This is my first posting to the forum and I am in crisis. My husband (and has he heard about it) forgot to remove chicken fillets from our freezer after we returned from holidays at the end of December. The fridge was off and we opened the van last night to get it ready to go away for the long weekend......the smell!!!! It really does smell like someone died. The fluid from the chicken has seeped down into the fridge area as well although the smell seems to be mainly coming from the freezer. I wiped it all out last night with hot water and vinegar and scrubbed the residue with gumption. I then spread bi-carb soda through the fridge and freezer and left a bowl of it in both compartments. This morning the smell is not much better so i have wiped it out with a wet cloth and vanilla essence. It is a Dometic Model 2553. We have phoned a Dometic consultant who has told us that we will not be able to fix it and it will need to be replaced as the fluid and stench would have seeped into the insulation in the freezer. It is $2200 to replace!!! I just wanted to know if anyone else has had this experience and if the freezer was recoverable and if so what did they do? We would still like to get away this weekend if I can bring the stink level down to a tolerable smell and then maybe deal with the bigger issue when we get home. Any ideas? I'm desperate!
17' Series Rotten food in freezer! Help please!!!
- Thread starter Jacburg
- Start date
My wife says you have done all that is possible. You might try a product called "nil-odour" as she has had some success with that but she agrees that it is almost impossible to remove. She also suggested maybe a bowl of vinegar in each compartment but nothing will do too much by the weekend.
I would hate to be in your hubby's shoes. :fish:
I would hate to be in your hubby's shoes. :fish:
Almost 2 years ago now we had a tornado destroy our holiday cabin. We had been there a couple of weeks prior and were planning to go back the following weekend. Unfortunately the tornado removed the back half of the cabin and destroyed most of the holiday park it was located in. We had a kilo of frozen prawns in the freezer for use the following weekend.
As the power was off and we weren't allowed onto the site to clean up, it just sat there for a couple of months.
Eventually the clean up crew managed to salvage the fridge and other furniture for us. We collected it 5 months later. The smell had still permeated the fridge completely and it was only 5 years old in perfect condition.
It sat in my garage with all doors open for months and all types of cleaning methods used to try and remove it, all to no avail.
Sold it on Gumtree for $50, it was an $1000 stainless steel fridge new.
Get rid of it, you'll never get it back to the way it was, sorry.
As the power was off and we weren't allowed onto the site to clean up, it just sat there for a couple of months.
Eventually the clean up crew managed to salvage the fridge and other furniture for us. We collected it 5 months later. The smell had still permeated the fridge completely and it was only 5 years old in perfect condition.
It sat in my garage with all doors open for months and all types of cleaning methods used to try and remove it, all to no avail.
Sold it on Gumtree for $50, it was an $1000 stainless steel fridge new.
Get rid of it, you'll never get it back to the way it was, sorry.
Hello and welcome :welcome:to the forum , unfortunate circumstances for your first post.
Well i have never done that, but have done a few other silly things in the past that i curse myself for !
i guess open it up as much as you can , pull all the vents off - back n top , trims off etc get in there and clean ever spot you can reach with what ever tool allows greater access, hot water n bi carb, vinegar, and vanilla essences. you can buy absorbent containers, try those.
an air blower ( carpet cleaning type to move air ) in the van to circulate all doors and windows open.
if its gone into the insulation, that might be an issue, fridge may need to be removed, panels off if poss etc etc.
One thing that we often forget is our insurance, may be worth a call ?
As for this weekend, leave it all open , clean and wipe every day, heaps of deodorisers , car freshers in the fridge and in the van and see how u go.
keep us posted.
Good luck.
Well i have never done that, but have done a few other silly things in the past that i curse myself for !
i guess open it up as much as you can , pull all the vents off - back n top , trims off etc get in there and clean ever spot you can reach with what ever tool allows greater access, hot water n bi carb, vinegar, and vanilla essences. you can buy absorbent containers, try those.
an air blower ( carpet cleaning type to move air ) in the van to circulate all doors and windows open.
if its gone into the insulation, that might be an issue, fridge may need to be removed, panels off if poss etc etc.
One thing that we often forget is our insurance, may be worth a call ?
As for this weekend, leave it all open , clean and wipe every day, heaps of deodorisers , car freshers in the fridge and in the van and see how u go.
keep us posted.
Good luck.
Wow that's bad. Years ago a guy said to me to remove the smell of paint in a room place cut onions in a bowl and leave? No idea if it would work but I reckon your don't be rude outta luck. The other thing I always revert to is bleach and chlorine. Maybe ask a fridge repair can they remove the foam and reapply it
No advice for a quick solution other than remove and dismantle fridge replacing insulation but if it has got into the insulation then even removing the fridge it may be stuck in the van as well, I recal after Cyclone clean ups I have done that even a week after burying fridges the house still smelt of dead prawns.
