Freezer Failed

[CB4]

The story you have all heard a thousand times. I went on vacation a couple weeks ago and when we returned home the freezer was off and a big pool of blood was below it. 150+ pounds of deer and elk were in it.

However I turned down the heat in the house and when we got home our basement where the freezer is located was at 52 degrees. Would anyone risk it and still eat the meat?

Also asking for recommendations on good freezer alarms. I bought a cheap one off Amazon a couple years ago that wouldnt stay connected to the Wifi and would sound the alarm every time I just opened the door so I sent it back.

 

[Rich M]

We all been there. I duct taped the freezer lid down and around cause didn't want to enjoy the aroma or spill anything inside the house. Was a mix of fish, game. poultry, and the local steak sales. We were on vacation...

Toss the meat.

You can get an alarm that will contact your phone.

 

[GrayGoose]

Terrible deal. Never had an alarm until recently but went with the Thermoworks Node. Has been a good investment and peace of mind.

 

[Travis Hobbs]

Damn man, this really sucks!

Any chance you checked temp of actual meat?

I’m thinking a lot different depending on if meat maintained temps in and around 30 degrees vs 50 degrees.

 

[Sadie]

I'm sorry this happened to you. I would smell the meat. Don't know how long it was without refrigeration. Is the meat colder than 52 degrees? I don't think refereeing meat hurts it. I freeze my venison that I'm going to grind until I've gotten several deer and grind all together.

 

[Soj51hopeful]

I would guess if the meat was thawed enough there was a pool of blood at the base of the freezer that it’s no good.

 

[wesfromky]

After I lost meat because my freezer failed, I bought a bluetooth temp sensor from Amazon. The alarm only works if my phone is in range, so might not have helped if you were gone. But, it does track temp history and will sync up with the phone once it reconnects. Would at least give you good data on what the actual temps were while the freezer was off.

 

[go4thegusto]

TempStick....running 3 of them

 

[WTFJohn]

The story you have all heard a thousand times. I went on vacation a couple weeks ago and when we returned home the freezer was off and a big pool of blood was below it. 150+ pounds of deer and elk were in it.

However I turned down the heat in the house and when we got home our basement where the freezer is located was at 52 degrees. Would anyone risk it and still eat the meat?

Also asking for recommendations on good freezer alarms. I bought a cheap one off Amazon a couple years ago that wouldnt stay connected to the Wifi and would sound the alarm every time I just opened the door so I sent it back.

Did freezer actually fail? Or did it not cycle on because the temp was too low to trigger the thermostat? My shop fridge/freezer will not run if I do not have the heater going and get things up to temp.

 

[sierracharlie338]

I wouldn’t chance it. The combo of pooled blood and time it’s possibly been in thawed doesn’t give me warm and tinglys about the situation.

Been there and had to toss the meat and the freezer aide I couldn’t get the blood out of the drain system or the smell.

 

[ElkNut1]

You don't mention if freezer died or power tripped? If on a GFCI get it off of it. It's easily done by switching a couple of wires.

ElkNut

 

[Brock A]

I have these on my two freezers. They hook to Wifi and alert me when the freezer gets above a certain temp. I also drilled a small hole in the side of the freezer to run the wire through so its not running across the door seal. I then filled the hole with silicone after. They have been great.

Amazon.com

 

[KenLee]

Possible that meat on top is ruined and meat in bottom was so insulated that it is still good.
I've seen it a couple times.

 

[Sadie]

Good coyote bait at least.

 

[Elmer J. Fudd]

Had it happen with a freezer holding breast milk. Rough lesson to learn the hard way.

 

[Jethro]

You can make a claim for that lost meat with your home owners insurance.

You didn't really say what the actual condition of the meat was, but generally anything that was thawed, I'd throw out.

 

[saskhunter]

If there's any doubt, I wouldn't take any chances. Sucks about the meat, but such is life.

Thanks for the temp alarm reminder... I really need to get one!

 

[Jskaanland]

After a recent thread about a similar situation I bought 2 Mocreo sensors. They've worked great so far. Even caught a cracked lid on a chest freezer.

 

[Ucsdryder]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07XD68GX6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I have this for both of my freezers. Wouldn’t help if you’re out of town, but has a monitor in the kitchen with an alarm. I would definitely recommend, works great.

 

[buffybr]

I''ve had 2 upright freezers in my garage since the late '70s. The year that I got my Mountain Goat I could smell his goat stench as soon as I got to him. It was -5F with the snow above my knees when I started up the mountain after him. I completely skinned him out where I shot him, put his hide into my pack, then drug him to a cliff, threw him off, then worked my way down to him. I dept that up all the way down the mountain.

When I got home I completely boned out all of the meat. He still stunk! So I took all of the meat to a local meat shop and asked them to turn it into their spiciest pepperoni. When I got the meat back it still smelled like an old goat.

I had killed a deer, an elk, and maybe a pronghorn antelope earlier that year and I had all of that meat in one of my freezers. I put the goat meat in the other freezer.

Later that winter I had to go out of town for a week and I asked my neighbor to look after my dog and feed my horses.

When I got home I immediately saw that the floor in front of one of the freezers had recently been scrubbed clean. I opened that freezer and it was empty. Luckily that was the freezer that had the goat in it.

When I talked to my neighbor, he said he went into my garage and there was a pool of blood under and in front of that freezer. I don't know if that goat meat had spoiled or it just stunk like an old goat, but my neighbor hauled it to the dump and then cleaned everything up for me.

A few years ago I hunted Dagestan Tur in Azurbaijan. As soon as I got up to the ram that I shot I could smell his strong goat stench. While we were breaking down our base camp, one of the guys was pounding all of that Tur meat into a mush and putting it into gallon zip bags which they split up and took home to eat. Luckily I didn't have to eat any of it.