Undesirable Bonanza


 
RichPB (richlife)

RichPB (richlife)

TVWBB Wizard
So here we are on the verge of a stifling holiday weekend and our 4-month-old chest freezer decides to give up. The good news it's under warranty, the not so good, is that a tech won't be here until Friday -- and no real guarantee the freezer will be working when he leaves (parts?).

So clearly something must be done -- start unloading the chest freezer and put what we can in the limited side-by-side. Now many may think this is a great opportunity to grill. Sure -- but then there are the gems that somehow got misplaced and forgotten over time. I thought the large turkey breast (last Thanksgiving?) was possibly a good find. We'll have to see how it has withstood the long freeze. Anyway, thaw! (I didn't even know it was in there. Apparently Sheila had moved it from our previous house and I never noticed.) BUT! Then there was the big find! A huge chunk of brisket! Now I can really only blame myself, but quite likely Sheila moved it along with the turkey. Anyway, priority change! Thaw and enjoy that brisket! But that doesn't leave much room for grilling other stuff.

Those other frozen delights -- not forgotten, but definitely not wanted in a thawed condition. To top it off, we have a three-day trip on Saturday to go for my MIL's memorial service. Could be that family picnic will be augmented by nice supply of 1 1/4" NY Strips that just got added to the freezer a couple of weeks ago as well as various other unfrozen treats...

So, bonanza? Yes. Undesirable -- yes and no. It will work out.
 
Yes, best of luck, Rich. I don't know how sophisticated chest freezers are compared to, say, a HVAC unit but perhaps there could be a shut off sensor(s) to protect the compressor. If you have no other option, after leaving it unplugged for a few hours you might consider trying it again (unless you already know the issue and know that won't work). Of course, you would obviously need to monitor it closely between now and Friday if it does come back on.
 
This sounds like the old "caught between a rock & a hard spot." The dry ice will keep your food frozen, but be careful, it could also freezer burn your food. You'll definitely want to insulate the food from the dry ice, thick towels might get it done. Good luck
 
RichPB (richlife) said:
So here we are on the verge of a stifling holiday weekend and our 4-month-old chest freezer decides to give up. The good news it's under warranty, the not so good, is that a tech won't be here until Friday -- and no real guarantee the freezer will be working when he leaves (parts?).

So clearly something must be done -- start unloading the chest freezer and put what we can in the limited side-by-side. Now many may think this is a great opportunity to grill. Sure -- but then there are the gems that somehow got misplaced and forgotten over time. I thought the large turkey breast (last Thanksgiving?) was possibly a good find. We'll have to see how it has withstood the long freeze. Anyway, thaw! (I didn't even know it was in there. Apparently Sheila had moved it from our previous house and I never noticed.) BUT! Then there was the big find! A huge chunk of brisket! Now I can really only blame myself, but quite likely Sheila moved it along with the turkey. Anyway, priority change! Thaw and enjoy that brisket! But that doesn't leave much room for grilling other stuff.

Those other frozen delights -- not forgotten, but definitely not wanted in a thawed condition. To top it off, we have a three-day trip on Saturday to go for my MIL's memorial service. Could be that family picnic will be augmented by nice supply of 1 1/4" NY Strips that just got added to the freezer a couple of weeks ago as well as various other unfrozen treats...

So, bonanza? Yes. Undesirable -- yes and no. It will work out.
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Time to break out the coolers and make an ice run! Other than the old stuff, refreezing won't hurt meat as long as it's kept cold for the interim.
 
Thats a fear I have. We have a very large upright freezer and a refrigerator in the garage. They are both garage ready units but it gets really hot in there during the summer. I have a generator in the event of a power failure, but if the big freezer goes belly up, I'll lose about $1K as its stuffed.
 
Yup. We lived with that for many years, Rich. Two fridges and a large upright freezer. After '96 when Hurricane Fran hit and the following winter an ice storm knocked power out a week each, we finally bought the generator. Used it for a few brief power outages, but never had the big hit again, so we decided not to get a generator after we moved. Anyway, a generator doesn't help a dead freezer.

Most of our stuff is secured. I may cook ribs and chicken thighs for the neighbors on the 4th, but hopefully we'll skate by with little impacts. But I did find out I'm out of hamburger...
 
Ditto on the dry ice idea.
Camping in California or the Nevada desert is normally hot so we like to have an ice cream day just after the midway point.
This has never failed to produce smiles and is great for the last part of the protein.
Dry ice is your friend but don’t keep it inside your ride on a long road trip eh?
 
Funny, talking about freezers. I have that upright one, and I am beginning to hate it because you have to deal with things falling out. I saw one (a Hotpoint IIRC) at Costco. Larger, upright but with individual drawers for each shelf. I'm thinking this is the answer to my prayers
 
The one we previously had also had drawers. Our side-by- side has half shelves half drawers. The first thing wife did was to have a frozen container drop a couple feet off a shelf shattering the glass top of the bottom drawer. You are right!

We decided on the chest because it blocks only the lower part of a window. An upright would block it all. But after only 4 months and now finding things we had forgotten about, I'm not so sure about having the window.
 
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Do you have a link for it Larry? My wife agrees with my dislike for this chest freezer and is already looking at a replacement upright. We'll sell the almost new chest freezer after it's repaired.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Samsung...ojL7MO9UrQ8pgUPhmE8aAiYfEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

You mentioned HotPoint. The only upright I found at Costco online is a Hamilton Beach. My wife rejected that one immediately because it is manual defrost.
 
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RichPB (richlife) said:
Do you have a link for it Larry? My wife agrees with my dislike for this chest freezer and is already looking at a replacement upright. We'll sell the almost new chest freezer after it's repaired.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Samsung...ojL7MO9UrQ8pgUPhmE8aAiYfEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

You mentioned HotPoint. The only upright I found at Costco online is a Hamilton Beach. My wife rejected that one immediately because it is manual defrost.
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That's it Hamilton Beach. Yeah, much as I hate defrosting I dislike what self defrost does to long stored food. So I live with it. Though I guess I could learn to simply not store stuff as long and have the convenience of frost free :D
 
Don't know Larry but our newer upright garage freezer is frost free and I've had more than a few things in there for a year and more and never have had any issues with frost or off taste.
The last rib eye I did a week or so ago was dated as 12/15/21 as its freeze date and it was great. Maybe it's because we are in a very dry climate here. Of course, we vacuum seal everything.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Don't know Larry but our newer upright garage freezer is frost free and I've had more than a few things in there for a year and more and never have had any issues with frost or off taste.
The last rib eye I did a week or so ago was dated as 12/15/21 as its freeze date and it was great. Maybe it's because we are in a very dry climate here. Of course, we vacuum seal everything.
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Vacuum sealing makes a huge difference in freezer storage imo.
 
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