Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
the meat in the freezer will go bad now?

(We just bought a WSM last week. We are planning to use it for
the first time this weekend.)

Thanks!

Karen C.

Karen C. wrote:
> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?
>
> (We just bought a WSM last week. We are planning to use it for
> the first time this weekend.)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Karen C.

It should be fine.

kili

"Karen C." > wrote in message
...
> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?
>
> (We just bought a WSM last week. We are planning to use it for
> the first time this weekend.)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Karen C.
>
>

No. IMO if the food was froze and you don't keep opining it to see if it is
thawed, it should be good for 2 or 3 days or more.
--
James A. "Big Jim" Whitten

www.lazyq.com

"Karen C." > wrote in news:46a0b29b$0$6029
:

> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?

Its clearly all ruined. Please pack it on dry ice in a cooler and ship it
to me for proper disposal.


--
Ask Me Why I support Stem Cell Research
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/faqs.asp

Karen C. wrote:
> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?

If you kept the freezer door shut during the 2 hours, you should be good to
go.

-frohe

"Barry Bean" > wrote in message
. 130...
> Its clearly all ruined. Please pack it on dry ice in a cooler
and ship it
> to me for proper disposal.

Thanks! I needed that chuckle today <g>.

Karen C.

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:03:24 -0400, Karen C. wrote:
> Even if I my freezer was off and the door open for 6 hours,
> everything in it would still be just fine.

Thanks for your response. I should have been more clear, but
this was our refrigerator's freezer and not a deep freeze. Does
that matter? Thanks!

Karen C.

"Big Jim" > wrote in message
...
> No. IMO if the food was froze and you don't keep opining it to
see if it is
> thawed, it should be good for 2 or 3 days or more.

Thanks! We only opened it once, and that was after the power
came back on. It only appeared to begin to thaw on the outside,
but it still had me worried.

I guess this is one of those rare times when DH was right <g>.

Thanks, again, to all who responded.

Karen C.

Karen C. wrote:
> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?

I'd say that the food in both the refrigerator and freezer is just fine.
We've had power outages in the day-long range and by not opening the
freezer, the meat and foods are solid as a rock after even a full 24
hour outage.

Here's a FWIW. We had a second house up on a nearby mountain. Unlike
Las Vegas, the mountain cabin got snow, sleet, ice, freezing winds and
occasional power outages. What I did to insure that the food in the
freezer was OK was to purchase a simple, inexpensive indoor/outdoor
thermometer at Radio Shack. It was well under $20 and had a "high" and
"low" memory. When we'd visit the cabin, the first thing I'd do is look
at my thermometer in the freezer and check on the "high" temp. Never
did it show any significant rise, so we were always assured that the
food in the freezer was OK.

BTW- I had a separate device connected to a phone dialer, where we'd get
a call at home from the place if the cabin temperature itself dropped
under 45f. If it did (which never happened), I'd have gone up and run
the little genset to fire up the boiler and recirculating pump.



--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

"Karen C." > wrote in message
>
> Thanks for your response. I should have been more clear, but
> this was our refrigerator's freezer and not a deep freeze. Does
> that matter? Thanks!
>
> Karen C.

No, still no problem

Even if it defrost a tiny bit, it would not have warmed to the point of
spoilage. That would take some hours.

"Karen C." wrote:
>
> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?
>
> (We just bought a WSM last week. We are planning to use it for
> the first time this weekend.)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Karen C.

Two hours unpowered in an unopened freezer that was at proper
temperature prior to the power outage would not be an issue anywhere but
perhaps Death Valley. Four hours is about the point that you need to
check on the freezer temperature and prepare plan B (like coolers with
dry ice or a generator).

Pete C.

Nonnymus wrote:
> Karen C. wrote:
>> Probably a dumb question, but . . . Storm came through last
>> night and knocked out our power for two hours. Any chance that
>> the meat in the freezer will go bad now?
>
> I'd say that the food in both the refrigerator and freezer is just
> fine. We've had power outages in the day-long range and by not
> opening the freezer, the meat and foods are solid as a rock after
> even a full 24 hour outage.
>
> Here's a FWIW. We had a second house up on a nearby mountain. Unlike
> Las Vegas, the mountain cabin got snow, sleet, ice, freezing winds and
> occasional power outages. What I did to insure that the food in the
> freezer was OK was to purchase a simple, inexpensive indoor/outdoor
> thermometer at Radio Shack. It was well under $20 and had a "high"
> and "low" memory. When we'd visit the cabin, the first thing I'd do
> is look at my thermometer in the freezer and check on the "high"
> temp. Never did it show any significant rise, so we were always
> assured that the food in the freezer was OK.

Here is an old trick for freezers.

Take a ziplock bag and place a couple of icecubes in it.
When you check the bag you will know if the power was out
for too long because it will either be filled with water
or have a large flat ice slab inside if it refroze.

