De-Stink the Fridge

[Back East Don]

Happy Weekend everybody

I'll get right to it though I suspect only a few are around as things seem quiet here.

Last week we went on an impromptu fishing trip.  We were out fishing for 24 hours then came home.  Time came to empty out the fridge, my wife said she would take care of it but missed the frozen squid I had up top for bait.

It spent a pretty hot week in there.  Went in today to get things ready and lets just say things did not smell quite right. 

I spent a couple hours dismantling various parts and cleaning thoroughly then going over everything with bleach as well.  Thought perhaps white vinegar but only after.  I'm at about a 1000 times better but it is still going to need some work.

I'm headed to the pet store for a big box of filter charcoal.  I've also gutted two halves of a lemon and filled with salt as I would prefer a lemon scent to rotten squid while the charcoal does its work.

Long and short, any other tips known to work?

Edited July 8, 2016 by Back East Don

[jjrbus]

I was just investigating for a friend,  did you know that when lima beans decompose they produce hydrogen cyanide?  Not only is it toxic but also smells pretty bad.   I think in an Olympic stink contest though the squid would get the gold.

As near as I can ascertain you have covered all the base's.   Sticking a box of baking soda in might speed things up, but same same charcoal.    

It did mention leaving the bleach wet (1 table spoon per gallon) and if the odor was still present to follow up with vinegar. I would assume after bleach has dried as vinegar and bleach form chlorine gas.

                                                                                                                           Good luck   Jim

[Back East Don]

As bad as it was, rotting fish would be worse.  I've spent just enough time around some commercial docks in the summer heat to know that.

I'm heading out.  Think I'll just use the cooler this weekend as I am not carrying anything frozen.  Everything is as clean as I am going to get it and if I keep the fridge door shut, the trip will be spared.

Good thing I ate a big lunch as I've not much appetite this evening.  Wife hasn't arrived home yet which is probably best.  I've settled down quite a bit since first discovering the mess.  Wish I still had the microwave so I could make popcorn in the RV.  Always masks most funk.  Wife is Korean so we sometimes have some pretty funky kimchi in the fridge.  (could be the name of my new band).

Vinegar definitely when I get back next week and I've got to buy some popcorn kernels.

[jjrbus]

I switched from  An young hashumnika to Kumusta.   But I still have Kimchi and seaweed in the fridge most of the time.    It was almost Sawasdee crap for a bit but that fizzled out.   Jim

 

 

[Back East Don]

I am slowly going from Ajeoshi (middle age gentleman) to Harabeoji (grandfather).  In the culture it doesn't matter that I am not actually a grandfather, just that I am now older.

I am quite surrounded by Koreans as I have a very large extended family.  Even so, my skills with the language is pretty rudimentary these days. I was better years ago when I took taekwondo from a master who didn't speak any english.

I worked for a start up and ended up with Asia as one of the areas I supported.  We had nothing going on in the Philippines, so I don't have much familiarity with the culture.  Thai on the other hand.  I have a serious thing for curry of almost all kinds that started with Thai food.

We have two refrigerators in the kitchen. One is just for the Korean food.

The fridge in the RV is still going to need some work.  It is staying shut this weekend and I'll deal with it next week.  Just another little issue needing to be dealt with.

[Ace57]

Get a good old can of coffee and sprinkle it all around in side good. Put the whole can in and shut the door for 2 or 3 days it should do it.

We would do that to semi trailers that would come in smelling bad and some of them had some bad stuff in them that would sometimes be in them a week or so. That should do it.

 

[Back East Don]

7 hours ago, Ace57 said:

Get a good old can of coffee and sprinkle it all around in side good. Put the whole can in and shut the door for 2 or 3 days it should do it.

We would do that to semi trailers that would come in smelling bad and some of them had some bad stuff in them that would sometimes be in them a week or so. That should do it.

 

Light roast or dark? (I kid).   Good idea though.   I have to stop and get ice on my way out this morning.  I'll pick up a cheap can of something.

[jjrbus]

9 hours ago, Ace57 said:

Get a good old can of coffee and sprinkle it all around in side good. Put the whole can in and shut the door for 2 or 3 days it should do it.

We would do that to semi trailers that would come in smelling bad and some of them had some bad stuff in them that would sometimes be in them a week or so. That should do it.

 

Herbal?

[Homer]

B.E.Don:

I worked for a vending company in the 60's -70's and 80's and serviced many vending machines. We had milk machines and the cartons would leak all over the

bottom of the cooler. It would stink start stinking bad after someone left it in there for a while. Only thing to rid it of the smell was  PURE VANILLA EXTRACT. Seems like you could put the vanilla in a squirt bottle and spray the thing with the vanilla and let it set for a day or so and then rinse it out.  Don't know if it would work on squid or not. Looks like the lemon and salt would take the smell out. Good Luck and hope the stink leaves for you.

Homer

[Back East Don]

Back from a bit of a rainy weekend.  Would have just cancelled the trip but I had a couple new places I wanted to check out and got that done even with a bit of drizzle.  We left for the trip before I could get a can of coffee.  On the drive, I could smell the fridge.  Not intensely but I have a pretty sensitive nose.  Wife, less so as she wasn't as bothered by the smell, even when I did get the coffee and opened the fridge to place the coffee inside.

