Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Need tips on running freezer with generator

Today I am going to be packing my chest freezer full of ice and consolidating food from another freezer into it....to get it as full as possible. I know that a full freezer can keep things for 48 hours if unopened.

I have a welder/generator that puts out 8,000 watts so I have plenty of power.

I am wondering what kind of power on-off interval should I run the freezer if I lose power for an extended period in this hurry-cane. Is it 2 hours on 2hours off, or 4 on 4 off, or several in just one block per day?

How did you do it? I won't be running anything else with the generator.

With a decent quality, packed freezer, and you NOT opening it, you should be good for 48 hours with no electric.
A good idea is to have a digital thermometer with a remote probe. That way you can monitor the freezer without opening it.
When we did Hurricane Katrina and Wilma, back to back, down in Miami, I ran my generator for about two hours a day, after the first day with no electric. We were without power for over a week, more like two, and my fridge and freezer were still frozen with two hours a day run time.

Just need to run about 4hrs twice a 24hr period.

I would just experiment to the conservative side. You should be around to check on it, correct?

When full, with all the contents solidly frozen, it should last a good while. Then if you open it once in a while, you'll have to factor that in.

I'd rather plug it in for a good block of hours, rather than multiple starts & stops through the day.

We hardly lose power, but that's my plan if I have to use my portable generator with our freezer.

Can you tell if the freezer is running or not? Run the gen until the freezer shuts off and you're good for another 24+ hours.

Yes, I SHOULD be around to check it. I'm in S.E Georgia and they have not issued any kind of evacuations yet....and it looks like it is going to give us a glancing hit. I have a place in South Carolina a couple of hours inland to stay if I have to leave so I should be able to get back within 48 hours of losing power if it happens.

We hardly ever lose power either....don't know that it has ever been down for 48 hours. We have not been majorly affected by a hurricane in nearly 40 years. I just have a whole season's worth of gardening in the freezer plus venison and fish I'd like to be able to hang onto and the situation has my OCD flared up! Could be nothing, a little bad, or very bad. If in the unlikely event that sucker moves west and runs right over us, I will have bigger things to think about than a freezer.

Running the freezer on the generator until it shuts off is doable. I can hear it running so if I am good for 24 hours after it shuts off I will know what to do.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

I made it a week during Katrina, with a 3000 watt generator. Had lights, watched tv, ceiling fans, and kept a fridge and freezer going w/o any problems.

One bulb per room and 1 fan per room at night. TV at night also.

Ran the fridge 3 times a day for 1 hour. Kept milk, juice, leftovers, etc. in ice chest, to not have to get into fridge quite as much. We could get ice at store.

Ran the freezer once a day until it shut off. Stayed out of freezer as much as possible.

Get plenty of extra water and gas. Fill up buckets with water for everything, except drinking, cooking, and bathing. If the water is off for days, you will need it for flushing toilets (very important).

Get plenty of gas! Once you figure you got enough, get some more!

Buckle down and stay safe.

Get a big enough generator!!

and keep an eye on the generator oil. They go through a bunch, and it's critical that the level is correct.

This. As long as stuff is already frozen, you shouldn't have much trouble holding it.

We use our little Honda 2000 at camp not only to hold, but also to freeze stuff, and it doesn't run a lot once things are frozen. It's not a large freezer, but not the smallest either, and the little Honda just gives a quick 'grunt' when it kicks on, and all is good. No biggy.

Thanks guys. I've got extra gas. I should be able to run the machine for 5 or 6 days for 4 hours per day. On top of that I have two full vehicle tanks I could siphon if need be. Also have a jug of 10w-30 on hand.

Hope everyone affected gets through this storm okay.

I had issues with the GFI on my generator last time I lost power and tried to run my frig. So I made up a pigtail that uses the 30AMP twist lock receptacle ( for RVs) and a 20 amp standard receptacle on it. Do a dry run before you have to use it.

Best be ready for two rounds.
Some models are now showing Matthew doing a loopty-loop.

And do pass on your experience and advice.

Good luck,

Best advice that I have is to get your house wired into a separate box[for essentials] for the generator. What we did after back to back ice storms in the 90's put us off grid for 8 days and 7 days within a month.
But as far as a freezer goes, unopened and packed with frozen meats about an hour a day run time should be all it takes unless it gets extremely hot after the storm passes. Just don't open it for any reason.

I hope the models that I just saw turn out to be as wrong as most of the prior ones have been regarding the East coast.

Prayers for all in the path!

Something that we started doing with coolers when we transport stuff across a 24 hour period, or most of one, is to throw a wrap of duct tape around the seal area to better seal it. That has helped a bunch.

If I were trying to hold a freezer for an unknown period with marginal power input - though they have better seals- I would run a wrap of duct tape around the seal area also. That will insure against leakage, but it will also prevent someone from inadvertently taking a quick peek.

Unless you've tried it to confirm, you may not be able to siphon from a car or truck tank due to baffles in the filler tube designed for theft prevention.

5 gallons will run my Coleman 6000 watt for close to 8 hours.
Running a freezer just a few hours every day is all that is needed.

Hurricane Irene knocked our power out just a few hours short of 5 full days, and I had no problems keeping 2 freezers and a refrigerator going on less than 20 gallons of gas.

Excellent advice!

Be sure the gen. is up and running for a bit before plugging the freezer back in. IOW, don't have it plugged in with gen. off, and then crank up gen.

Just out of curiosity, would a 4000 watt generator handle a small freezer?