# No Fridge/Freezer



## Tool (Oct 10, 2008)

What do you do if the power goes out and you don't have a cold place to store meat?


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## Ineffable Aces (Oct 9, 2008)

I keep several containers of water frozen in my upright freezer. If the power goes out, those frozen containers of water keep everything cold for much longer.

However, if you are talking for like DAYS of power outage, you may either want to give the meat away or cook it all up an aCcoleman stove, or better still, a smoker.


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## JeepHammer (Oct 10, 2008)

When considering a freezer, think about an Upright with a lid, Instead of a standing freezer with doors.

With an Upright, when you open the lid, you don't loose all the cold air inside, and with a flat top, it lends it's self well to being draped with insulation material.

If you have an upright with doors, about all the cold air is going to evacuate down to the floor level every time you open the door and there isn't much you can do about it except for leave the darn door closed!
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I like the Idea of leaving some jugs of ice in the freezer to help keep it cold.
I have frozen jugs in mine, but it's ice/water for when we go hiking or camping...
I guess they are doing double duty too!
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A 'Power Inverter' and a good extension cord will supply enough current to keep your fridge/freezer cycling, but you will have to keep a vehicle running to do that since power inverters run off of battery voltage and 'Invert' it to 110V power.
If you decide to go this route, make sure your vehicle has enough batteries and alternator to drive the inverter,
And make sure you have enough inverter to drive the appliance.

A better plan would be a small generator.
You wouldn't have to run the generator all day, just an hour or so every few hours to have the fridge/freezer cool it's self down again, and as long as you didn't open the doors it would last another few hours before you had to do it again.


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## netandtim (Oct 8, 2008)

My folks live in hurricane country - not direct hit area, but close enough to be out of power for several days at a time. When a tough storm (hurricane related or otherwise) is rolling through, mom gets commonly used items like lunch meat, cheese, mayo, eggs, etc out of the fridge and puts them in an ice chest. She fills the empty spaces with meat and veggies from the freezer as well as ice bags/frozen water bottles. The frozen items will eventually thaw and be ready for cooking. If power is expected to be out for several days, she'll also cover it with blankets for extra insulation. They can typically get by 2-3 days without losing the contents of freezer. Saves opening the freezer/fridge doors.


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## Washkeeton (Oct 18, 2008)

If in my final place I buy, I have electricity I will have a large freezer.. I will keep my meat and maybe some fruits and vegies in it just long enough to clean it out and can it up. Im figuring if I am connected to the grid at all I dont want to pay much out to a grid existance. I want to have solar, and wind. If I have electricity in the area I will connect to the grid for a freezer, my meat grinder, and for my dehydrator if I cant get all the dehydrating done over a wood stove.


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## coinguy (Oct 13, 2008)

JeepHammer said:


> A better plan would be a small generator.
> You wouldn't have to run the generator all day, just an hour or so every few hours to have the fridge/freezer cool it's self down again, and as long as you didn't open the doors it would last another few hours before you had to do it again.


Make sure your generator is rated for enough power production to meet the 'surge' when the compressor starts. The surge is much higher than what it uses when running, only lasts a couple of seconds but should be taken into consideration.

G


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## coinguy (Oct 13, 2008)

My former neighbor in 'tri-states' built a walk-in freezer that would stay frozen for well over a week. It used the standard compressor etc from a chest freezer with extra cooling coils. The walls were a couple feet thick and he had two doors, so he could limit the escape of cool air. It took over a week to cool it down, but it stayed that way for a long time. 

G


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## Fetthunter (Oct 14, 2008)

JeepHammer said:


> I like the Idea of leaving some jugs of ice in the freezer to help keep it cold.
> I have frozen jugs in mine, but it's ice/water for when we go hiking or camping...
> I guess they are doing double duty too!


Keeping frozen water jugs in your freezer also keeps the compressor from cycling so frequently, thus saving you money operating your freezer. We have a 7 cubic foot chest freezer and a 14 cubic foot chest freezer in addition to our fridge/freezer. We've got frozen water in all of them.


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## 10101 (Oct 31, 2008)

+1 on the frozen water.

I keep 3 liter pop bottles filled with water and have about four in the freezer to maintain temperature.

I also store a couple 1 liter bottles these are nice to stick in the ice chest to keep drinks cold when you go to the beach or where ever


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

We have an upright for storing meat in, we buy large portions of organic meat from local suppliers and seal and freeze.

I don't have a backup plan right now. What I would like to do is determine how much energy it consumes and buy solar panels solely for it. The preservation of food in a long-term blackout would be one of the main items I would want electricity for.


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## dilligaf (Oct 17, 2008)

smoke it or dehydrate in some shape or form or can it over a wood fired stove of some sort..

No really Generators n such are great but over any length of time fuel to operate it may become an issue. My suggestion would be to have some other means to preserve what you can while using the generator or ice chest for storing what thaws immediately. As the freezer / fridge thaw, can,dry, smoke or pickle up everything that you can and save as much as possible. 

