Bad Day Today (Freezer Outage)

[58limited]

My garage freezer went out and I lost almost everything in it. I usually open this freezer everyday and I normally would have caught the problem before it was too late but I've been busy since Friday and when I opened it this morning everything except some stuff on the bottom shelf was too warm to risk keeping. Luckily I was able to save three Click Akuashi roasts, a SJUfeller roast, three Berkshire pork bellies, and some dry aged steaks and some bacon.

I lost a ton of other steaks, sausages, all of my venison/brisket ground meat, a lot of other game, 5 lbs of fresh yellow fin tuna my BIL gave to me last month, etc. Glad I noticed this before leaving for the Texas Meat Up tomorrow or I would have come home to an awful mess.

Now to find the problem. I already checked the breaker the freezer is on and it isn't tripped. I'll have to see if the compressor comes on.It could be the fan, the fan has gone out before.

I usually stay on top of my freezers so I'm pretty irritated with myself. I have alarms on the three inside the house but was one short so the garage freezer doesn't have one - probably wouldn't have heard it anyway. Damn!

[jfmorris]

Ouch! I feel your pain, except the last time I had a deep freeze crap out, I didn't find out for about 2 weeks during a particularly hot August! I hate you lost so much - you were lucky anything could be salvaged.

I've got a Thermoworks freezer alarm on my garage chest freezer, and while it is not particularly loud, I figure I walk through there several times a day and will hear it beeping. I've got it set to come on above 10F. I keep the freezer on max cold, and the readout on the alarm is usually -25F to -35F. It saved me recently, as I had a tripped breaker that affected that particular garage outlet, and heard the beeping.

[58limited]

I wonder if they make a wifi freezer alarm that can alert my phone?

[Jerod Broussard]

You have Thermoworks Node?

[58limited]

No, just some cheaper alarms I got on sale, they are on my indoor freezers. The Node looks like what I need.

[jfmorris]

Thermoworks makes the Node, which is Wifi connected, but it's a little pricey for me at $99. I use their much cheaper RT801, bought after losing some contents to a tripped breaker a couple of years back.

I've got several Inkbird temperature controllers I use for my beer kegerators and fermentation fridge, as well as one on my aquarium. They sell a lot of fairly cheap stuff on Amazon that may work. The issue is you don't want a PLUG IN one, as that will lose power if the freezer loses power. You want something wifi connected that is battery powered. I bet Amazon will have something. In fact, I just did a search over there and they even make an outlet plug in thing for your freezer that alarms you when the freezer loses power.

[MBMorgan]

So far, every freezer failure to date in this house has been due to a power outage. Rather than waiting for a freezer to start warming up significantly before a temperature alarm goes off, I've got one of THESE inexpensive power-fail alarms plugged into every circuit that has a freezer on it. They have been a great addition to the temperature alarms.

[HawkerXP]

Thanks. I order a couple of these today.

[SheilaAnn]

Oh dude…… my heart sank as I read your post!

[smokenoob]

PitMaster nightmare for sure. I need to install an alarm of some sort. Sorry for ya Pit-bro 😔

[RonB]

That's tough. Is it possible your homeowners insurance will cover part of it?

[58limited]

I'll call them and verify but I think they only cover if I lose power due to a natural disaster.

[Oak Smoke]

When we bought each of our last 2 freezers I ask the guys who delivered the new ones and hauled off the old ones how old the freezers are now days when they fail. I received the same answer both times. They usually fair near 10 years old. That’s not good. I know you keep excellent food. I’m sorry to hear of such a tragic loss. I’ve only had grilled tuna once. It was wonderful. It’s terrible that yours spoiled.

[58limited]

Fresh, even frozen fresh caught, yellow fin is amazing. Much better than so called 'fresh' at a restaurant. I'm probably more upset about losing that than the wagyu or elk.

[DavidNorcross]

Sure sorry to hear this.

[LA Pork Butt]

Sorry to hear that! Had you not caught it before the Meat Up you might have had one of those Hurricane Katrina freezers. The lesson learned about fleeing a hurricane is put everything in a plastic garbage bag and seal it tight. Emptying a freezer of bad food is a lot easier that way.

[58limited]

After Rita we just duck taped the freezer door shut and hauled it to the curb

[Bogy]

Sorry to hear about this. I should have alarms on my freezers that connect to my phone. We are back and forth between the two houses to often to depend on just an audible alarm.

[realdocBBQ]

I really need to get a couple of alarms, too. I know both my freezers in the garage have got to be 20y old or more.

[barelfly]

This thread got me thinking about my freezer, so I ended up purchasing the Thermoworks Node. Just got it setup and into the freezer. Was pretty easy to setup and the App is pretty simple as well. So, this should send the alarm notification to my phone, which will be great in the event I’m traveling and need to let my wife know. I was going to ask about ranges for the alarm to go off, but already answered here in the thread as well with the 10*.

58limited I wish you didn’t have the issue with your freezer, but thank you for posting about this so those that didn’t have a setup to monitor could at least think about it.

[hoovarmin]

I'm sorry Dave. That's a real bummer.