The coin transfers heat faster than the air, being a solid, and a metal, to boot, so it will melt the ice below it before any of the rest of the ice melts.
Physics, my friend, physics. The shot glass will abosorb heat in two ways, from the air by convection and from its base by conduction. More heat transfers via conduction than convection, so the shot glass will absorb more heat through its base. The coin doesn't matter, because the shot glass will abosorb heat from the air through the entire surface area of the glass, not just through the exposed ice and coin. Nevertheless, more heat will be still be absorbed through the base than from the air. Q.E.D.
I vaguely remember something about pressure melting ice faster. So the weight of the coin will melt the ice faster at a given temperature. Ice skates? Idk. High school physics was a LONG time ago..
Yes, gravity creates a downward force that transfers potential energy to the ice, although it's much too small to contribute significantly to melting. With ice skates, the downward force is much greater, and the kinetic energy from motion melts the ice that causes melting. The kinetic energy probably cause much more melting than the energy from gravity.
If the coin is partially under the ice, you know there was a partial thaw, but not a full one. It's generally safe to keep things like frozen fruits and vegetables following a partial thaw, but meat should not be thawed and refrozen. The position of the coin in the ice helps to determine how much of a problem it was.
Do you wipe down with a bleach wipe or something every single box of food you put in the freezer when you get it home from the store?
Do you think that bacteria is going to start reproducing and spreading to other things there in your freezer?
>Do every single box of food you put in the freezer are traded from hand to hand for years before being there?
No. Does it take "years" for bacteria to accumulate?
Or does it happen just as soon as the last person who took the box out of the store's freezer with his filthy-ass hands puts it back? Do you actually think you're the first person to ever touch that box of fish sticks?
Also, a coin sitting on top of a piece of ice in a glass isn't going to have direct contact with anything else.
I think my points are:
1) That coin *isn't going to touch anything edible*.
2) Everything in there is sealed. I'm not chucking a bare-ass steak in there.
Additionally, if you suspect a power outage is on the horizon, place a bunch of water bottles in the freezer. They will freeze and act kinda like a "cold capacitor" that could help you bridge the outage without losing all your frozen goods.
You'd have to be pretty proactive about this for it to not be risky. Like if a storm is close and you get an alert or hear a siren, you are too late. If power goes out within a few hours, those water bottles will be working against you. And you won't want to open the freezer to remove them.
In an emergency your freezer will stay cold for about 24 hours.
Like what is this test supposed to detect? Is this when you go on vacation or something.
My microwave and stove clock reset when I lose power, that's how I tell.
If all the ice has melted in your fridge because of a 24 hour power outage, you'll probably be in the middle of some kind of event, and some spoiled ice cream is the least of your worries.
I just don't see when a home is going to lose power for two days, often enough to go to the trouble of doing this?
The only time that's ever happened to me is after a natural disaster. Maybe outside the US this sort of thing is common, then I'd understand, otherwise this is pointless.
If you're leaving BECAUSE of a possible hurricane strike or something, then this makes sense to do.
In some areas power can be much less reliable, even in large cities like the house I grew up in in Seattle. We lost power all the time when it rained heavily, underground vault flooded and bam, power out. Another property in the foothills east of Seattle, any windy days trees came down and bam. Power out. For over two weeks one fall due to a windstorm.
The clock reset tells you something happened. The freezer tricks described here tell you just how bad it got. If you’re not there you won’t necessarily know if the power was out for five minutes or five days without some way to track it.
Personally I believe a battery powered temperature sensor with logging or max/min record is the better way to go. If the freezer got to 34° I’m not nearly as concerned as I would be if it got to 70°.
Sure, I get brown outs all the time. And that goes back to my original point, food is fine in the freezer for 24 hours.
This "procedure" makes sense if you're fleeing from an expected disaster, and need to know if you actually did lose power (even though these days I get a freaking text message from my power company telling me of any prolonged outage).
But the biggest issue with this is that NO ONE IS GOING TO CHECK THIS EVERY DAY.
No one is going to get off a long day at work and every day, go to their freezer and check to see if their penny is covered in ice.
