How do you get rid of bad smells from your fridge?

Question

While I was away on holiday a fuse blew and the fridge/freezer defrosted. To say that the smell when we got home was bad is an understatement. Two weeks later it's not a lot better. Are there any ways of getting rid of the pong?

Answer 1

bicarbonate of soda or lemon juice

Answer 2

Your not supposed to use bleach!! But I do!! And it works a treat the stonger the better.... Hope you get rid of it whatever you choose to do.... Jean

Answer 3

put an open container of baking soda in the fridge - it's old fashioned - but it works!

Answer 4

Baking soda doesn't work well at all. I read about activated carbon and then tried a product called FRIDGE IT odor absorbers which is an activated carbon odor absorber that is a small purple cube. Just place it in fridge and freezer and it works really, really well. So much better than baking soda. I can't believe all the baking soda comments?

Check out this link I found on you tube - video clip of a food network show comparing baking soda to activated carbon. Guess which did better? Carbon! And the product they show at the end is Fridge It.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIxTW-aAs...

Answer 5

the first thing you need to do is throw all the rotten stuff out. then clean the fridge

Answer 6

Dissinfect the whole house

Answer 7

cut a lemon in half and leave it in the fridge when its shut, or you can buy proper fridge things cheap that stop fridge smells  

Answer 8

I just seen this on tv the other day.  They were testing baking soda and such.  They found that charcoal was the best thing to use.  You can buy it and it's Fridge It, I bought it to have by the litter box, it does wonders.

Also there is a great little article you could read on refridgerator odors.

Good luck  :)

Answer 9

Cut the lids off of two arm&hammer baking sodas off and leave them in the frige and the odors will be eliminated in a few days.Good luck.

Answer 10

i had worst case ever, 2 weeks freezer off with wild game in it during 100 degree summer!

1.  Clean clean clean, with strong bleach, ammonia etc,  you have to get every drop cleaned up.

2.  while empty and turned off, stuff appliance with wadded up news paper.  I mean stuff, it should consume all the space.  1 day time.

This is first smell absorber step

3.  Go buy a bag of charcoal, several pounds of Cheap coffee (ground fine) and boxes of baking soda.

4.  grind up charcoal or buy it ground and place on paper plates, cover all shelves with this for a day or 2.  (with the refrigerator and freezer running!!!!)

5.  do same with coffee and baking soda (i use them separately.

This gets the smell out of the circulating air and contamination in the air handling parts you cannot reach to clean.

Each step is in sequence in importance and effectiveness.  You may have to repeat one or more steps.  but you have to get it clean clean first!

Hope this helps

Answer 11

You need to defrost and then clean the fridge thouroughly. I suggest you use lemon scented products as they give a fresher scent.

Then you might need to buy a fridge freshner. You can get  these from hardware stores, ebay amazon e.t.c.

Avoid anything with fish from dripping into your fridge as then tend to smell strongly when bad.

Hope this helps.