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Hey all,

Just having a little vent.

Started yesterday, walked in to my prep room and there was an awful smell. I looked everywhere, then checked the fridge/freezer and it was off. I believe it had been off for quite some time as I had fruit flies having a field day, rotten meat. It was absolutely putrid.

End of last year I cleaned out our other chest freezer, put all the meat I wanted to keep in the fridge/freezer so I only had the one fridge on and thought it would be ok as it runs on a separate RCD and I had no problems last year. Anyway the firdge has to stay on as it contains Chemicals.

During the holidays, some work was done on the bench tops and somehow the maintence guys have managed to trip it off.

So now I have lost all my fridge chemicals, and just recently purchase Hydrogen Peroxide, and all my offal.

In my 5 years of being a labbie, I have never had a job this bad, I still smell of rotten fish and I ended up having to use a peg on the nose just to be able to deal with it.

Has anyone else had a similar story? It has happened to different departments at my school, It happened to the Food tech last year.

Glad to be at work....well somedays

Oh dear! Not a good start... Don't throw out your H2O2 though. It will still be usefull for pracs that don't require exact concentrations (eg the MnO2 and H2O2 prac) and even the ones where it needs comparison of dilution it should still work. I haven't had my fridge turned off but I have read other people's experiences on here. On the up side, your term can only get better from here!

Hey Rosalie,

Yeh I kept my hydrogen peroxide, I thought it may find some use. I had peptones, benzoin and other biological chemicals, will they be any good, Im thinking not.

That is very true It can only get better, I hope.

I still cant get rid of the smell, its horrid...any tips?

vanilla fridge wipe - give it a really good wipe over then give a few sprays with the door nearly shut and slam all the spray inside. Keep the door shut for a while and then put some bicarb soda in a petri dish (no lid) and put it somewhere that it won't get knocked over. It should absorb the smell over time... (That's what I do when my incubator gets smelly). Sorry that's about all I can suggest. Oh, I've also heard wiping with lemon juice works too. Haven't tried it though. Someone else may have other ideas when they get back if these fail!

I have wiped it out with vinegar, put bi carb, charcoal and vanilla essense in the fridge. The smell is slowly going away no where near as bad like monday.

I guess its a matter of time. I might see about swapping the fridge over witht the one downstairs, and then i can use it for Marine Studies Dissections.

cheers

Many years ago, David, I was in Maintenance when the Science Freezer was turned off for the Christmas holidays. Somehow, the cleanup job went up the hierarchy to the front office and then down the chain, and settled on Maintenance, which meant ME. A few years later, after I was a Labbie, the same thing happened again! (I think the "TEST TAG" boys switched it off.) Do you hink I could off load the job to Maintenance? Not on your life! I got landed with the job again. Interesting thing was that when the same guys left the freezer off in the school canteen, the school the school insisted that the Electrician not only cleaned out the canteen freezer, but also paid for the ruined stock.
I have now moved the freezer down to the Ag shed and try to keep it as empty as possible. At least, if it is turned off, I don't have to keep the lingering smell, even if I still have to to the clean up!
Yes. It IS about the worst job, but I just can't shake it!
You have my sympathy.
Ian

Thanks Ian.

It was not a pleasant job but had to be done. I think the problem was not the maintenance staff but a power surge. Its happened before during the wet season because of the humidity and the building's wiring is ancient.

I thought i had covered all bases only leaving the one fridge on, and it was on a separate RCD. I still can't get rid of the smell so I think its off to the dump for the fridge, we have a better one down stairs which i am going to use.

Anyway, thats why we love being labbies, you never know what storm your going to walk into.

I had a similar thing happen to me a couple of years ago. Not sure how the freezer got turned off. The red emergency cut off button had been pressed in the prep room but I've never found out who it was. I had pig hearts and fish in there and it is the worst smell I have ever dealt with in my life! Before this job I worked as a forensic scientist and did some pretty gross things then so that is saying something. As people walked past the prep room they were nearly vomiting and I'm there on my hands and knees with my head in the freezer cleaning it out! I tried bicarb and vanilla and it's not too bad now but has never smelt the same. If it was a food fridge I would have got rid of it but for the lab its ok.

