During an extended power outage you can add quite a bit of time by wrapping the freezer in more insulation. Anything will do; fibreglass insulation, quilts, blankets.
You'll be shocked at how cold the inside of the blanket gets.
How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
291–300 of 384 posts
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#292Hi. 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…
Ice cubes always taste funny if used without good ice forms, absorbing the fridge odors. Use the ones with silicone cover. Not a hint of the freezer in the made ice.
I got these mostly because space is a luxury in our freezer (very tiny) and wanted to vertically stack them. I love them. It's such a weird thing to throw praise on, but I've literally told friends to get the silicon cover ice trays and never look back.
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like pre-loading your refrigerator/freezer with a sack of ice. If your power goes out long enough for your food to spoil, what will you do? Well, maybe you'll go buy some sacks of ice to throw in there until the power turns back on. Ok, if you have the space to spare, why wait for the failure to go fetch the emergency ice? Just fill the empty space with ballast water and you're ahead of the problem. Once the the…
Practically all of your food has a thaw point that’s below the thaw point of ice. The energy absorbed in the phase transition of ice to water massively eclipses the energy to heat up the same amount of water by one degree. In effect, all your food will protect your newly acquired ice from melting. You want something that has a thaw point way below your foods thaw point - add salt t your ice.
I had never thought about this but you're right. Big frozen water/soda bottles of ice still increase the overall thermal mass and will almost certainly slow full thawing. Otherwise, ice blocks in a cooler wouldn't work.
But you're really better off adding salt to those bottles so they absorb energy when melting below the freezing point of pure water (and frozen food).
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
That does sound nice. Unfortunate that COVID is really going to make it harder for people to pool resources like that to handle an emergency situation.
With proper precautions in an outdoor format, risk seems manageable. There's nothing about grilling that really requires close physical proximity.
Agreed, just makes it harder, and removes some of that feel good connection that comes from rallying in the face of catastrophe. Which imo is one of the best parts of being human.
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
in the US natural gas stoves are very common. There is some risk when frying on high heat that you could start an oil fire... Never used induction but gas offers very fine control of heat with a nice stove, especially compared to electric which relies on radiant heat from a coil and cannot change temperatures rapidly
I used gas for 20 years, then induction for 10. Induction wins everywhere (reproducibility of heat, speed to heat, ease of cleaning...) The only thing I miss a tiny bit from gas is the ability to tilt a pan to have oil gather in a puddle to deep fry something small. Other than that everytime I use gas I long for induction.
Induction sucks at making you have reasonable utility bills though.
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#296Hi. 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…
USDA says to throw away everything after 4 hours. Good ol government!
The overly cautious approach is how anyone that does not want a lawsuit handles these sorts of things. Do I really need to chuck out that bottle of ibuprofen after 4 to 5 years?
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice though, nowadays very few people have a house with a basement like that anymore, unfortunately. I don't get it myself to be honest, it's more efficient use of the ground surface area a house occupies. I'd go with a chest freezer in the basement and a small fridge in the kitchen for frequently used / quick access stuff (milk, tonight's dinner ingredients).
> nowadays very few people have a house with a basement like that anymore It depends on where you live, and the type of ground underneath you. Where I live, everyone has a basement.
They're probably referring to an unfinished basement vs. a finished one.
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#298I was just looking at getting a NG generator installed for my parents on the east coast, after watching these recent storms come through. I'd dawdled on this for years, because it was just infrequent enough. Anyway, I also looked at battery backup systems (Tesla, Enphase, etc). Unfortunately, it seems they haven't reached cost competitiveness with the plain old gas generator yet. Not a lot of power density (time), an…
You may be able to get back some of the difference by requiring less total power from your utility and thus lowering the power availability part of the electric bill that applies all day and all year. It's also possible to time shift energy from lower cost times to higher cost ones if you can get time of day billing. And then there's solar of course. I wouldn't be surprised that having that 5k in extra benefit from the system tipped the scales for a battery+solar system in a lot of places with a modest cost of capital.
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
And anything used in construction has been heavily treated to resist water damage, so I wouldn't want to be near those fumes, let alone eat something cooked from them.
It may be OK after the smoke clears. Rookies who have never used a real charcoal BBQ don't know when the coals are ready and start cooking too soon. You cook when it seems like it's too late the coals are ash but that's the time to do it.
So when the coals are pure white, that's when to start cooking?
Re: How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of stoves do you guys use where this is a risk? Guessing it's not induction?
in the US natural gas stoves are very common. There is some risk when frying on high heat that you could start an oil fire... Never used induction but gas offers very fine control of heat with a nice stove, especially compared to electric which relies on radiant heat from a coil and cannot change temperatures rapidly
I found induction lacking in one specific aspect: wokking.
Can't toss a wok, and the lack of convection heating means the sides of the wok get pretty cold.