Unpluged freezer clean up

May 27, 2006 4 Replies

Hi,



I have had a problem with a larder fridge freezer, it was unplugged for 3 weeks, with a full freezer.. What is the best way to deal with the residual smell.. I have wiped it with a saturated solution of bicaronate of soda, this improved but not fixed the problem.


Concentrated bleach,then leave the door/s open for 24 hours.

Check in cracks between parts of the liner and seals -- smell is likely coming from liquid food which has gone in there to decay. These can be impossible to clean out in some cases. As a last resort, try a weak bleach solution. This will temporarily kill the bacteria which you can then keep in check by running the freezer, but as you haven't managed to clean out all the food debris, the smell will return if the freezer is switched off again. Don't use strong bleach -- it can damage some of the materials used and it will taint the food stored in there later.

Best to use a Quat based sanitiser/cleaner. These are food safe, no taste, no taint, no smell. Look on the labels for something like 'contains quaternary ammonium compounds'. Some brands of kitchen cleaner are like this, or find a janitorial supplier in Yellow Pages.

Yes, I had this once. After arsing around with every chemical under the sun and it still honked, loaded it in car, take to tip go to Curries/Comet etc problem solved, smell free fridge feezer, Actually I used small adds to a

1.8m fridge freezer for £60 and bypassed the long wait for delivery from Curries/Comet.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required