Oh yes, I'd certainly use it. It won't go rancid in a few days, probably not even in a few weeks, depending on the temperature. Stick it in the refrigerator or refreeze it and it will be fine.

Annie

Yikes.

Is everything completely thawed? Usually a freezer will keep contents frozen for some time. After 24hours thawing begins. But I have a stack of ice packs that fill spaces when room is available. And a few 1/2 gallon milk jugs etc. Water bottles as well.

When we have a power outage, I think of it as a big cooler.

BUT, you were unaware when this happened, so no time to react immediately.

I agree lard will be fine.

There's an appliance shortage in the US due to factory lines slowing down from COVID. Hope you are able to replace your freezer quickly!

I totally missed the boat by not replacing my freezer last year when I "should have". But the usual procrastinating "Oh, it won't take long to get a replacement" excuse now makes me want to kick myself, LOL.

I understand the shortage. I can easily find a $8000.00 freezer

one at or near $1000.00 no luck

a $42.00 part and it works again

Any ideas about the getting rid of the lingering odor

Service tech says he has heard some people have had good luck with washing down with Vinegar

Two years ago, my SIL left for 2 months but had some electrical work done the first week gone. Beach house. 4 weeks later I checked on the house and found breaker to game room refrigerator (and a couple of other things) not on.

There was a turkey in the freezer, some Costco sausages. Those were things that were recognizable at least. It wasn't nice.

I couldn't even find decent cleaning supplies in that weekend house and no rubber or vinyl gloves. Just bit the bullet and started cleaning. At least the house still had regular garbage pickup in off season. 409 (multi surface formula kills bacteria and viruses) and a couple of older towels that I permanently sacrificed from her bathroom. I wiped all down until things gleamed (not forgetting the condensation drip pan) then did it again. I left it unplugged with the door open for about a week.

It was fine when they came back. No odor. Only empty.

My sister had a freezer failure once. She used pans of clay-based kitty litter to absorb the odor.

For odor, try wadding up newspapers and stashing in the freezer. That's what we always did for the RV refrigerator when we put the RV in storeage.

that is one reason that I just got rid of my freezer. You can lose everything. I have no need to store that much food, anyway.

I have heard that there is a shortage of appliances. My sister had to replace her range and had to settle for something or wait until the Fall when what she wanted might, or might not, be avaialble.

As far as I know, there is only one substance that can effectively absorb odor, namely, activated charcoal.

Activated charcoal is not that expensive. You can even re-activate activated charcoal.

dcarch

Baking soda can work too.

Activated charcoal is a great odor absorber. But you must clean first. (we have pint containers in our cars).

We have a KitchenAid fridge in our garage that has not been used much but for garden excess produce in the late summer/early Fall. Probably 25years old. Original to the home. Works great. Nasty. It was left cracked open and meant to offer free-cycle or donation the past few years. I refused to donate until it was squeaky clean.

Mid March DH pushed it out into the driveway and hosed, then scrubbed, then again...on and off two days. We need it now and did not need the charcoal. It is covid handy for now. After a good scrub, then baking soda, then another scrub, then left to air out. No issues.