Cleaning refrigerators after hurricane outage
3 months ago
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- 3 months ago
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Has refrigerated coffee gone bad (after 36hr. power outage)
Comments (2)If sugared caffeinated drinks went bad after a few hours, all the sodas in every store would have to be thrown out....See MoreWhich Brands Best with Power Outages?
Comments (6)My impression is that most are happy with the Freedom fridges from what I've read here for a while. I was hoping to hear from an owner. Thankx lascatx for the feedback. It's a huge ticket item, even going with Liebherr. And then there's the inevitable removal and install drama. Panels vs no panels. Will new panels match the old kitchen. What if I want to reno eventually, why lock that in, etc. At 10 what's the life expectancy? 5 more? Unclear since I think this was one of the early units built by Amana when Viking fist acquired them. If so, and it's bascially a souped up Amana, it could have many more years of service. But if a new control board is $1500 vs $6K for a Liebherr $8K for a Freedom it's still a tough call. One of the SZs would be ideal but after hearing a repair guy make a crack about all the blown SZ controller boards after an outage in the "fancy" neighborhood across the river some years ago I'd really like some RL experiences before I decide to go there....See MoreSamsung & Power Outage
Comments (7)Fortunately we have few power failures here, in Orange County Calif. We have all underground utilities, and a buried transformer went "Kaput"---1st it took them a while to figger out which one, then dig it up and replace it. The Samsung Fridge is a "Dual Evaporator Fridge", (I think) so it will not be able to "Bleed" cold air from the freezer to the fridge, (I know it's actually the warm air migrates to the freezer). More important than the "bleeding" would be 1st, How good are the door seals, we have seen posts where some fridges do have problems with door seals, so do as much research as you can and perform a "Personal inspection" on the door seals, on any refrigerator that you are considering. 2nd would be , how well is the fridge insulated--- I suspects most are pretty darn good---they hafta be to pass energy star ratings--alto we know there have been some "Bogus ratings" so be careful---one suspects the higher the energy star ratings of a fridge, the better it is sealed and insulated (given that most use the same or very similar compressor/compressors. The best thing, (assuming you have a helpful and co-operative appl1ance store nearby, would be to ask "said store" to power down a fridge you are considering (for a "typical power failure time") in your area and see if the temp stays as a safe level for your food. Good luck on your upcoming decision! Gary...See MorePower Outage!
Comments (20)--We are emergency-ready at our house, including 72-hours of emergency food that doesn't require heating or refrigeration. We've used it several times during ice storms when the utilities were out for a number of days. --We have a bank of marine cell batteries we can recharge with solar panels as our back-up power. We can run our refrigerator for days on end. We also have a 5-in-One Portable Power Pack (available at Harbor Freight) that works well for auxiliary power to run a fan, sump pump, air up tires, jump-start a vehicle, etc... We can also recharge it with solar. We have an Igloo Chest that can be powered with battery back-up power to use to safely keep hot food hot, or you can switch it to the cold mode and use it like a small refrigerator. --All kinds of alternative cooking options. Options which can be used indoors or out. Everyone needs a chaffing dish and sterno (you can find chaffing dishes for a couple bucks at thrift stores). You'd be surprised how much you can cook using this safe-to-use indoors method. One can of Sterno can be used for approximately 6 meals of light cooking/reheating. Charcoal is one of the least expensive storage fuels per BTU. Store it in 5-gallon buckets to keep it dry. A large (20#) bag will cook 1 meal a day for a month. Add a COBB Grill and it will use 8-10 briquettes for 3 hours at 450° for extra economy over a standard charcoal grill. --Be sure to also have several good-quality Thermos bottles and/or thermal coffee urns/servers to safely store any HOT leftover food, or keep hot water hot. Once you've heated water, keeping it in a Thermos bottle means you can have instant soup, instant cocoa/coffee or other hot beverages, instant oatmeal, etc.). I also like to keep a few boxes Mini-Moo's - individual servings of 1/2 & 1/2 - that keep at room temperature. They can be used on cereal instead of milk, or in hot beverages. --BTW - It takes a lot of fuel/energy to heat water, so once you have it heated -- store it. We also have a number of hot water bottles that we'll fill to warm the bed, or just sitting around in a cold room with a blanket over you. The next morning you can use the still-warm water in the bottles for washing/shaving. We also keep a large box of "Hothands" or "Grabber" (there are different name brands) hand warmers (packets that provide heat for around 7-8 hours). With 3 solar ovens, I can heat water in those - hot enough to pasteurize it. --We also store emergency water in the basement in 5-gallon and 3-gallon jugs (100-gallons total), and have a 1,000-gallon capacity outdoors in our rain barrels. If we get an alert there is an ice storm, we'll fill our tubs with water and add some liquid bleach for purifying it, to use for flushing. We have several methods for purifying water without electricity. --Emergency propane heaters (which can be safely used indoors) and our gas fireplace we can use during a power outage. We've used all of these many times during power outages. --I keep a small flashlight tucked into the corner of the sofa. It seems like the electricity often goes out while we are watching TV, so the flashlight is easy to find. We also have ASCELLA LED light bulbs placed strategically around the house (bathrooms and lamps). While the power is on, the bulb charges itself. These bulbs stay lit for an average of 3-hours when the power goes out. You can unscrew it from the socket and use it as a flashlight, but they are especially handy in bathrooms when the power is out, and function well in lamps. They only draw 5 watts of electricity and have a brightness of 150 lumens, and 20,000 hours of life. --I have other solar-powered lights, battery-powered lamps, crank-style flashlights and radios, and I, too, tend to avoid open flames for emergency lighting - especially around curious pets and children. Any open flames are used on top of my kitchen stove. After friends used candles and oil lamps for lighting during a long power outage, their young children developed breathing problems and they had to repaint their home, all from the soot and toxins from candles and oil lamps. -Grainlady...See MoreRelated Professionals
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