There are some really simple plans for makeshift smokers, dehydrators n stuff out there. We have built a few things around the place that as soon as i get a cruddy day i will post them up


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## noisynick (Nov 1, 2008)

That would really depend on what time of year it is and where you live. I have had sustained power outages of over a week in the spring when moving it outside wouldn't help and we just cycled our generator for 1 hour a day on the fridge and freezer both cooled off to last 24 hours well the freezer stuff never did thaw like that and the fridge stuff we got to use it up without throwing it away. When we consumed all that stuff we just left it off. I have seen a neat idea on this though once agaain winter time only take an old fridge hole saw a hole in the back then put in a 3 inch pipe hole saw thru wall and pull exterior cold air right it in works well just with a small 12 volt fan but works great with any little computer type fan or such will work...


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## noisynick (Nov 1, 2008)

hey dilli we use a smoker as well for the pork stuff but beef will hang a long time in a root cellar wrapped with cheesr cloth to keep the varmints off it. Course if you got a really good pressure cooker you could just can it up right quick. We used to store sauaage in crocks by makin pattys and then pouring lard over top of them then we would just go dig them out and re fry them up worked pretty good Kinda messy diggin them out though.........


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## khan (Nov 6, 2008)

Last outage we had I bought one of these for $100. Worked well for a week
using it on a fridge. Started it up every 4 hours and ran it till the compressor 
kicked off. Not bad for the price. I have also used it when camping. Running 
some lights around camp.


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## crinkler (Nov 7, 2008)

How much energy does it take for the compressor to kick on, I have heard you need a large battery bank to power a fridge from solar power so with a generator it must be taxing on it.


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## khan (Nov 6, 2008)

Not sure how much of a surge the fridge has. Yes it did bog down a bit when
the it kicked on but quickly smoothed out to an idle. Like I mentioned it I would
run it for about an hour then cut it off. Just to keep the interior fridge to temp.
Usually I ran it till the compressor kicked off. 

Ran it an hour in the morning and in the afternoon then before bed. Power was 
out for 4 days and didn't loose any of the food.


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## 10101 (Oct 31, 2008)

an adverage fridge will take about 10 amps on startup and use about 7amps during operation.

These small generators are great for temp power but dont expect to run anything else with them while the fridge is on.

that generator might be rated at 10amps 1000 watt so it most likely right at the limit


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## GuidingLight (Nov 17, 2008)

*Alternative to refrigertion*

Hello everyone,
We all know how terrible it would be if our food that has been adding up in our freezers, were to suddenly be jeopardized being wasted if our freezers stopped working. Yes, we can put the blame on a multitude of entities, however, in retrospect, it would be much simpler for taking the responsibility for an episode of this nature not to affect us so adversely. How? There are other alternatives to storing food, meat, and fats. Did roaming nomads carry refrigeration? Did indians even have cold storage? How many alternatives,e.g. smoking, dehydration. How many others can you think of? Take the time and do the proper research. Yes, we are talking about preparedness. Research is a very active part of preparedness. The more we learn about something, the less fears we have to face in such an instance... Thank you and i will have more in the near future on my part of reseaching this post. Peace, light, and joy......GuidingLight


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## Forest Breath (Oct 21, 2008)

Back when I had electricity, I used a freezer a lot. NOw that I don't, I am learning to cut that cord as well as all others. 

This year I refused to put anything in the freezer and once I have all of my old meat canned and dried, I plan to give the freezer to my daughter. 

Can your meat and all other things you store in your freezer. What you don't or cannot can, smoke it or dry it. 

Liberate yourself from the stress of losing power to your freezer.


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## awalker19 (Dec 30, 2008)

In the winter I just push the fridge outside on the back porch. That way I can use my generator for heat. In the summer I dont need the heat so I can use the generator for the fridge. I just turn it on for a couple hours a day.


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## 73CJMan (Dec 29, 2008)

The Amish just up the road have Kerosene Refrigerators w/freezers.


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## Canadian (Dec 14, 2008)

You can steal one from the Amish. I hear they are pacifists so they won't fight you when you steal it. They also can't call the police since they won't have a phone. Easy pickings.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

well, I live in Amish Country & I... wouldn't _*do*_ thaaaat if I were you. ^_^ Harrison Ford did a great job completely skewing what it means to be Amish to the movie-viewing public... >_<
I can tell you that the Amish/Mennonites will use telephones & modern vehicles in the course of conducting business, but not for personal use.


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## Canadian (Dec 14, 2008)

Would theft of a fridge be considered business or personal?


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## StillStanding (Jan 24, 2009)

The kerosene fridges work, barely. You run through a lot of kerosene and the temperature is difficult to control. The propane ones work better, but not much. There do exist propane freezers that will get down to 10 degrees or so but they do not perform as well as we might like especially in the summer.

In Minnesota weather four months out of the year the solution is simple, just put the food outside in a secure container and the ambient temps will do the rest.

Otherwise the best answer IMO if a long-duration outage is anticipated is to put the food in mason jars and process it in a pressure canner. The flavor will not be the same but at least you can keep the food.

Freezers are a luxury and any preparedness program should not rely on frozen food beyond the first few days. Dehydrated food in sealed foil packets, or better, cans, is much more reliable.

Humankind made it until the late 1920s without freezers. It was not until then that electricity was considered reliable enough to trust with a freezer full of food.


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