I am so upset right now. I went downstairs to get something out of the freezer this evening and noticed the rotting smell of meat...... I opened the door and everything had thawed and the freezer wasn't even cool at all.

Like probably everyone on these boards, I wait till sales and then buy. I had whole chickens, pork loins, steaks, chicken legs, frozen pizzas, cheese sticks, cube steaks, veal, cookies, veggies frozen from the garden, fresh frozen strawberries.... you name it, it was in there -- even the wedding cake top from my son and daughter-in-law's wedding.

I had just gone to Sam's and bought a big bag of Ore-Ida french fries, big box of ice cream bars and icees (for the neighbor kids) and other frozen things.

I use a lot of my frozen meats that I get on sale to cook for my friend who has cancer plus for my kids when they come to visit.

Guess now I'll have to start all over again.

Strange thing though, we thought the freezer had gone bad, but I just checked it a few minutes ago. Somehow it was turned to the OFF position. Now how did that happen??? Unless something fell and hit it but that would be nearly impossible, wouldn't it?

I hate to think how much money I lost on food tonight.....

So sorry! I think we've all had this happen--storms knock out power, freezer breaks, etc.--and it always just makes you heartsick!

Glad at least it's not broken!

Aw sweetie I am so sorry to hear this , as a huge coupon user and stockpiler myself I can feel your pain so to speak. While me and my dd's do not eat meat my son and husband so and as you say when meat items are on sale I also stock up to catch a good bargain since meat has gotten so expensive. But when there are sales like the porterhouse steak meat which they eat is 4.99lb I try to but several better then 10.99lb. Again so sorry this happened to you. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Peace. Catherine

That is terrible. I'm so sorry you lost all that food. Are there any kids that go in your freezer that may have turned it off? I used to have a terrible time with the kids next door and my inside freezer. They would go in it for ice and play with the dial that you set how cold you wanted it. At least you don't have to buy a new freezer too.

Funny the same thing just happened to me. Now I have to go throw everything out.

We had this happen once about 6 years ago. We buy our frozen veggies and meats 2 times a year in bulk. We had just got our new order in (over $1K worth when somehow, the door didn't shut. We had told our insurance agent about our stockpile freezer and I think we had a special writer on it (or if not, it was just part of the policy). We made a claim and our rates didn't go up but we were told if we made another claim in 5 years it would. It didn't happen again (thank goodness).

I feel for you

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Call your homeowners. Many cover freezer loss. USAA does. We just had to estimate what we lost. Ours was due to a widespread power loss due to a tornado in the early 1990s though. No increase in our rates.

Good luck.

I might suggest you purchase a remote alarm if you keep that kind of value in a freezer you don't go to very often. You can even get them to email you or something like that.

I'm so sorry .. Believe it or not this just happen to us also, I have to wait till Monday to clean all the meat thats bad now so it will go out on trash day. Thankfully I just hit a HUGE sale and restocked the freezer again. But I'm so sick of all that I will have to toss tomorrow. Like others have said call your insurance company you might have a rider policy on the contents. I do know when our brand new refrig went out not once, not twice but 3 times i claimed the loss on the company that made the refrig, We had 2 claims that were maxed out on the 250.00 and the last one was just over 150.00 they paid each time since the problem was the control board on the refrig.Might be worth a call to see if you are covered. If not best thing to do it start off small till you are able to hit a good meat sale again.. So sorry this happen to you also, P.s mine was due to one of the kids not closing our stand up freezer door all the way. Since its not in the main part of the house I didnt know till the smell hit me walking by the main door of the den..

Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear about that! I'm afraid that's going to happen to me soon. Our freezer is probably about 26 years old. I guess I'm lucky that it's in the laundry room upstairs, just off the dining room, so I'm in there pretty much every day. I hope I'll notice that things are not exactly right, before it's too late. (Of course, I have no idea where I'd put everything that's in there until I got a new one!!!)

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Linda

I'm sorry to hear this. I know the feeling as this happened to me last summer. It was a feeling of disgust to think that all of that good food was going to waste. What can you do though? I still don't know what happened with our freezer in the basement. I just unplugged it, then plugged it back in. It's worked fine ever since that episode. ~Lisa

OH NO!! How awful! And what a mess you have had to deal with. I know what it is like. We've been through seveal hurricanes, or near misses, and we lose power out here a lot because we are very rural and the power lines are not buried. When a tree falls, out the lights go! We lost everything in our huge freezer in 2004, what a mess. And with no power to even cook the meat for the dogs, it just sat out in the trash, rotting, stinking to high hell. We only have trash pickup once a week, on Mondays. Believe me, that time, it was more like 2, 3 weeks. Poor trash men never worked so damn hard. How awful for them! So yes, you sure had quite a mess. Sorry this happened to you! Very odd how it got switched to the off position. It is a know that turns right or left? Or a flip like switch? Maybe a neighbor's kid was getting a popsicle or something........?

We finally bought a new upright freezer last year to replace our antique one that's about as old as yours. It was a great freezer with a porcelin liner. You would not believe how much our electric bill changed in the first month. We switched from a gas clothes dryer to electric and the new freezer at the same time. The electric bill still went down even with the new dryer. The new freezer has an alarm on it.

What a stinky, rotten mess to have to deal with. So sorry for you!

That happened to my parents one time but the culprit was my dad! He didn't get the door shut tight after getting something out and everything in there thawed.
Luckily, they just have a 1/2 size upright and it wasn't full but the loss was heartbreaking. All that food had to be thrown away and we aren't a family that wastes food. 2 whole turkeys right in the trash along with a bunch of other stuff.

If the freezer was packed with lots of good stuff, I'd check with your homeowners insurance too. Might be worth it to make a claim if you're out a lot.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

Thanks so much for all your replies. I really appreciate it. After reading about the insurance, I'm going to call them tomorrow to ask -- it can't hurt.

We still can't figure out how the dial was turned to off. It's just my husband and me (the kids are grown) and no one goes downstairs to the basement much. Neighbor kids don't go down there -- I bring it upstairs to them and keep some in our freezer upstairs in the fridge. Half of one shelf had fallen, so I'm thinking when the shelf fell and tilted, something hit the dial. It's just so weird it went to the OFF position.

Oh, and my basement still smells like something died down there. It's much better than last night though.

And the freezer is running just fine!! Told DH that I'm going downstairs and checking it every day now. I've certainly learned my lesson.

I'm sorry so many of you on the boards here have lost food due to a freezer malfunction. It's awful....

we went through the same mess when hugo came through here. we had just bought a side of beef a few weeks earlier. what a mess.

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I've had this happen twice in the last 2 years. My basement freezer died-lost everything. Then, my 2 year old fridge/freezer died recently. I replaced the freezer with one with an alarm. Thank goodness we had bought the extended warranty on the fridge. I almost never buy the warranties...but on a $1600 fridge-it was a good thing that I did.