Freezer ice / water

Crapaud

You know how when you've opened, say, a packet of veg, and put it back in the freezer then, sometime later, bring it back out, the veg is encased in ice? What's the peculiar smell of the ice?

With veg I usually defrost them slightly with tap water, drain and rinse, to get rid of the freezer ice and it seems to get rid of the taste but I've just eaten some otherwise excellent onion bajis without this and there's a definite aftertaste that spoiled my enjoyment.

Is the ice contaminated with something or is it the smell of pure water, or what? Anyone know?

McBain_v1

Probably contaminated with minute quantities of fridge coolant :shock:

MattC59

I know the smell you're talking about.

It's more than likely 'eau de everything in the freezer'. When you leave food in the freezer, it will eventually dry out the food. As the air in a freezer is sub-zero, it is very dry. However, as with all things, the air wants to reach an equilibrium, so slowly draws moisture from the food in the freezer. This moisture then freezes, which results in teh frost. As this drawing of moisture isn't selective, trace amounts of the food will also be drawn out. So, the ice is contaminated with trace amounts of pretty much everything that's been in the freezer. Nothing to cause concern, but enough to make the ice have an odd smell.

Working in the gas detection industry, I can pretty much guarantee that the smell isn't fridge coolant.

One Man And His Bike

MattC59 wrote:

Working in the gas detection industry.

Fart sniffer? :shock:

MattC59

One Man And His Bike wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

Working in the gas detection industry.

Fart sniffer? :shock:

eeerm........... not exactly !!

One Man And His Bike

Me thinks you be telling porkey pies, you're a professional butt sniffer ain't you! =P

Crapaud

I wouldn't expect it to be coolant, McBain, otherwise the freezer wouldn't work.

I did what I should have dne before posting and googled it. No-one really seems to know, but Matt's theory makes sense. Maybe I just need to seal the food up better before freezing.

keef66

I remember it used to be really bad when we first got a fridge when I was a kid. We're talking 40+ years ago. Nowadays I rarely notice any off-flavours.

Either I am losing my sense of taste along with my eyesight and my memory as I get older, or they have improved the plastics used in the manufacture of fridges / freezers. Or possibly both.

nevman

Both my dogs have their noses permanently in the oven/dishwasher but wont go anywhere near an open freezer-they know something.

MountainMonster

It's the smell of the coolant, perfectly fine to eat, just smells a bit funny.

diggerbucket

If it's the smell of coolant, you need to get a new freezer!

Crapaud

I'll ask again, if it's the coolant would the freezer not stop working? As it's working fine - it's fairly new - I doubt it'd be the coolant. What does coolant smell like?

Homer J

Veg? People still eat that stuff?

MattC59

Crapaud wrote:

I'll ask again, if it's the coolant would the freezer not stop working? As it's working fine - it's fairly new - I doubt it'd be the coolant. What does coolant smell like?

It's very unlikely to be the coolant. Most domestic freezers use R134a, which is all but odourless (the MSDS states that it has a 'faint ethereal odour' what ever that means !?!). In order to smell it, you'd need a catastrophic leak of refrigeration system to have sufficient in the air for our noses to detect. It also boils at about -26C (IIRC) so would be gaseous inside your freezer. In order to be solid and part of the ice, it would need to be below about -100C in your freezer.
The other reason that it's unlikely to be the refrigerant, it that the epipes within the freezer are extruded pipes, ie there are no joints. No joints pretty much means no leaks.

So, bottom line, if you had sufficient refrigerant leak to allow you to smell it, your freezer wouldn't work.