Freezer worry

[Headgardener]

Last night the electric was turned off by the electric company for eight hours while work was done on the cable in the close behind us. Now what I am enquiring about is will the contents of the freezer be alright or should I replace it all and claim on the insurance. The door was not opened through out all of the power out period. Any advice would be helpful. Many thanks. HG.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

General advice is that freezer should be ok for twelve hours without power as long as the door stays closed. My experience has supported that.

 

[Arch]

A lot of it might be ok. Really, it's meat you want to worry about - veg won't actually be made dangerous by thawing a little and then refreezing, neitehr will bread and the like. Some veg might end up a little icy. Might be worth replacing meat to be on the safe side. (Although I'm the sort of says "it'll be fine" and eats it anyway)

One Christmas our freezer (a big chest type) was found to be off late on Christmas Eve. We kept it shut, and put blankets over it, and left it and next morning found that the on/off switch had been knocked just enough to put it off. I think all the stuff in it was fine. I suspect if you kept it shut, your stuff might be ok too.

 

[User482]

I would think it'd be ok. I accidentally turned our freezer off at home overnight - it was all still frozen solid the next morning.

 

[longers]

I'd go along with the advice saying it'll be reet.

Was it still quite frozen when the power came back on?

I did enquire about claiming for freezer contents defrosting on my insurance, they said sure provided it's over £100 worth of food. No way I'd have that much of value in mine - it's all home made and cheap.

 

[fossyant]

TBH - I bet the food you buy in the shop isn't half as well frozen as at home....so overnight you'll be fine.

 

[marooncat]

Another of the "you will be fine" vote.. if you are a bit worried defrost the meat etc totally, cook it and then re freeze it.

When the power fused to our garage a couple of years ago and we did not know for a couple of days, everything had defrosted so I had a manic cooking season and actually ended up with more food than would fit back into the switched back on again freezer

 

[Headgardener]

Thanks for all the advice all. I didn't have time to check the freezer this morning as the power came back on at 0500 so I just turned off the telly and the lights then went back to bed for couple of hours before getting up to go to work. Didn't hear the compressor working when the power came back on so it might not have thawed out to much. If you hear of two cases of food poisioning in the Hythe area of Hampshire then you will know that it didn't work.

 

[Globalti]

Even after a couple of days you'd be fine - a large weight or meat and other stuff will take a long time to warm up inside a heavily insulated box. Even if it warmed up to 0 degrees you wouldn't need to worry.

 

[got-to-get-fit]

if you have anything fishy in the freezer i might be tempted to cook it or throw it out rather than re-freeze

 

[punkypossum]

Well, we are supposed to tell our customer's at work that with the door closed freezer stuff is fine for 24 hours - so it must be true!

 

[Keith Oates]

Overnight with the door closed will not be any bother. The meats etc. have more chance of thawing out when you're bringingthem home from the supermarket than it will in a closed freezer overnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[punkypossum]

Is it a morgue Punky?

Not quite, but it frequently feels like one!

 

[Arch]

If you hear of two cases of food poisioning in the Hythe area of Hampshire then you will know that it didn't work.

Don't worry, swine flu will probably get you first.....