My new 3-month old upright freezer conked out today.

[pengillian101]

We checked all the troubleshooting ideas in the manual. It's d-e-a-d.

Dang, it was full of Omaha Steaks, ribs and Schwan's fish and other items. Oh, and whole chickens, shrimp, etc. Lots of homemade ready-to-eat meals, too.

I thought we were all set for quite awhile, lol.

Noticed it this a.m. when taking out a pound of ground beef and it thawed it no time.

Packed most of the food in Styrofoam coolers and have it on the screen porch (MN) so I hope it will stay until service comes. That might be days and days.

A few things I needed to deal with right away because they thawed. I really did not feel like being in the kitchen for hours today.

But, I finally made bread bowls! The frozen loafs of bread did a rise and popped open the bag. I put one loaf in a bread pan, and let it rise in the crockpot (LOW). That worked great - then formed it around bowls and baked them. Turned out ok. The other two loafs were such a mess I threw them out. Dang - I probably could have made something out of the dough, but I was in such a mood :mad:

The other items that totally thawed were the tomatoes and green peppers. So I made some stewed tomatoes with onions, garlic, etc. that turned out really tasty.

I am worried that food will spoil, but the refrigerator's freezer is full. Maybe I'll try to save the more expensive food and not worry about vegies, potatoes and bread stuff.

Just thinking aloud. Suggestions welcomed!

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Leave it outside NOT in the cooler.

The cooler will keep it at whaetever temperature it is. If you will be below freezing, leave it exposed. If you will be above freezing, then cover it while still frozen.

Do you have neighbors to whom you could parcel out small amounts to each until you get it fixed?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Use trash bags, not coolers.

They should stay frozen in your neck of the woods, no?

Got any friends with freezer space?

How long until the replacement/repair can be done?

Sounds like you did a very nice recovery, though.

[sandnsea]

3. Homeowners might cover losses

My sister's freezer went out several years ago and their insurance covered it. I was thinking it would be a great time to use up any of the thawed food with a big ol' inauguration party.

[trotsky]

4. Several years ago we lost power for 3 days.

Lost everything in the freezer and fridge, and yes, our homeowners replaced everything. I would echo the above suggestions - store outside, but not in coolers - and place on the north side of your house so the sun won't shine on it. However now that we're getting a January thaw you might be out of luck anyway. Last week would have been perfect - stuff left outside would have gotten COLDER than the freezer!

[pengillian101]

5. Thanks for helpful ideas!

I couldn't really put the foods outdoors as we live rural and raccoons or some other critter might get to it. Mice most certainly.

But your ideas made good sense. So today, I cleared out a lot of the fridge/freezer items that were frozen solid and put them in into another styrofoam cooler and put the semi-frozen items from one cooler into the fridge/freezer. All the meat etc. was still mostly frozen, so they'll be alright. The bread and potato dishes still in coolers - no big loss if they don't make it. Thankfully, we had saved a few of those Omaha coolers.

The only thing that really totally thawed were fish fillets frozen individually. What the hey - I threw them in the freezer compartment to re-freeze. I can't imagine it'll kill us.

I called Sears today, Monday 1-19. Service person won't be here until Tuesday 1-27! And wouldn't you know it---the 90-day warranty ran out on 1-15 so I will have to pay for parts! :grr:


Anyway, thanks for the helpful posts :-)

[ekelly]

6. Are you friendly with any of your neighbors?

If you are very worried about losing some of your items, a neighbor may have room in his/her freezer.

[Tsiyu]

7. Did you try vaccuuming the coils in back

When the big ones go down it sometimes means they are getting overheated - too much dust on the back of the unit. I've saved a few getting out the shop vac and peeling off all the dust/lint on the back.

But dang, it's a new one. What a flippin drag. Hope it gets fixed soon!