Oh, the stench

Came home after a weekend away, and there was the most unbelieveable stench in the house, like something had died, and it would have had to be something substantial at that. Oh damn, forgot to empty the kitchen bin, I thought, which had the remains of a piece of roast pork from Wednesday or Thursday last week. Tackled the bin, but it didn't really smell that much at all, and I didn't think it was the source of the pong. Smell showed no sign of going, and it was very difficult to tell where it was coming from -- it had reached into every corner of the house. Started going through the kitchen, looking for something that had gone off, or some bowl or pan which had been put away accidently with food in it, but nothing.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, smell was coming from the fridge, but not inside the fridge. Pulled out the fridge, and then realised what had happened. I had put the pork on the carving board, on top of the fridge, which serves as an extra bit of worktop. The juice from the meat had overflowed the well in the carving board and spilled onto the fridge, which I had cleaned up. What I hadn't noticed is that a significant amount had run to the back of the worktop and spilled down the rear of the fridge. There it had mostly been caught by the condensate collection tray on top of the compressor, where it had mixed with condensate draining out of the fridge, and then sat at probably the ideal bug breeding temperature all weekend, and boy, did the bugs breed ;-) However, the stink was also coming from the trail down the back of the fridge, behind the hot condensor, which made cleaning it off extremely difficult. Hopefully, it's all gone now, at last.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel
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Many years ago when I owned a Fiesta I noticed this strange smell coming from somewhere within the cabin area of the car but could not find anything untoward. About a week passed and the smell got worse until it was fairly unbearable IMHO. Lent car to a friend who found the smell - turned out to be a piece of chicken which had been frozen at my Mums place and had been transported to my house in a carrier bag (obviously it slipped out without my knowledge and i had not noticed it missing at the time as there was more than one piece). It had defrosted and gone off under the drivers seat and I swear I loooked there as the smell got worse.

Reply to
purple pete

Had a fridge/freezer die on me that was similar - got back after a week away to a strong "meat cooking smell". It turned out that the freezer compartment had failed and was in fact quite a warmish temparature. All the meats in the freezer had been slowly cooking for god knows how long. I sealed the fridge/freezer and took it to the council dump (while trying not to gag). grim.

Reply to
justcalledfubar

Quick summary of an experience when my wife was at uni in a student house.

4 week Easter holiday. Students trying to save money emptied and turned off fridge, door open. Return 4 weeks later to horrible stench. Noticed maggots covering the floor of the stairs and kitchen. Lots of flies in house. More maggots in fridge (including condensate drain). Remains of 4 decomposed sausages found in fridge. Housemate hadn't completely emptied fridge (and was last to arrive back after most had been cleared up!) Smell remained in house for days, in fridge for months. Didn't walk bare footed in that house again. D
Reply to
David Hearn

Ah, roast Pork, my favourite. It is the closest I can get to human flesh.........? Then Lamb, then Beef. chris.

Reply to
mcbrien410

Ah, roast Pork, my favourite. It is the closest I can get to human flesh.........? Then Lamb, then Beef. chris.

Reply to
mcbrien410

I had a similar experience in my old cottage. Looked everywehere. Found nothing. Eventually the smell faded.

Then I went off to a motor race one day and grabbed my camera bag off the floor...and discovered the mummified remains of the mouse the cat had brought in, that had crawled under it to die...;-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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