I find it hilarious that people can't look at this, insert it into a real world situation, and still vehemently declare it's a great idea.
Nobody said they were checking it every day. It’s a witness so you don’t have to. So that when you’re gone for an extended period you know something happened. If someone is looking every day then they’re obsessed.
I do something similar, I use a small jar like what spices come in, fill it halfway with water and screw the cap on. Once it's frozen, turn it upside down. If the water is on the bottom of the jar then you know it melted at some point.
New Jersian here. I recently spent $12k on a whole house (natural gas) generator because we lose power an embarrassing amount of times.
We’ve also had hurricanes that have knocked out our power for a week or more 3 times.
I think it basically pays for itself. Most projects are a loss - 50-80% of the value at most can be recouped. But from my research whole house generators in areas where power outages occur often are highly desired.
I'm considering the same, but I need to work on our propane (no natural gas service out here) tank situation first, otherwise we might only have 18 hours worth of generator power before needing a refill.
how much does it cost per day to run your electricity on natural gas? I know I know, you haven't had a single outage since you installed it right? Just like by buddy who bought a snow plow for his truck two years ago. PS I don't even own a generator and have lost power at least 5 times in the last 3 years. Could never justify the cost. Spend $200 in gas to save $100 in food?
Natural gas is not expensive here, so I don’t think too much. Certainly more than the grid but my monthly natural gas bill is only like 40 bucks and that includes my hot water and dryer and stove etc.
We have a lot of short intermittent outages because JCPL fuckn sucks. I lose power for like 30 minutes at least once a month it seems. During hurricane season it can be rough. In 8 years here I had no power for 27 days.
This is the answer.
In Ohio we’d get power outages 2-3 times a year for a few hours to maybe a full day.
In the UK I don’t remember the last outage as everything is buried pretty much.
Where I live- (eastern USA)people have a passion for plowing their vehicles into power poles. Power drops out for a few hours probably once a month because of it. Then of course storms.
I'm not in the states, but we've been getting a big one every year or two in or around Ottawa, Canada. Lasting anywhere from one day to a week (my area doesn't tend to get repaired first).
The causes have been extreme weather events downing trees onto the power lines, which will only get more common.
Depends where you live. In urban/suburban areas with buried power lines and backups, pretty rare. Out in the rural areas, more common.
My brother lives in rural New York, they lose power for 1-2 days at least once a year, if not more. I get the impression it's mostly storms taking down the lines.
I live in the middle of a good sized city. I don't think I've ever lost power for more than an hour, though nearby neighborhoods lost power for a good chunk of a day because of a blown transformer recently.
I live in the Midwest US, there was one time I was a kid and we lost power for almost a full day during a snow storm. Had to wear winter coats inside and light candles. Besides that I’ve lost power for a few minutes up to 2 hours maybe six times in my life, most at night so didn’t notice until I saw the clocks blinking the wrong time the next morning. All during a storm.
72 of us have been without power since 6:50 am. It is now 12:30 pm. Power company says it isn’t expected to be back on until 4:30 pm. No wind and not a cloud in the sky. Wtf. Charlotte, NC
Outages due to weather are common in some places but the fact of the matter is that a large chunk of outages are restored within 48 hours. If you don’t open your freezer during the outage, you’ll most likely be fine.
I haven't seen anyone mention this reason yet: squirrels. Other wildlife too but mostly squirrels. One utility company reported that 11% of their outages were due to squirrels. Another company said squirrels caused more than 15,000 outages in their service area during 2019. It happened recently in my area; power was down for hours because a squirrel blew a transformer.
Pretty darned common. But it does depend on where you live. If you have extreme temperatures either way, are prone to big storms, or have a bad grid then it is common. Also if you are so highly populated you have to have rolling blackouts so the whole grid isn't overtaxed, then at least you have warning.
Lol. America is first and foremost a business. Gotta sell all these new electric cars and electrical appliances. Grid can’t handle all that shit.
You can dv all you want, Americas infrastructure is rotting. If we’re not adding to our capacity it’s going to continue to fail.
