~13year old cube chest deep freezer in the garage started smelling like rotten meat ~2 or so months ago. I've ignored the issue until recently when I had enough and decided to clean it out.
I dug through all the frozen deer meat and fish and found that at least one of the deer meat packs had at one point been leaking. I threw away all the perceived "bad" items and moved the rest to another freezer that had capacity. The bottom of the deep freeze had dried "juice" which confirmed the leaking theory.
I then moved the deep freezer outside to thaw and clean. Underneath where the freezer was, there was hardened, dried brownish-red "goo" (I assume dried blood) as well as some that was not hardened & dried. There was also some clear liquid. The dried "juice" made 2 different 4-inch diameter areas about 6 inches apart on the concrete.
Today I defrosted it, washed it, and cloroxed it and it's now drying out. I don't know if there is still some goo/juice/blood between the bottom of the freezer and the panel underneath -- I cant figure out how to take the panel off without fully destructing the freezer.
What am I dealing with here? Did the leaky blood somehow get underneath the freezer and slowly drip out the bottom? How did it "thaw" out? The only thing I can think of is that the compressor on the deep freezer was/is producing enough heat to slowly warm up whatever liquid was around there and the residual leak slowly dripped down.
Other notable points -- I don't recall losing power over the last few months. The deep freeze only started smelling maybe 2 months ago? I've eaten meat from it in the past 2 months and it was perfectly fine -- no smell, nothing (and my family did not get sick).
I've resolved to let it dry out and plug it back in to see how things go. I can put some cardboard underneath it and periodically check for "drips". Although a nuisance, not the worst thing in the world.
Should I just say f it and buy another?
I dug through all the frozen deer meat and fish and found that at least one of the deer meat packs had at one point been leaking. I threw away all the perceived "bad" items and moved the rest to another freezer that had capacity. The bottom of the deep freeze had dried "juice" which confirmed the leaking theory.
I then moved the deep freezer outside to thaw and clean. Underneath where the freezer was, there was hardened, dried brownish-red "goo" (I assume dried blood) as well as some that was not hardened & dried. There was also some clear liquid. The dried "juice" made 2 different 4-inch diameter areas about 6 inches apart on the concrete.
Today I defrosted it, washed it, and cloroxed it and it's now drying out. I don't know if there is still some goo/juice/blood between the bottom of the freezer and the panel underneath -- I cant figure out how to take the panel off without fully destructing the freezer.
What am I dealing with here? Did the leaky blood somehow get underneath the freezer and slowly drip out the bottom? How did it "thaw" out? The only thing I can think of is that the compressor on the deep freezer was/is producing enough heat to slowly warm up whatever liquid was around there and the residual leak slowly dripped down.
Other notable points -- I don't recall losing power over the last few months. The deep freeze only started smelling maybe 2 months ago? I've eaten meat from it in the past 2 months and it was perfectly fine -- no smell, nothing (and my family did not get sick).
I've resolved to let it dry out and plug it back in to see how things go. I can put some cardboard underneath it and periodically check for "drips". Although a nuisance, not the worst thing in the world.
Should I just say f it and buy another?