A freezer without power holds temperature for a surprisingly long time: Just don’t make this mistake

Not too long ago, my community faced a major power outage. Usually one is calm for the first half hour, but then one gets nervous and seeks information about how long one will have to go without power. This is not only because 5% on a mobile phone battery without the ability to charge looks scary, but also for other practical reasons. For example, how long will food last in the freezer if you don’t have an appliance plugged into electricity?

When my phone was almost dead and I ran out of ideas for how to entertain myself without electricity, I took the dog for a walk. But we stopped right in front of the house, where we joined the neighbors in a mass debate about when the electricity would be turned back on. Since it hadn’t been on for several hours, there was also concern that the freezers would start to thaw. And that got me thinking about what precautions one should actually take in this regard if the power actually goes out, even for half a day.

You don’t have to stress for a few hours

If you don’t open the door once during the whole time, a conventional fridge will stay as cold for up to 4 hours as if the power was normally on. It’s even longer for a freezer. However, you must make sure that the power is running to the appliance just before it goes off and that you don’t unnecessarily warm the air in the appliance by opening the door or lid.

But it also depends on how many ingredients you have in the freezer. If it’s completely full, it can last up to 2 days. If it’s about half full, it will stay cold for about 24 hours. The reason is mainly physical. A full freezer has a lot of frozen food that acts like a big ice battery. A half-empty one has less ice and warms up faster.

Is it necessary to throw food out of the fridge and freezer after a failure?

If your power goes out for hours, you should check the food in your fridge and throw it away if you find something wrong with it. “After 4 hours without power, throw away refrigerated foods such as meat, fish, eggs and leftovers. Never taste food to see if it is safe. If in doubt, simply throw it in the trash,” advises Natural Disasters and Severe Weather specifically.

If the power hasn’t gone out for an hour or two, the food should be fine and unchanged. As for food in the freezer, if it has thawed, it needs to be processed or thrown away. Never refreeze them. If the power hasn’t gone out for a few hours but the food hasn’t thawed, you don’t have to worry about anything and can leave it in the freezer normally.

All of this information would certainly have put my neighbours considerably at ease in a situation where we were standing outside wondering if we were going to have to throw the food out of the freezer soon. Instead, thankfully, they turned the electricity back on after a few minutes. But at least we had completed our precautionary information after this incident, and next time we’ll know when to really start worrying.