it to move it and never plugged it back in.

My girl friend at the time stopped by to check on the place and found the disaster. I had her plug the freezer back in.

When I got home it was refrozen in a big block of blood and rancid meat. It came right out. I washed out the freezer with Dawn then wiped it with vinegar. I never had any smell after cleaning it. For an upright I would soak all the shelving in a tub of vinegar.

 

[OntarioHunter]

We bought our 1929 vintage home the fall of 1990. The previous owner had done a bunch of "upgrades" that were mostly cosmetic. But it did have new windows and wiring (what could be seen by inspector ... everything in the attic was still knob and wire spider web). Dad and Mom came for a visit shortly afterwards. I showed Dad what we had started to finish in the basement. He noticed the big fuse box. "I don't know where Henry managed to find a new fuse box that size. Guess I'll have to pay an electrician to change it to breaker box." Dad, who was a card carrying IBEW, said no way. Stay with fuses. They're safer. People continue to use breakers after they're worn out. Can't do that with fuses. He also pointed out the dead freezer after power outage thing. Apparently, it's not that uncommon. My freezers are in the garrage which is also on fuses (but that old box is way too small - I would like to upgrade but finding a fuse box is rare).

 

[wytex]

Try one of the smaller ozone machines with the lid closed for a bit.

 

[Phaseolus]

For starters get rid of the GFI circuit for your freezer.

 

[Cattleman]

@Phaseolus said get rid of the GFCI protection. With todays National electric code damn near the whole house has to either GFCI,AFCI or both. As soon as the inspector leaves i'd be changing out the breakers or outlets on fridge, freezers, sump pump & anything else of importance.

 

[Whitetail_kid]

That sucks. Bet that was a fun one to clean out.

 

[nrpate05]

I've been there too. We had some work done on our house when we were out of town and the worker leaned something up against the plug and it unplugged it just enough to lose power to the freezer. It was 100 degrees that week too. Lost a bunch of elk, antelope and some bear meat. All the bags were bloated up and there was blood and flies everywhere. It was gruesome. I just washed it a few times with bleach.

 

[mnscruff]

You could try, Clean air oder absorbent gel

 

[mxracer317]

For starters get rid of the GFI circuit for your freezer.

Lesson learned. It was on the same circuit, but not plugged into a GFI