oh no! it's happened again. any advise?!

Captain_Bluebear

i just popped out to my 'big' freezer in my shed only to find that one of my sons has left the door v. slightly ajar.(about an inch)where a trowel handle had fallen in the gap as they were shutting it.:eek: neither one is admitting responsibility,suprisingly (they are 13!)

i'm not sure how long it has been like this but it has built up a total ice seal up to the thickness of the gap. it has been plugged in constantly and everything in it is frozen now. i spoke to a friend who assures me that as long as it was not unplugged the contents will be fine (i will just've spent a fortune on electric building up my own little snow factory!)

can anyone advise if this is the case please? this has happened once before and i binned the whole lot.

unfortunately both times the freezer has been totally full! it would kill me to have to chuck it all.:o

also, i'm v. new to this forum so i hope i've put this in the right place. if not, i'm sure some lovely person will move it for me!

please tell me everything will be ok!_pale_

thank you.

EssexHebridean

One test I can think of immediately is - do you have such a thing as a bag of frozen peas or other veg in there? Go grab it and see how it feels - if the peas are all still separate as they were when you put in there, that would suggest that nothing defrosted. If they are now in one big lump, then I'm afraid it seems as though the freezer just couldn't cope with chilling your shed!

One other thing - get a sheet of A4 paper and write on it in capital letters "Is the freezer door shut?" then stick to the front of the freezer! Might prevent any future accidents of this type!

Captain_Bluebear

thanks EssexHebridean. will go and check the veg like stuff now.

moanymoany

I don't know if you can buy freezer locks, but they are such a good idea.

If not, consider buying a freezer with a lock, it must be cheaper in the long run!

Captain_Bluebear

Nooooooooo!:eek: they are like bricks.

and to add to my woes i braved the pouring rain and stood on the rake.

looks like i'm defrosting my freezer tomorrow and donating all my home slow cooked lovelyness to the local council food recycling scheme.

kids are great aren't they:mad:

thanks for the advise anyway. i'd hate to poison either of the little darlings.:rolleyes:

foreversomeday

EssexHebridean wrote: »

One test I can think of immediately is - do you have such a thing as a bag of frozen peas or other veg in there? Go grab it and see how it feels - if the peas are all still separate as they were when you put in there, that would suggest that nothing defrosted. If they are now in one big lump, then I'm afraid it seems as though the freezer just couldn't cope with chilling your shed!

Do you mean by this that things like this are "overfrozen" and should be discarded?

Our freezer is like this normally! :eek: Should I ask our landlord to replace our fridge/freezer, is it dangerous? I have tried turning the dial in the fridge part to a lower number as the fridge seemed too cold too - things took two or 3 days to defrost in there and I kept defrosting them on the counter and forgetting about them (yuck!) but it doesn't seem to have helped much, ice cream is always like cement and everything has a thick layer of frost on the outside. It even managed to freeze vodka but it was the red label stuff which is less pure.

We haven't got ill from eating any of the defrosted stuff but there is a tupperware type pot of something in there which is so frosted up I have no idea what it is and I'm scared to find out!!

EssexHebridean

If something which has gone into the freezer individually frozen - like peas, or fruit that you have open frozen on trays and then bagged up - are frozen into a solid block, it suggests that the freezer is defrosting itself and refreezing. Not good. Might be as simple as a bit of built up ice meaning the door doesn't seal properly any more, but could be a more serious problem with the freezer itself.

foreversomeday

Ah, okay, thanks. I will do an experiment which will test whether this is happening - put a couple of ice cubes in a plastic bag and leave in the freezer for a while. If it is defrosting and freezing again, they will have formed into a puddle shaped ice block. If not, I will not worry but continue to be annoyed!

EssexHebridean

Good plan.