Lemon, orange peel and vinegar spread everywhere can be a help, or a full kitty litter tray may change the smell.
Lemon, orange peel and vinegar spread everywhere can be a help, or a full kitty litter tray may change the smell.
There are a number of options
1 use bicarbonate of soda and warm water to scrub shelving
2 use bicarbonate mix with vinegar and scrub onto plastic parts and leave in fridge couole of hours also make a paste thick of bicarb washing liquid and use on aluminium leave for 30 min to one hour careful with aluminium
3 on a baking sheet sprinkle good quantity of bicarb soda powder place on shelves also in a
open tupperware bowel place rolled oats in one and ground coffee beans fresh in another this will help to mask the smell leave in fridge for a couple of days
4th option sell caravan
5th option never let your husband live this down
regards heather ( Mrs mf expanda)
1 use bicarbonate of soda and warm water to scrub shelving
2 use bicarbonate mix with vinegar and scrub onto plastic parts and leave in fridge couole of hours also make a paste thick of bicarb washing liquid and use on aluminium leave for 30 min to one hour careful with aluminium
3 on a baking sheet sprinkle good quantity of bicarb soda powder place on shelves also in a
open tupperware bowel place rolled oats in one and ground coffee beans fresh in another this will help to mask the smell leave in fridge for a couple of days
4th option sell caravan
5th option never let your husband live this down
regards heather ( Mrs mf expanda)
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Baz (part of Jacbaz) said put a bowl of charcoal in it ... 'Old wives tale and has no idea if it works' ... May be worth a try
I agree with the insurance claim idea. It is an honest mistake, plus you want the fridge to be as clean as possible, after all you are putting food in it, you don't want to be having second thoughts about the food you are eating. Plus the manufacturer agent said it will need to be replaced, so I would have thought that's all the insurance company would want to hear.
Could you get the fridge removed and use an esky's and ice on the weekend as a quick measure? All the best.
Could you get the fridge removed and use an esky's and ice on the weekend as a quick measure? All the best.
Interesting question about insurance. We are with NRMA, and my policy has cover for spoiled food as a result of an 'accident'. I'm not sure what the definition of an accident is, but accidentally leaving food in the fridge sounds like an accident to me.
If they are covering the food, there is a chance they will cover the fridge rehabilitation or replacement as well.
Not all policies are the same, but I'd certainly be making a call to see where you stand.
If they are covering the food, there is a chance they will cover the fridge rehabilitation or replacement as well.
Not all policies are the same, but I'd certainly be making a call to see where you stand.
Hi. We found 3 month old sausages in our freezer that had been stored during the heat of summer (Adelaide) and they were rotten! This was found the day before our 3 week trip to Tasmania hence there were some course words said. The wife tried everything (I mean everything!) but to no avail - it was rank vomit material!!!!!
We were lucky we had a Waeco we could use as the fridge was unusable. We ended up removing from the van at every opportunity as the smell was unbearable and placing it away from the van at our campsites. Towards the end of our trip it was quite comical as it almost become a member of the family making sure we gathered it before leaving lol.
Once home it was banished to the back verandah where it remained open for 6 months and the smell eventually vanished. We reinstalled it and upgraded the van
We were lucky we had a Waeco we could use as the fridge was unusable. We ended up removing from the van at every opportunity as the smell was unbearable and placing it away from the van at our campsites. Towards the end of our trip it was quite comical as it almost become a member of the family making sure we gathered it before leaving lol.
Once home it was banished to the back verandah where it remained open for 6 months and the smell eventually vanished. We reinstalled it and upgraded the van
Clearing up after Cyclone Tracy, the local shop had big chest freezers 3 of us in breathing gear went in to clear the way for a back hoe, we all threw up in our face masks when we lifted the lid on one, not funny at all at the time..............................dug big hole behind shop and buried them there.
If insurance isnt an option and i was left with a $2200 bill from $6.50 worth of chicken fillets, firstly i kill the offender, then Id get the fridge out of the van and temporarily replace it with a cheap bar fridge, so i could use the van ...
Id strip every panel off it, find the stinky bits and remove/de-ordorise/replace/scrape out/burn/melt (whatever works) ... kill the offender again .... and leave the stripped fridge to sit in the sun for however long it took .... which would never outlast my desire not to spend $2200 on a new one.
Id strip every panel off it, find the stinky bits and remove/de-ordorise/replace/scrape out/burn/melt (whatever works) ... kill the offender again .... and leave the stripped fridge to sit in the sun for however long it took .... which would never outlast my desire not to spend $2200 on a new one.
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I've used the onion trick for paint.....it works. Decomposing chicken......well, what have you got to lose except a few onions. Cut them in half and put them in the fridge. Good luck.
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