How to Neutralize Odors in a Fridge?

O boy! HUGE ODOR! OK, first of all GET IT OUT OF THE HOUSE! Lots of scrubbing with scouring power, hot water. After you do that, sprinkle baking soda inside the 'fridge". (bicarbonate of soda). DO NOT PUT CLOROX OR OTHER CLORINE PRODUCTS IN FRIDGE! Do all of this outside in the sunshine! Bicarbonate does a good job of absorbing odors. James

Agreed. The only additional comment I would have is to pay particular attention to getting the sealing areas cleaned and deodorized with bicarbonate of soda. The sealing surfaces are typically more vulnerable than the main interior of the fridge because they are usually more porous. Also consider any racks in the fridge. If they are polymer coated rather than metal, it will probably necessary to handle them that way too.

what happens if I use bleach, since I already did it? Corrosion of Aluminum?

It doesn't take very much bleach to disinfect the bacteria. It's the bacteria that cause the odors.

One cap full of bleach to one gallon of water is all it takes.

Try the following:

Mix 1/4 cup of baking soda, one teaspoon of liquid dish soap into one quart of hydrogen peroxide (3 % solution ). Apply to all interior surfaces immediately since the chemical reaction produced from these ingredients lasts only a short amount of time.

Repeat as necessary. Note that the odor has likely permeated the internal "ductwork" that transfers the cold air from the freeezer to the refrigerator section, so these hidden components must also be exposed to the deodorizing chemicals, or your efforts will likely be in vain...

Stuff it full of crumpled newspapers, they will absorb the smell. Replace them every few days. And place saucers full of baking soda everywhere. You'll need to run it also to circulate the air - since a lot of the funk is going to be in places you can't reach.

One method to remove odor is to stuff your fridge with a combination of coconut husk and activated charcoal. I f you cannot get coconut husks, try some crumpled banana fibers. both the charcoal and fibers need to be totally dry initially. This process may have to be done a number of times, depending on the residual odor condition

Same thing happened around here, and the guys in the shop tried every home remedy, listened to every old wives' tale, etc. The one which eventually worked was to stuff the cavity with fresh grass clippings and leave for a week at a time and replenish if needed. Three weeks later, no one could detect an odor. By the way, previous attempts by other methods took about three months without any marked improvements.

You can always try the old cadaver trick. Burn coffee grounds. Put them in a small cast iron skillet which you make your wife hold while you scorch the grounds with a propane torch. Don't set the skillet on the plastic shelf or your wife will use the torch on you. Then you can try to figure out how to get the burnt coffee smell out.

I've heard of this method used to 'de-smell' a car that had transported a very large, very ill dog. They left a bowl of grass cuttings in the car & reportedly the smell was neutralised after a while.

Plenty of cleaning advice above. My 2cents: for some reason the plastic in refrigerators easily absorbs odors. So, after a good cleaning of you choice above, plug the unit in and then determine how much more you need to do. The chilling of the plastic greatly reduces its tendancy to smell. After that you can put in a scent absorbing material (baking soda, activated charcoal, other) to leach more scent out.

Some of the advice above seems to be to replace the smell. Plug the unit in so you know how much of this you need to do. This isn't removing anything after all, just getting your nose comfortable with it.

Other: the plastic also seems to encourage organic growth -- my unit at the cottage needs cleaning often when left off with nothing inside. I must admit that I use a very weak bleach solution to control this -- though the other recommendation for peroxide should do the same.

Buy a new fridge.

You need while you fix the old.

I personally doubt that you will ever get rid of the smell, I will be watching and learning in case you do.....

Actually I agree to a point. A rental center will allow you the time needed to properly disinfect the keeper while not having to buy blocks of ice from your local ice house. As above stated the odor does get fully absorbed through the insulation in the fridge walls so a disinfecting solution might do well within the walls themselves.

Also flush the drain line to the drip pan with the baking soda solution. Remove the drip pan (if present) and clean it with the same solution.

A very diluted clorox solution (3 %) also helps to remove the odors completely. Flush with water after letting it sit for about one hour.

I agree with slong, a mild solution of chlorine bleach will do the trick. I don't know why one poster said to avoid chlorine, in this day and age most components are able to withstand the corrosive effects. Once you have rinsed everything out do the saucer of baking soda trick and that should do it.

Rent an OZONE GENERATOR, simular to ones manufactured by http://www.jenesco.com/.

They are used to deodorize everything from barns to morgues.

I used one in a house where someone had died and putrefied to the point of liquidfication. It had been on the market for over 2 years and the smell would make your eyes water. And this was after numerous attempts to clean and sanitize.

I put the Ozone Generator in the house with a couple of fans, sealrd it up and came back a week later. Then the ozone was so heavy all I could do was open the door and back away. After 3 hours I could enter the house and open the windows and shut off the generator. about 4 hours later only a faint ozone odor remained. The next day there was not a thing to be smelled in the house. I sold it after a few months and as far as I know the smell never came back.

Photocatalysis.

