lost a freezer!!!!

[littlebuf]

sitting in the kitchen this morning getting ready to head out to the water here in a little bit and my wife asks me to take out some elk for BBQ tonight. walk out to my upright (holding 2 elk and a deer) open it up and see wet paper!!! holy $#!+!! luckily I caught it. about 90% was still all the way frozen and what had started to defrost was still very very cold. we will be having elk every night this week with what I didn't want to put back in my chest freezer. thank God we caught that. so no its time for a new freezer and I want one either with an alarm or a separate alarm sensor I can attach to it. anybody have any recommendations for a set up?

 

[Shrek]

We have had this discussion before. I placed both of my freezers to where I walk by them as I come and go so I can check the little lights on them to be sure they are still on . I'm in mine just about every day so I would catch it quick if I'm around the house. I also split everything into both freezers so if I do loose one I wouldn't loose all my game meat.

 

[fillthefreezer]

mine has a light on the front and its plug into the same cord as my beer fridge so i check source power daily

 

[Becca]

I am always afraid we are going to lose one of our three freezers! So far so good, as they are all new in the last 7 years, but it is still something I think about. I do like the redundancy of having more than one....at least if we lose one, we still have whatever was stored in the other two. I also second the idea of having them in a place where you will walk by them frequently (I park right by them in our garage) so hopefully we would notice a failure before we lost everything. Our nicest freezer is a fridgidaire upright with a temp display on it. It also has a door sensor that beeps if its been open for 5 min or more. Has alerted me several times to a door that didn't close all the way, usually due to having something in the door shelves slide down and prevent closure.


Call me crazy, but I also worry about power outages. It's not unheard of for nasty storms to knock out the power up here for up to 24 hours. So far we have done fine just keeping the freezer doors shut. I try to keep enough propane and canning jars on hand that I could pressure can most of the steaks and ground meat if a nasty earthquake or something else knocked the power off for more than a day.

 

[orionthehunter1]

That's why I bough a freezer with a built in alarm on it

 

[robby denning]

I hardwire mine in so they can't come unplugged. Lost one that way and a few hundred dollars food and a deer.

 

[larryschwartz]

Having multiple freezers is certainly a good idea, and only filling them part way so that you can move meat from the dead one into the others is certainly a strategy for saving the meat if one dies; i.e. - if you have three freezers then only fill them 1/2 full so that if one goes down then you can move its contents into the empty space in the other two, four freezers would 2/3 full, etc.

Also, coolers and dry ice will keep your stuff frozen until you can get another freezer in to replace the dead one.

As for sensors, check out the posts by a guy named TipTemp on this thread. His company has some interesting things that might solve your problem. I have not used them, I just found it through Google; http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/p/33448438/Freezer-Temperature-Alarm-It-happened-again.aspx


Larry

 

[Darren Best]

I lost a freezer in my first divorce, along with a whole beef, most of an elk and a couple deer.

It's been an unofficial prenup since then that I keep the freezer.

 

[LongWayAround]

I just walked out to grab a few steaks and found out I lost my deep-freeze sometime since last Thursday night. I thought someone had stolen a bunch of meat since it was so low...

Everything was soft and barely cool. I had f I've turkeys, half an elk, some beef, several pheasants, and about two dozen geese.

This is so very disappointing. I guess I'll be buying a new freezer. Hopefully, the next few months go quickly and I have some success this fall. Maybe I'll even catch a few fish.

 

[LostArra]

I hate to hear these stories and when I do I go check our freezer.

About 25 years ago I came home from work and noticed every kid in the neighborhood including my four were playing as usual in the street but every one was eating a chicken leg. When I got home I learned my wife had found the freezer "partially unplugged" probably from kids retrieving a ball or bike. Meat was partially frozen or cold so she fired up the grill and also had meat cooking on every burner in the house. That night all the neighborhood kids had grilled chicken legs for dinner. It became a local joke that my neighbor unplugged the freezer so my wife would cook for everyone. (My wife is an outstanding cook).

 

[Ramcam]

Lost a beautiful Buffalo hide and various dog training critters to the freezer packing it in even though the light was on.

 

[topher89]

My freezer is in the garage and I walk by it every day. Usually I can hear the little "buzz" that it is running or i open it up and take a peek

 

[LifeAndLiberty]

Just picked up one of these a few weeks ago: http://www.amazon.com/CDN-TA20-Visu...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00 Well worth the investment.

 

[robtattoo]

I've had mine trip off a couple of times without me noticing. Luckily, everything I freeze I vacuum seal before hand so it's less of an issue. I've managed to refreeze all my game after 4 days unplugged with no loss whatsoever.
That said I do have a small generator that I keep on hand for long power outages & tornado concerns. Even my veggie Wife knows to plug the freeze into the genny if needed!

 

[ytlogger]

I am always afraid we are going to lose one of our three freezers! So far so good, as they are all new in the last 7 years, but it is still something I think about. I do like the redundancy of having more than one....at least if we lose one, we still have whatever was stored in the other two. I also second the idea of having them in a place where you will walk by them frequently (I park right by them in our garage) so hopefully we would notice a failure before we lost everything. Our nicest freezer is a fridgidaire upright with a temp display on it. It also has a door sensor that beeps if its been open for 5 min or more. Has alerted me several times to a door that didn't close all the way, usually due to having something in the door shelves slide down and prevent closure.


Call me crazy, but I also worry about power outages. It's not unheard of for nasty storms to knock out the power up here for up to 24 hours. So far we have done fine just keeping the freezer doors shut. I try to keep enough propane and canning jars on hand that I could pressure can most of the steaks and ground meat if a nasty earthquake or something else knocked the power off for more than a day.

Do you have any sisters?

Seriously though... I too dread the thought of finding a freezer malfunction when it's too late. I once had a brand new freezer fail when the crimp on the fill tube had a leak, so that makes you think. The light on the freezer just tells you that it's connected to line voltage, no help at all if the compressor craters. I think I'll look into 3 wireless temp alarms. Only good if someone hears them but more effective than optimism.

 

[archer wapiti]

Losing a freezer is scary stuff.
There are alarms that will call your phone and leave a message. Not sure how they work but here's one:
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Produ...dp/B002MUAIP8?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

 

[bowtech3dhunter]

I ran a separate circuit in my garage that is just for my deep freezer and a green LED indicator light. If I ever walk into the garage and that LED isn't on, then something is wrong.