Last night I sat with the fridge directly behind me.  I could still smell the rotten squid smell over the smell of coffee but only slightly.   By this morning the coffee smell was more prominent.

On the drive down, the vent window was open and this circulated the smell a bit.  On the return trip I did the same but with much less and if anything, just the smell of the coffee.  I've left the coffee in and I'll likely remove it over the next couple of days.  I'll then go over the entire fridge with vinegar.  We often use it to rid food containers of funky smells. 

I very much like the idea of the vanilla extract but things like milk and butter pick up flavors easily and I am more interested in neutralizing the odor.  I worry about ending up with vanilla scented rotted squid.  I'll save it as a last resort after I'm done the rest and if I'm not satisfied.

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

[Totem]

5 years ago a buddy of mine caught a salmon that had roe. he saved it to make spawn bags and asked me to throw it in my freezer. It sat in my freezer for 3 years then we took it out to take on a steelhead river fish trip where it got tossed into the front of the back of the pickup truck and was subsequently buried under other truck stuff last winter. through out this spring i noticed a stronger and stronger smell coming from the back of my ram but assumed it was the dogs bed i kept back there for him. eventually in June it stank so bad i had to go in and get everything out because it now stank like a gorilla puked its own excrement at the zoo and let it rot. My German shep whom normally loves stink now refused to even get in the truck. Found that roe bag as i cleaned the truck out to empty (of course it was the last thing i found in there)... i had to open the softcooler it was in even though i knew it would be all kinds of wrong... inside the maggots in the roe had just given up and died and they themselves had some kind of sub maggot maggot that were eating them and died...

the stench made me projectile vomit and i had to literally take the thing and chuck it at a gas station trash because it was to powerful to make it till Thursday at my trash. As i pulled away from the gas station i noticed a lady dry heaving as she pumped gas. I tossed baking soda all over the back of my pickup as if i were de-lousing a prison camp.

Edited July 11, 2016 by Totem

[Back East Don]

1 hour ago, Totem said:

5 years ago a buddy of mine caught a salmon that had roe. he saved it to make spawn bags and asked me to throw it in my freezer. It sat in my freezer for 3 years then we took it out to take on a steelhead river fish trip where it got tossed into the front of the back of the pickup truck and was subsequently buried under other truck stuff last winter. through out this spring i noticed a stronger and stronger smell coming from the back of my ram but assumed it was the dogs bed i kept back there for him. eventually in June it stank so bad i had to go in and get everything out because it now stank like a gorilla puked its own excrement at the zoo and let it rot. My German shep whom normally loves stink now refused to even get in the truck. Found that roe bag as i cleaned the truck out to empty (of course it was the last thing i found in there)... i had to open the softcooler it was in even though i knew it would be all kinds of wrong... inside the maggots in the roe had just given up and died and they themselves had some kind of sub maggot maggot that were eating them and died...

the stench made me projectile vomit and i had to literally take the thing and chuck it at a gas station trash because it was to powerful to make it till Thursday at my trash. As i pulled away from the gas station i noticed a lady dry heaving as she pumped gas. I tossed baking soda all over the back of my pickup as if i were de-lousing a prison camp.

A horrible story well told.  I am hoping enough time has passed to get you over the trauma as I laughed pretty hard at your pain.  Haven't poked my nose into mine yet today.  Maybe tomorrow morning if it is cool out.  I picked up a big bottle of white vinegar.

[Back East Don]

Hot day out here.  Went into the RV and everything smelled normal.  I opened up the windows and vents to help cool things down a bit before I open the fridge.  Open the door and take a big whiff...nothing but coffee.  Working on some other things this afternoon but thus far, things have come along better than I thought.  Coffee has seemed to do the trick.  I am going to vacuum out the grinds and remove the lemon rinds later, then go over the whole fridge with vinegar and let that sit.  Then another wash down and lets hope that is it.  I'm pretty relieved as I'll buy another fridge rather than live with the smell of rotted squid.

[Derek up North]

Might I suggest you leave an open box of Arm &Hammer in there too.

[Back East Don]

40 minutes ago, Derek up North said:

Might I suggest you leave an open box of Arm &Hammer in there too.

I have a half pound (.23 kilo for the Canadian audience) of activated charcoal in a flat cloth covered tray.  They are about equally effective.  It is what we use in our home refrigerators and works even with a lot of Korean food.  Baking soda is however cheaper.

[Ace57]

Glad to hear the coffee worked for you. It's the best way I ever had to rid of bad smells and the price is good too.

[Totem]

i cannot imagine had i had the rotten roe spawn that was in the soft cooler i threw away if it had been in my Dometic fridge... I would surely have had to throw it (the fridge) out. i mean ... the maggots died man..

Edited July 21, 2016 by Totem

[Back East Don]

21 hours ago, Ace57 said:

Glad to hear the coffee worked for you. It's the best way I ever had to rid of bad smells and the price is good too.

It did an excellent job overtaking the odors quickly but once removed it required a couple additional cleaning with vinegar to further neutralize the residual funk.  After doing so, I left the windows open and the refrigerator door open for a couple of weeks.  When I walk in the RV I only can smell a slight residual of it.  I then placed the salted lemon rind in the freezer and the charcoal in the fridge and closed it up.  It is finally good enough that I am no longer considering replacing the fridge.