How To Keep Food Cold When Fridge Is Broken (Explained)
Having your fridge break down is one of those things that’s unavoidable but leaves you with a dilemma as to how you’re going to keep your food cold so that it doesn’t spoil and you have to throw it out.
While hopefully, this doesn’t happen to you, here are some ways that you can keep your food cold when your fridge breaks.
Pack Your Food Into A Cooler
A well-insulated and correctly packed cooler should be able to keep your food cold for around 2 to 4 days. For the best results, you should use ice packs or even frozen food to help maintain the cold temperature in the cooler. Here are some tips:
- Place some ice packs, cubes of ice, or even a couple of bags of frozen vegetables into the bottom of the cooler.
- Place some of your food from the fridge on top in a single layer.
- Grab some more ice packs etc., and place these on top of the food.
- Place delicate items such as fruits and vegetables on top and cover these with a layer of ice.
- Put the cooler in the coldest spot in your home.
It’s important to monitor the temperature in the cooler often and to replace the ice packs if you have to. If your fridge is going to be out of order for a few days, consider buying bags of ice to put into your cooler to keep your food cold.
Pack Everything Into The Freezer
Your freezer will retain its cold temperature for far longer than the fridge compartment. Therefore, you should pack all your food from the fridge into the freezer. Place everything close together because this will help to maintain the temperature of the food for longer.
Keep the freezer door closed as much as possible in order to keep the cold air in. However, you should monitor the temperature of the freezer regularly if your fridge is bound to be out of order for some time.
Fill Your Fridge With Ice
Using ice is one of the best ways to keep food cold when your fridge is broken. So, head down to the convenience store and purchase a couple of bags of ice.
When you get home again, fill the crisper drawers of your fridge with ice and place the most delicate items that are likely to spoil onto of the ice.
Keep the doors of the fridge closed as much as possible, as the ice will help to maintain the temperature inside the fridge.
Keep replacing the ice as you notice the temperature rising in the fridge.
Use Dry Ice To Keep Your Fridge Cold
For extreme cases, you might want to consider using dry ice to keep your fridge cold. Dry ice doesn’t melt but instead turns into gas.
Use around 5 to 10 pounds of dry ice and place this on the top shelf of your fridge. The cold air from the dry ice will sink to the bottom of the fridge. Therefore, you want to stack all your food into the bottom half of your fridge to keep it cold.
It’s important to remember that dry ice emits carbon dioxide gas as it warms up. Therefore, it’s vital to keep your kitchen really well-ventilated when using dry ice in your fridge and to keep the fridge door closed as much as possible.
You might even want to use a fan to disperse the air out the window when you use this method.
Stop Your Fruits And Vegetables From Spoiling By Using Sand
To stop your fruits and vegetables from spoiling, fill your vegetable crisper drawers with sand. The sand will absorb the moisture as your fridge gets warmer and will stop your fresh produce from going off too quickly.
How To Keep Your Food Colder For Longer During A Power Outage
With the adverse weather conditions that are becoming more frequent right around the world, power outages are also becoming more common. You can help to keep your food colder for longer by using the following tips.
- Because warm air rises, move all of your food to the bottom of the fridge and pack everything close together. Keeping everything close together will help to keep it all colder.
- Throw a couple of ice packs from the freezer into your fridge. But remember to keep a few packs in the freezer as well.
- Alternatively, go and buy a bag of ice from the convenience store and place this in the fridge.
- Keep the doors closed. If you’re not constantly opening and closing the doors, your refrigerator should stay relatively cold for at least four hours, while your freezer should be able to maintain its temperature for around two days.