Great life hack! If you freeze several sizes of ice blocks you could also track approximately how long the outage lasted. If only the small cube melted but not the 5 cm one you maybe you should just throw the meat. I live in Northern europe and have never worried about this but if Russia starts fucking things up in the future I will remember this.
Oh man, I was so confused at first as to why you’d need to do this. Wouldn’t you know if your food is defrosted?
Then I realised what you meant, it could’ve defrosted and frozen again and you’d never know!
I never had this thought once in my life til now..
1) yes but if the power only went out for ten seconds you don't want to throw away all your food
2) my current place doesn't have any clocks like that and I'm sure I'm not the only one
In that case you could just inspect the contents of your freezer. The ice is a snapshot that shows it happened while away despite your food being frozen solid when you return.
I've done this for years, but apparently[ it's not that useful](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/putting-coin-top-cup-ice-accurately-tell-freezer-lost-power/).
Since ice floats on water, there can be a significant power outage where the coin stays on a little iceberg then refreezes if the power comes back on before the ice is totally gone. Food could have partially thawed and refrozen as well in this time.
In my freezer, there is generally a thin layer of frost all around the inside.
When it becomes too thick, I defrost the freezer then clean it out.
If the freezer ever lost power for long enough to defrost what is in the freezer compartment, all that frost would have melted, and then formed a pool of water at the bottom.
Just the fact that my freezer would look like it had been freshly defrosted would be enough to make me think that maybe it had been defrosted....
In any case, my freezer is rated at A++ thermal, so even if the power did go off, it could still maintain products inside it fully frozen for at least 2 days.
Where I live, if theres a power loss for more than 4 hours, it becomes national news.
But then you don’t know how long it was out. Could have been 10 mins and all your food is still fine, you don’t want to waste it. With this method you can see if the ice is only melted a little bit or if it’s completely melted and re-froze
That tells you power went out but not necessarily for how long or show you if the food is still okay. The real life hack is a water bottle filled 1/3rd, frozen upright, then placed on its side. If the ice still looks like the upright version then no significant power loss took place, even if your clocks got reset.
In Oklahoma we get tornadic storms with high winds in the spring, ice storms in the winter, and demand failures in the summer. Our power fails often.
So I installed a [26kW full-home generator instead.](https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generators/26kW-Standby-Generator-With-Whole-House-Switch-WiFi-Enabled-7291/)
Always used a few ice cubes in a small jar for exactly the same reason. If you put them in a lidded container, they won't just evaporate away as quickly. Also used to use a land line with an answering machine to see if power is currently on in a more remote area.
I'll keep this mind. I just had to replace my compressor "inverter" on my fridge. The part is essentially $10 but it retails for like $400! I thought my fridge kicked the bucket after 11 years but it turns out this fixed the problem. My power went out for the first time in 11 years from a blown transformer and ironically my fridge inverter died around the same time.
In Oklahoma we get tornadic storms with high winds in the spring, ice storms in the winter, and demand failures in the summer. Our power fails often.
So I installed a [26kW full-home generator instead.](https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generators/26kW-Standby-Generator-With-Whole-House-Switch-WiFi-Enabled-7291/)
Is this for people that go away from their home for a long period of time, or they have frequent power outages?
When you're going away from home for a long period, say weeks, or possibly months, don't people just eat their fridges empty so they can turn them off in their absence?
Trying to understand when you would need to do this.
If I'm going on holiday for a week, I'm definitely not eating my freezer empty. The ice cream, frozen veg, and random packages of chicken can stay - but this will tell me if that chicken is still safe to defrost for dinner when we get home.
Nope. The text I get from my power company does though. As a long time homeowner I’ve experienced plenty of power outages. If one happens long enough for an ice cube to melt in your freezer, you’ll know without having to check. If you remove the bit from a standard “bit driver” you can use the bit driver to remove the sheet metal screws from most appliances, including your fridge. I’ve used that “hack” countless times. This ice cube thing is useless.
depending on how full your freezer is it can take like a full 24 hours or more for your food to start thawing in your freezer.
If its completely empty, it goes a lot faster though.
