Help! Restarted a freezer after a few years and it smells awful

[Michael Dicken]

I picked up a used standing freezer to convert to a keezer. It was unused for several years but the previous owner swore it was in good working condition. I brought it home, plugged it in and it fired right up, but started putting off a terrible smell. Like burnt hair and sewage. I'm hoping this dissipates after it runs for a while, but its gross. This smell is on the outside BTW. The inside has normal empty fridge mustiness but nothing extreme. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Stab in the dark here but I'm guessing somewhere along the line someone spilled something that gets more obvious when it's heated up. Is there anything odd looking in the access panel?

 

[Michael Dicken]

Stab in the dark here but I'm guessing somewhere along the line someone spilled something that gets more obvious when it's heated up. Is there anything odd looking in the access panel?

I hope thats all that it is. I didn't see anything glaring. I am letting it run and making sure it works before i invest time in giving a thorough deep clean. I really posted this because I was more worried it might be something toxic.

 

[CodeSection]

I'm sure you may have thought of this already. If it was previously in a garage or outside, perhaps a rodent or lizard died and is lying in the defrost pan.....

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Clean the compressor and drip pan. This is the hottest part of the freezer. ANYTHING that touches these surfaces will be slow cooked.

 

[nobadays]

^both the above^ Quite often there is an evaporation pan for the auto defrost mounted to the top of the compressor - so the heat will evaporate the defrost water. I have had experience - bad stinky experience with this pan being full of nasty smelling junk when it heats up.

Cheers!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

^both the above^ Quite often there is an evaporation pan for the auto defrost mounted to the top of the compressor - so the heat will evaporate the defrost water. I have had experience - bad stinky experience with this pan being full of nasty smelling junk when it heats up.

Cheers!

Small threadjack.... I had a customer complain of a rotting smell from her fridge. Turns out she put a not very well sealed bag of steaks in the freezer. A bunch of blood ran down the drain hole into the evap pan. Most disgusting call I've ever been on.

 

[spittybug]

If it had been in a flood, the yucky water could be getting baked off.....ask me how I know... Thanks Harvey.

 

[nobadays]

yep.... try a fridge freezer full of meat - meets hurricane - lights out for two weeks. Cleaned the fridge out but every time it kicked on it would just reek! Finally had that "A-Hah" moment and took a look in the drip pan mounted on top the motor... now that was a disgusting sight and smell! My wife was already shopping for a new fridge!

Another trick is to put a paper bag full of charcoal briquettes in the freezer/fridge. They do a great job of soaking up smells.

OP.... any luck getting the smell out?

Cheers!