Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

woodgears.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 384 posts

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#211

Post by bryanrasmussen »

walrus01 wrote: post #187
an-allen wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think shock, depression, anger, disbelief, the mechanics of where to put the rotting fish... like there was a tree down in our front yard, every store was closed in a 40 mile radius, power was out to most of Houston... but yea hindsight being 20/20 i would have relocated the fish to a house with a generator. it was a really dark time man.

If you had a shovel would it not have been the more hygienic disposal option, at about day 7/8 once you were sure the power was not coming back soon, to dig a 3.5 foot deep hole, put the fish in it and cover it over?

I think he described why he didn't get rid of the fish, some times the world is structured in such a way that you really can't handle the obvious things.

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#212

Post by bryanrasmussen »

an-allen wrote: post #159
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to argue with science but why didn't you clean the fish out about day 7? Was it hurricane made getting rid of fish problematic?

I think shock, depression, anger, disbelief, the mechanics of where to put the rotting fish... like there was a tree down in our front yard, every store was closed in a 40 mile radius, power was out to most of Houston... but yea hindsight being 20/20 i would have relocated the fish to a house with a generator. it was a really dark time man.

I'm familiar with the first 4 factors and how they can make the obvious difficult to do. Well at least you made it through, even if you lost the refrigerator.

I had a similar loss of fridge when we went on vacation one time and the power went off some time while we were gone and I had not emptied the freezer all the way as it seemed idiotic to garbage all that perfectly good food when we were only gone for 2 weeks.

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#213

Post by jsilence »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #155
an-allen wrote: post #154

Hi. Actualexperience here... it depends on the ambient temperature and how much stuff is in said freezer. So heres a data point: Freezer: normal upper level refrigerator freezer chock full of frozen fish caught on holiday in Alaska. Place, Time: Houston, TX, Late Summer, Hurricane Igor just hit and knocked our power out for 14 days. Findings: We kept the freezer shut and at about 4-5 days the fish was noticeably thaw…

Not to argue with science but why didn't you clean the fish out about day 7? Was it hurricane made getting rid of fish problematic?

'Teach a man to eat fish and he will be cold for one day...' no, wait...

But seriously, why not eat BBQ fish every day?

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#214

Post by jsilence »

todd8 wrote: post #182

A simple way to detect power failure induced thawing in a freezer is to store a paper cup about half full of frozen water in the freezer. By keeping a coin on top of the ice it’s easy to see with a quick glance if the temperature has risen for an extended period of time (possibly due to a temporary power failure or the door not being fully closed).

Excellent trick! Thanks!

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#215

Post by Someone »

shortandsweet wrote: post #128
contingencies wrote: post #59

It depends on the thermal mass of the contents, the effectiveness of the insulation, and the external ambient environmental temperature. In real world use, it also generally depends on (1) how frequently and for how long you open it, and (2) whether it's top-loading (efficient) versus front-loading (inefficient). Source: My venture custom designed and built a refrigeration circuit with autonomous electronic managemen…

I keep a coffee mug filled with water in the freezer with a penny on top.

Are you sure that will drop the moment the water thaws?

(https://www.usmint.gov/learn/educators/lesson-spotlight/make...)

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#216

Post by Gibbon1 »

sleavey wrote: post #129
pengaru wrote: post #18

A test with the freezer as full as possible with just water would be interesting as a best-case set of data points to compare against. I always keep containers full of water in the bowels of my refrigerators/freezers only removing them when the space is required for food. There's not much sense in keeping empty volumes of air in a refrigerated space.

I do this with my fridge too, always making sure the back is full of beer.

You're going to be the only victim of a hurricane whose cause of death is listed as liver failure.

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#217

Post by bjoli »

at_a_remove wrote: post #186
bjoli wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will have quite some intellectual effects before you start coughing. In fact, where we are going with adding co2 to the atmosphere, people will be measurably dumber in 50 years. Yes, really. Indoors we can easily get as high co2 levels as 1000ppm (starting from 400 something which we have outside now). That has in various studies been connected to upwards of 30% in cognitive decline in some tests like decision ma…

I've done it tons of times. Part of having the stuff wrapped up and insulated is that it isn't sublimating like mad.

You don't really notice 1000ppm, and unless you have some ventilation going you can probably reach that quite quickly in your car. I am not saying that it didn't work out or that it was reckless. Just make sure you have adequate ventilation.

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#218

Post by netsharc »

gruez wrote: post #68

is he using... excel 2003? I hope he doesn't open any untrusted documents, because he's probably a sitting duck in terms of exploits.

In the YouTube video comments he says it's 21 years old. So Office 2000 (released to retail in June 1999).

He added: "Super snappy on a modern computer!"

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#219

Post by OJFord »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #157
OJFord wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chilling drinks quickly is though. (Or gazpacho, thought that might be shot down as a bit niche though. But it is lovely this time of year (in the Northern hemisphere)!)

Why?

Why might I want to chill drinks quickly? Because I (or someone) want(s) a chilled drink, and forgot to put it in earlier, or it was only just bought/arrived.

I've known people keep celebratory champagne permanently chilled in case of an unexpected call for it; I semi-frequently put beer or white wine in the freezer for 15-30mins ish because I didn't think to put it in the fridge earlier (or had to take them out to make room something more critically needing to be kept cool).

Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?

#220

Post by KMag »

0xBA5ED wrote: post #206
avhon1 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If their stove and oven are electric, and they don't have, or don't have fuel for, a propane or charcoal grill, then a hurricane could really knock out their ability to cook things.

Then again, hurricanes provide a lot of readily available wood debris.

Freshly downed live trees aren't great for firewood. The moisture content tends to make the wood difficult to light (if you can't spare lighter fluid, diesel, gasoline, candles, etc.) and it tends to produce a lot of smoke once lit. I've done enough camping that I can get wet wood burning if I have enough dry twigs, dry pine needles, birch bark, etc., but if your only experience with starting fires is pouring lighter fluid on split wood that has been dried 2+ years, you're going to have a bad time trying to get wet wood burning using only things you find in a forest after a storm.
Post reply on HN