If it got warm enough for the ice to melt then it's time
to clean the freezer.

--
DougW

DougW wrote:

> Take a ziplock bag and place a couple of icecubes in it.
> When you check the bag you will know if the power was out
> for too long because it will either be filled with water
> or have a large flat ice slab inside if it refroze.
>
> If it got warm enough for the ice to melt then it's time
> to clean the freezer.

Excellent idea.

A few years back, we took a 2-week trip, asking a neighbor to keep an
eye on the house. During the trip, my wife's cell phone rang and the
neighbor said our power had been out. It had been almost a week since
he'd checked the inside of our house, and as soon as he opened the door,
he shut it again. The MAIN breaker for the house had not only tripped,
it wouldn't reset. He called an electrician, who replaced the breaker
and got the house operating again, but that didn't do anything for the
freezer/refrigerator.

During the days power had been out to the house, everything had melted
and spoiled. Naturally, things froze back again when power was
restored, but even that didn't do anything for the smell. I had about
5# of shrimp and an equal weight of scallops in the freezer, along with
tuna, steaks, chops and 4 racks of ribs.

When we returned, I got a hotel room for the night and put the wife up.
I then tackled the freezer- emptying it entirely along with the
refrigerator contents. Even the labels on the bottles in the
refrigerator stunk and the overall smell was so bad I wore a charcoal
filtered mask. After the freezer thawed down again, I washed it and the
refrigerator out 3 times with liquid disinfectant, followed by three
scrubbings with baking soda. I got the drain lines and catch pan
underneath as well. The house still stunk to high heavens and the
refrigerator still had a peculiar odor. My final act for the evening
was to get out my commercial grade ozone generator. I set it on a chair
facing the opened refrigerator doors and set it to running all night,
along with the furnace fans. By Noon the next day, I reentered the
house, cut off the generator and opened the windows.

By evening, we returned and outside of a "burned" smell from the Ozone
residual, things were back to normal. It was a mess I'd not like to
repeat. The garbage collection wasn't until the next day, but I risked
the wrath of the HOA and left the stinking can out front until they
came. It sure wasn't going to be left in my hot garage until then. <grin>

--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

"Steve Wertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:15:39 -0400, Karen C. wrote:

> It's going to have to thaw before you cook it anyway.

True. I was just afraid the outside would be spoiled, though the
inside was okay.

Thanks!

Karen C.

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
et...
> No, still no problem

Good!

> Even if it defrost a tiny bit, it would not have warmed to the
point of
> spoilage. That would take some hours.

I'm glad to hear that. Thanks!

Karen C.

"Nonnymus" > wrote in message
...
> I'd say that the food in both the refrigerator and freezer is
just fine.
> We've had power outages in the day-long range and by not
opening the
> freezer, the meat and foods are solid as a rock after even a
full 24
> hour outage.

This is good to know.

> occasional power outages. What I did to insure that the food
in the
> freezer was OK was to purchase a simple, inexpensive
indoor/outdoor
> thermometer at Radio Shack. It was well under $20 and had a
"high" and
> "low" memory. When we'd visit the cabin, the first thing I'd
do is look
> at my thermometer in the freezer and check on the "high" temp.
Never
> did it show any significant rise, so we were always assured
that the
> food in the freezer was OK.

That's really neat! I never knew there was such a thing as that.
It would be well worth the $20 or so it would cost. I'm going to
look for one. Thanks!

> BTW- I had a separate device connected to a phone dialer, where
we'd get
> a call at home from the place if the cabin temperature itself
dropped
> under 45f. . . .

Sounds like another worthwhile gadget. Thanks for the tips!

Karen C.

"DougW" > wrote in message
...
> Nonnymus wrote:
> Here is an old trick for freezers.
> Take a ziplock bag and place a couple of icecubes in it.
> When you check the bag you will know if the power was out
> for too long because it will either be filled with water
> or have a large flat ice slab inside if it refroze.

That's a great idea! Thanks for passing it along.

Karen C.

"Karen C." > wrote in message
...
> "DougW" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Nonnymus wrote:
>> Here is an old trick for freezers.
>> Take a ziplock bag and place a couple of icecubes in it.
>> When you check the bag you will know if the power was out
>> for too long because it will either be filled with water
>> or have a large flat ice slab inside if it refroze.
>
> That's a great idea! Thanks for passing it along.
>
> Karen C.
>
>
>

You may want to consider one of these alarms. Won't help much in a power
failure, but could save big time if the door is not closed properly or the
circuit breaker trips, mechanical failure, etc.
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...t=2,2120,33279

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
. net...
> You may want to consider one of these alarms. Won't help much
in a power
> failure, but could save big time if the door is not closed
properly or the
> circuit breaker trips, mechanical failure, etc.
>
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...163&cat=2,2120,
33279

I'm definitely going to get one! Thanks, so much!

Karen C.