I had this happen to me too about 10 years ago. I turned the freezer on to freeze the liquified offal and rats so it was easier to dispose of. Vanilla fridge wipe definately helped with the smell. I recommend changing the door seals as well.

I am guessing it was off between 3-4 weeks, so I think its nearly impossible to get rid of the smell. It still smells terrible and I have tried everything. Everytime a teachers walks into the prep room they nearly dry reach. The smell isnt really bothering me anymore, however I am trying my best to not open the fridge unless I really need to.

Also with the humidity up here and we had some really hot day around Xmas and New years, it was quite bad and had a colony of fruit fly in the fridge.

My boss wants it gone but the fridge down stairs needs new seals if I am to put chemicals in it.

Anyway, the joys of being a labbie...

I am still on Holidays NSW DEC go back on Tuesday 29th, I really do hope all is well in my fridge/freezer. Welcome to chemtalk David. And welcome back everyone, hope you all had a good break, and are ready to go again.

..why I don't want a freezer here. Same happened to me at another school, so I'm happy with just a bar-size fridge for H2O2 etc. and a few ice-blocks. Any left-overs from dissection pracs are disposed of at end of day.

Yes it has happened to me here too. Unfortunately the freezer had toads, hearts and eyeballs in it. Worst job ever to clean it out. I did eventually get the smell out so perservere if you think its worth it.

Lesson learnt: I never keep any meats in the freezer over the holidays, what ever is left over at the end of the year gets tossed. I will never get caught again....EVER. And yes funny enough there was no one around at the time to help me clean it out.

A couple of years ago, elecrricians in to Tag & Test they vpulled fridge cord after turning off, replaced cord but did not turn back on
It's hard working round idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had the "glass cleaners" in over the holidays to clean inside and outside all windows.
However, for whatever reason, they turned on the fume cupboards and and the noise has been annoying the neighbours ( especially in the still of the night ) for 3 weeks, until today when we turned them off properly. Looks like so many buttons have been pushed to try and turn them off.
Methinks I will have to put a DON"T TOUCH sign on them.
The cleaners polished the floors in my preproom and wisely ( NOT ! ) moved 2 trolleys and dislodged a wheel on each trolley...so...NOT HAPPY all round

it seems like the 'death fridge' is a rite of passage for labbys.

I too have had it happen!

I had the same problem a few years ago with a freezer - I refused to clean it, and they sent it to the tip, contents still included.. got a new freezer.. NO WAY was I going to put my health at risk cleaning up that mess!

I too, have had a "death fridge" or two or three over the years. And the "I just left the hearts in the fume hood to breed blow flies, but I didnt realise it would smell so bad" teacher?????
And now as the new fumehood was to go in over the holidays the HOD cleared out the display cupboard and all the surrounding areas and put it all on science room benches. But it's now on hold, so first day back I put everything back, no display cupboard anymore so had to create space??? threw out all my accumulated odds and ends, Classification, insulation etc. Cleaned. Then tradies came in to prep room and demolished a massive built in cupboard and the huge obselete heating system. Today I have a big hole in the floor, the ceiling, and still no plaster over where the display cupboard was. Cleaned. Now there's plumbers in the science room and my prep room reconnecting all the plumbing they have mistakenly removed over the holidays. But the cant match the antique fittings. Over it!!!!!!!!(But both the fridges are OK.

Hey David,

Had the same thing happen to me when the HNIC turned off everything in my prep-room after a power outage. Trouble was in those days I didn't work Fridays, AND it was a long weekend! SO...I lost a whole ox liver, rats, toads, and preciously imported-from-Gympie dissection hearts. We had a blowfly population with accompanying maggots UNDER the fridge in the pooled residue from a defrosted liver. Blah blah. The smell was definitely retchworthy.

Interestingly, the almost-retired chem teacher mixed a strong solution of potassium permanganate and placed some in a bowl inside the fridge and more under the fridge and that worked better than any commercial product on the market.

Thanks for the tip smiley, its been 3 weeks and the smell is still awful. Im guessing the fridge was off for at least a month.....it was another world in that fridge. The only thing that stopped me from throwing up was a peg on the nose and still I could only handle it for a minute at a time.

Done a bit of reading up on Potassium Permanganate and looks liek alot of other people have had similar success with removing odours.

Thanks

Dave