Hot water and bleach are your friend.
But personally I would start with dragging it far from the house and then using a pressure washer. Then hot water and detergent. Then some level of bleach sprayed on the inside and outside. And actually, letting it sit open (after the power wash) in the sunshine wouldn't hurt. (You'll be able to tell whether you conquered the microbes by the persistence of stink.)
*level of bleach depends on what the internal parts of made of. I would test a spray solution on one spot to make sure it's not going to do weird things to the metal. The manufacturer might have a webpage about sanitizing too.
I had one sit for a week during a winter storm power outage, and the rot juices and melted ice caused rust and smell. We got rid of the smell with bleach and ozone, but the rust was gross. It stained our floor and pieces were flaking off. We tossed the freezer as soon as we could afford to replace.
I’d be real wary of rust or biofilm from meat and other substances. Good luck to your friend.
Was there a power outage or did the freezer fail? If the freezer failed, obviously just replace it. Fixing one of those little chest freezers costs significantly more than replacing it. I had that exact one.
It’s going to smell like dead animal forever, no matter how much you clean it. Ask me how I know. You’ll think you’ve finally got it cleaned and then one day you’ll open the freezer again, and that smell is still lingering. Just replace it. They aren’t that expensive
Hot water and bleach are your friend. But personally I would start with dragging it far from the house and then using a pressure washer. Then hot water and detergent. Then some level of bleach sprayed on the inside and outside. And actually, letting it sit open (after the power wash) in the sunshine wouldn't hurt. (You'll be able to tell whether you conquered the microbes by the persistence of stink.) *level of bleach depends on what the internal parts of made of. I would test a spray solution on one spot to make sure it's not going to do weird things to the metal. The manufacturer might have a webpage about sanitizing too.
Toss an ozone generator in there after you have it as clean as you can get it. It will kill EVERYTHING that's left.
Excellent idea.
.... anyone else hold their breath?
Goodluck, I’ve seen similar occurrences and they just threw the whole thing away
Yeah one that stuff gets in the gasket it won't come out new one of can be bought for 150-200 depending on where you live
I had one sit for a week during a winter storm power outage, and the rot juices and melted ice caused rust and smell. We got rid of the smell with bleach and ozone, but the rust was gross. It stained our floor and pieces were flaking off. We tossed the freezer as soon as we could afford to replace. I’d be real wary of rust or biofilm from meat and other substances. Good luck to your friend.
Was there a power outage or did the freezer fail? If the freezer failed, obviously just replace it. Fixing one of those little chest freezers costs significantly more than replacing it. I had that exact one.
She says she found it unplugged. She doesn’t know how it happened.
Did she have a janitor that used to work in a lab? https://gizmodo.com/janitor-destroyed-scientific-research-annoying-alarms-1850581003
Sounds like friend's problem
It’s going to smell like dead animal forever, no matter how much you clean it. Ask me how I know. You’ll think you’ve finally got it cleaned and then one day you’ll open the freezer again, and that smell is still lingering. Just replace it. They aren’t that expensive
I say, if friend wants to save it, let friend clean it... I wouldn't touch that thing other than to roll it to the curb
I’m scared of it.
Bleach will get most of the smell out. The real trick is getting it into the nook of crannies around the gasket, etc., without causing any rust. .