UVC light source, Titanium dioxide, ambient humidity. TiO2 +H2O vapor in air will creat OH radicals. These are many times more effective in destroying organic compounds than Chlorine.

The trick is to get enough TiO2 in contact with air flow and uvc.

You can mix one cap full of chlorine bleach in one gallon of water and disinfect your refrigerator. One cap full is all that is needed.

You can place an opened box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda in the refrigerator and leave it there to absorb the odors. The box is good for about 4 months or you can wait until odors start to become present again to replace.

So many people trying their chemical skills out here, do we really think that all those mums in all those years we have had fridges could do all that?

Not really so here is an age old remedy from grandmas and great grandmas alike.

Use clear vinegar and clear vinegar only. Dilute it if you want too but that is the only way to clean a fridge and keep it clean for ever after. Do not use HOT WATER!

Judging by the answers here you all are only 25 years of age! Very educated 25 year olds I must admit but still. Come back to normal life guys, it's only a fridge

Wrong.

I served in the Navy for 11 years and twice during that time I had to serve as Mess Decks Master At Arm for six months each time. That means I was in charge of the eating and dining facilities on board ship. One of the ships I served on during my tour as Mess Decks Master at Arms came in second place in a fleet wide award program called the NEY Award.

I have also worked as a Pizza Delivery for Pizza Hut when I was 25 in 1987 in the state of Washington. In Washington you have to take a test with the State before being able to work in any food service. A cap of bleach in one gallon of water is an acceptable sanitizer in food service.

Will bleach take the smell out I wonder. That was the question, not how to sanitise it.

Bleach is great and does disinfect and clean all at once and very well too. The smell is something when once in the plastics, will keep coming back. I know that vinegar will get rid of it and if very bad, maybe only twice needed. That is an old household trick your grandma would tell you. Not necessarily in the curriculum for food hygiene I admit, but that does not stop it from working.

Another little gem from grandma is that if you cut yourself with a meat dirty knife, you can stop infections by dipping your finger in some ground coffee. Don't ask me how it works but I tell you it does. Bet you that isn't in the curriculum for surgeons either

Try Vanilla Extract.

once the odor has reached and has been adsorbed into the insulation - oh well!

The smell is in the plastic liner, the rubber gaskets, and the insulation. You can try all the fixes but "Honey what color do you want?"!

An open box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda set in the back of the refrigerator has been a long time remedy for absorbing refrigerator odors. I think it even shows it being used for that purpose on the box.

Otherwise, go get an air freshener that you hang from your rear view mirror in there.

Do what I did. Buy your wife a new one for in the house. Use the smelly one after a through cleaning int the garage to store you beer.

You both win this way.

Good move.....

On a side note, regarding white vinegar. While I have never cleaned my fridge with vinegar; I have used it in a spray bottle to remove cat pee odors on the carpet in my old Porsche 912. Which for some reason cats seem to inordinately love >.<

The vinegar works great to remove cat pee odor from my carpet so I would assume it would work in other de-odor applications.

The first thing I always do when I move into a place with an existing fridge is clean it with bleach/water then toss two boxes of baking soda one in freezer and the other in refrigerator section.

So Electron Oasis, looking at your Avitar.

Is that what you do to the cat that pee'd in your Porsche?

If you're sure the germ factor has gone (rotten meat is gonna leave some nasty stuff), I'd go with the bicarb idea. How bad it is depends on the condition of the door seals. They have all sorts of nasty wrinkles to trap odour and bugs. Don't forget that odour probably means bugs. Depending on age of fridge you may be able to get new door seals ( although they will probably charge a lot - that's the nature of the 'spares' business).

A lot of elbow grease scrubbing the thing, and don't forget to clear all the drainage channels. Don't scrub it with abrasives, all those tiny scars in the plastic will trap 'pong'. The only other tip I've not seen is to leave a Lemon cut in half inside the fridge. Make sure it doesn't drip anywhere, and change it maybe every 4/5 days. Check the temperature is Ok. If all the advice here doesn't work, then it sound like a trip to the local electrical store for a new one.

Some years back I had the fridge in the garage that was sprayed by a skunk. I discovered this about a day later. The odor ruined 100lbs of meat in the freezer plus everything in the fridge. We scrubbed with everything that has been suggested here, tried the charcoal, coffee grounds, candles, even hired a professional cleaning service. Nothing worked for three weeks, until a call from Mom back on the farm. The local Veterinarian suggested we try Massengill feminine douche. One good thorough scrubbing and it was as f"resh as a daisy". And it is still in use 10+ years later.

I will refrain from many clich'es that could be added here.

Gals who use this have the cleanest "P***Y" in town!!!!

Tomato juice is the time tested remedy to skunk spray.

Thousands of refrigerators that was thrown away in New Orleans after Katrina due to rotten food cause by loss of power could have been saved if people knew that there are simple methods for cleaning refrigerators.

Some smart people did pick up those nice stainless refrigerator/freezers clean it and sold it.