Does anyone do the penny in the freezer trick?

[conny]

I've never heard of it before, (and certainly didn't know my wife does it every time), but there is a 'trick' you should do when you go on holiday.

If you go on holiday and come back to see, say an electric clock/cooker timer flashing, you can deduce you have lost power at some time but not for how long it was off. So later in the day/week you take something out the freezer and cook it. You obviously don't know if it thawed out and re-froze or if the power was only off for a few minutes.

The trick to knowing if it was off long enough to defrost your freezer is to freeze a plastic beaker of water. Once it's frozen, lay a coin on the top of it. When you come back home, after your 2 weeks in Marbella or wherever, check to see if the coin is till on the top of the ice. If it isn't, then you have had a power cut long enough to defrost your food and then re-freeze it. You then have to throw the food away as it will probably not be fit for consumption.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Or could just ask a neighbour how long the cut lasted .

But its not a bad idea in itself, if you remember to do it

 

[Stivino]

My freezer is switched off, it has been for years. There are shops everywhere, I don't need it.

 

[opps]

I had never thought of the coin in water trick. Yeah, it makes sense, but how often do you have power cuts?

I guess you could additionally look through the logs on your ADSL/cable MODEM. Most (but not all) will tell you when they lost the connection, and when it was finally re-established.

You could also check the tub of ice cream in the freezer. It won't look the same once it refreezes.

 

[conny]

The problem with asking a neighbour is, they may be on a different phase of the system to you. Our next door neighbour is.

Regarding how often we have a power cut, quite often compared to townies as we live in the countryside with overhead lines and transformers up poles.

Looking through our modem wouldn't really work because, again because we live in the wilds, we can often lose the internet but not the actual power. Leave ice cream/lolly ices in the freezer????? Unheard of here. It comes home, goes in the freezer and by the end of the week we have to re-stock! We do like an ice cream or lolly ice of an evening, even in the middle of winter.