Chest Freezers

   / Chest Freezers #51  
Over the years, we've had both chest type and upright. Chest for efficiency, upright for convenience, and small footprint. I'll never forget when a neighbor friend across the alley behind us came over one hot summer day and borrowed my little air-compressor, took it home to air up the tires on his daughter's bicycle, then returned the compressor. A few days later, that family went on vacation. And a few days after they returned, the wife went out in the garage to get something from their chest type freezer and when she opened it, the stink was horrible. She went back in the house and called husband, a bank vice president. He came home, opened the freezer, slammed the lid, and ran out in the alley to puke.:laughing: That freezer was nearly full. Then he remembered . . . . when he borrowed my little air compressor, he unplugged the freezer to use that outlet for the air compressor. Then he returned the air compressor, but forgot to plug the freezer back in. They drug that freezer out of the garage into the yard. SHE took everything out of it, put it all in plastic bags and they hauled it off (fortunately they had a little pickup truck). They tried baking soda, vinegar, and I don't know what all, trying to clean that freezer out, left it open in the yard a couple of weeks, etc., finally gave up and had it hauled off.:laughing:

I have helped clean out flooded houses. The worst thing to move is the freezers and fridges. When the water rises, they flip over and the insulation soaks up water so they get real heavy. You only open the door once. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: We went to help out at one house and we were in the kitchen. The fridge was on it's back and I told one of the guys helping out to NOT open the door while I went to get a dolly. I got back and he was outside looking a bit green. He had opened the fridge door. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

At another house, the lady had bought some huge amount of butter on sale. It was 20 or 50 pounds. :confused3: She had frozen the butter but then the house flooded. It was a little, itty bitty, chest freezer but it had flipped over. The butter had melted in the little mud room where she kept the freezer. There was about an inch of liquid melted, rancid butter on the floor. :eek: "Thankfully,", they were burning who knows what but I think mainly rotten food from other fridge and freezers in the back yard. The smoke from the fire would blow towards the house from time to time and we could keep the mud room door open so the smoke would blow inside. The smoke from burning who knows what was better to breath than the rancid butter and ick puddle we were standing in. :shocked:

When we thought we where done, this elderly couple had managed to clean out there house except for the appliances, they asked if we could get one more freezer. :rolleyes::laughing::laughing::laughing:

They had a wonderful garden, green house, and large shed to prep food for storage. There was one last standing freezer in the shed. :eek: :laughing::laughing::laughing:

The shed was next to the fire. :D The freezer had fallen over as usual but it had dumped most of its contents. The smell was so bad one could only stay in the shed for as long as you could hold your breath. We formed a line, a guy would take a deep breath, run inside and use a scoop shovel to move as much rotten food as they could before needing to breath. We would run in, shovel until your lungs would burst, and then run out and stand near the fire to breath in the smoke. The smoke would masked the stench in your nose and on your clothes. :shocked: :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We laugh about it now. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Not so much then. :D

Later,
Dan
 
   / Chest Freezers #52  
My mother in law did the unplug the freezer in the garage thing. She was getting forgetful at the time and I never found out why she decided to unplug it, but she did. Fortunately it was not in the house but there was a big blood stain on the floor that I had to clean up (upright freezer). I do not recall a huge stench but maybe that is because the blood ran out and maybe the door seal was not as good.
 
   / Chest Freezers #53  
While I'm really not into home automation the way some people are....... this discussion had me thinking "That's one IoT service that I'd like......."

At a glance, remote fridge/freezer monitoring products seem to mostly target the industrial market...... might be a nice Raspberry Pi project.....

Rgds, D.
 
   / Chest Freezers
  • Thread Starter
#54  
I always do things the hardest way possible and with the most risk.

Having said that, maybe the sensor on the underside of the lid is a good idea. Sensor won't get ripped off or in the way, plus if the freezer was ever too full, and the door not quite closed, it might alarm sooner.


I have Counterforce do my monitoring. So I get a phone call typically and a Text. Plus the keypads beep. I also get that for power outage, but was thinking of telling them not to call me for an outage, just text. It ties up their operators and besides, usually if I am here, I know the power is out and I hate being woken up to be told that.
 
   / Chest Freezers
  • Thread Starter
#56  
My crawdad just called me. Wondered if I was still alive in these frigid temps.
 
   / Chest Freezers #57  
I have one of each. The upright is filled with last year's pig, while the chest freezer down in the shed is full of turkeys and chicken. To keep food from falling out of the upright I keep it sorted by cuts in cardboard boxes. Note that the cold air as well as food falls out when you open that upright door. The cost of running each is greatly overexaggerated; running an electric clothes dryer once per week will cost you more. A couple of times per month I take out enough food to last and put it in the freezer part of the refrigerator, so that I'm not letting the cold out of my freezer on a regular basis.
 
   / Chest Freezers
  • Thread Starter
#58  
My freezer lid has an extra plastic inner liner that is bevelled and makes an insulated seal in the lid. This kind of makes me rethink, putting the wire under the lid.

If I put a depth limiting collar on a drill bit, just to pierce the skin on each side, close to the top, and then took a semi sharp rod and stuck it through the insulation, I wonder if that would work. Dang, wish I knew where the coils were.
 
   / Chest Freezers #59  
My freezer lid has an extra plastic inner liner that is bevelled and makes an insulated seal in the lid. This kind of makes me rethink, putting the wire under the lid.

If I put a depth limiting collar on a drill bit, just to pierce the skin on each side, close to the top, and then took a semi sharp rod and stuck it through the insulation, I wonder if that would work. Dang, wish I knew where the coils were.

Try putting that very small diameter tube under the lid FIRST!
 
   / Chest Freezers #60  
If I put a depth limiting collar on a drill bit, just to pierce the skin on each side, close to the top, and then took a semi sharp rod and stuck it through the insulation, I wonder if that would work. Dang, wish I knew where the coils were.
Do you have a infrared temperature gun? If you have one of those, you should be able to see the temperature change where the coils are versus where they are not. Personally, I would try disassembling the top and putting the sensor on the top of the plastic layer inside and put an appropriate grommet for it to go through the back of the lid.

Aaron Z
 

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