Hi moms-
We just came home from a fabulous two week vacation. Unfortunately, we came home to a nasty surprise. An outlet in our garage tripped and cut power to everything in the garage. THat included our freezer. We live in Yuma and the heat is already well into the high 90's to low 100's. Needless to say, the freezer STINKS. Any ideas on how to get the smell out? We have tried Oxyclean, bleach and the orange cleaner...still stinks. Does anyone have a tip or should we just start looking for a new freezer?
Charcoal worked for us. Just regular briquets sitting there absorbed the odors, similar to baking soda but stronger.
Keep the door open all the time.
Make a paste with water and baking soda and rub all inside surfaces. Rinse with full strength vinegar. Try 9% vinegar...it is in the pickling/canning section of the grocery store.
Buy activated charcoal from the pet supply and fill a bowl, close the door overnight.
It may take some time and multiple treaments, but it will decrease over time.
Baking soda is a great idea. I would also suggest Melaleuca Sol-u-mel http://www.melaleuca.com/ProductStore/Product.aspx?sku=292 It works wonders. My parents swear by it. My mom used it to help a friend get cat urine smell and cigarette smells out of a house. In my opinion it's not the greatest smell in the world by itself, but it will neutralize the odor. Good luck!
New freezer, chances are that stuff has seeped into the lining (insulation) of the freezer and that can't be cleaned up.
Try using a container of used coffee grounds-they are a great odor absorber!
A box or two of baking soda should absorb the stink just set them inside....hope that helps.
After my "Great Potato Incident of 2009," I did some research on removing smells and the only thing that worked for us was baking soda and TIME. I had forgotten a bag of potatoes (already past their prime when purchased, which I didn't know) under the cabinet (in their plastic bag--big no-no) for a couple of months. One day I opened the cabinet and almost passed out from the smell! The potatoes had turned to liquid and it was one of the worst things I had ever smelled! We had to open windows and run fans to get the smell out of the rest of the house, too. So, I cleaned up the liquid mess, removed everything else from the cabinet (gagging the whole time), and wiped down with bleach wipes. Then I placed a large (diameter, not deep) bowl of fresh baking soda in the cabinet and sealed it up (taped up around the door). Let it sit for about a week then removed the soda and replaced with fresh. Let it sit for another week. Repeated this for a month and the smell was gone. Lessons learned: do not buy potatoes in bulk, do not leave in plastic, and do not store "out of sight"!!
Anyways, good luck with your freezer! Maybe next time, look into a backup battery (like they use for computers & expensive electronics)?
I think new Freezer Oxyclean should have worked
Douse it with dry baking soda, let that sit over night, then add water to turn into a paste. Slush that all around, let it sit a few hours more. Wash again.
After the baking soda, spray on a straight, cheap Vodka. The alcohol denatures the proteins in the itsy-bitsy crevices and cracks. You could even try a cheap flavored vodka which will help cover up the smell, but the straight vodka will take care of the smell.
Best!
some smells never come out of plastic. Fish never came out of RV fridge , treid bleach, vinegar, nothing worked.