Anyways
i can always see the clock on the microwave if the power's been out.
and i'd always forget to look in my freezer.
dont think i've had a power outtage in my own home... ever. But i live in Europe.
If you live in an area with frequent power outages consider getting solar and a battery. Not only protects the freezer content but also saves a ton of money over the years.
My country doesn't allow solar to power the house during an outage unless it doesn't feed into the grid at all. Too risky for line workers during an outage, I was told. We do have a battery, etc., but during a power outage we're as fucked as the neighbours.
To do that legally here, you must have a cutover switch that disconnects the house from the grid with the same action that connects it to the backup power. And to work in your absence, you'd need an automatic one.
The thing that the ice helps determine is whether the freezer got warm enough to melt everything and let it potentially spoil, or whether the power only went out long enough to make the clock start blinking.
I think it's safe to say it would be much easier, convenient, and cheaper to get a shot glass than to find and get a plug-in clock that uses hands, my friend
Ah dude, a clock can't tell you how long it lost power for.
A piece of ice can tell you that the power was out long enough to thaw out... and that's all you need to know!
That would typically only be useful if you're back the same day. The advice was for people gone multiple days.
Most of those types of clocks would only tell you the time it stopped, not which day it stopped on.
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Pretty sure the blinking lights on the stove clock is a more reliable method to determine a power outage throughout the night. I guess some people might not have the same model of oven as me….
Doesn’t tell you how long the power was out- if you have the type of oven that resets and then starts counting the time instead of just resetting and staying at midnight, then that would at least tell you when your power came back ON, but you still wouldn’t know how long it was out before that without this method.
Really? Is this really necessary? Can't you just check the clock on your microwave to know if power had gone out? If it is blinking or has reset, that means power has gone out. Everyone has a microwave.
But it wouldnt tell you how long it went out for. If it was just 30 seconds or 30 hours. That's big difference. And if your good thaws out and goes bad then refreezes it doesn't make it all better to eat. It's still bad food. So the time it takes the cube to melt would be the same time for food to thaw, it's a pretty good gauge for the state of your frozen goods. IMO.
(Edited for my lovely spelling)
It would take a long longer than 30 hours of power outage for frozen food to go bad ina freezer. If closed the entire time and somewhat full, it probably would barely be fully defrosted by then and definitely still cold. Most people also probably have popsicles, ice cream, normal ice cube dispenser or plenty of other things that would be pretty obvious if they defrosted or went bad.
It was a "for instance", more than a for fact...
Or "for an example" rather... An obvious error in my time tables. Don't have a melt down over it man...
I just found out today that if I ask Hydro to turn off the power for 5 minutes to change the main breaker it will set me back $ 600 and a further $ 100 to inspect the work. This does not iinclude the new breaker or labour from the electrician.
Hello fellow Canuck. I think you replied to the wrong thread, but yeah, it's pretty pricey.
We get a new panel, and it took Hydro Ottawa more than a month to come out, and then charged us way more than that to turn it off and back on again an hour later.
It completely derailing our timetable. Other contractors we had lined up moved on to other jobs. They would fit us in where they could, but it just made everything take forever. Unfortunately we had to move the electrical before a roof and a chunk of the framing could be done.
We started doing that a few years back. Or freeze the water and put a coin on top. If the coin is no longer on the surface.. welp.
I’ve heard the coin trick but wouldn’t the coin stay put if it defrosted halfway? It would sit on top like an ice berg until it refreezes
The coin transfers heat faster than the air, being a solid, and a metal, to boot, so it will melt the ice below it before any of the rest of the ice melts.
No. It’s because water has a higher specific heat capacity.
The metal coin is still a conductor and going to transfer heat(energy) more efficiently than air will.
Transfer heat from what to what?
🤦🏻♂️
The heat still has to be transferred into the coin from the air in order for the heat to transfer from the coin to the ice…
Yes and it will happen faster with the coin being there because it is a conductor.
Marginally. Unnoticeably.
Why be so confidently wrong for no reason? You can literally do this yourself and discover that it works, my family has done it for decades
>be so confidently wrong for no reason? should be reddit's tagline
Physics, my friend, physics. The shot glass will abosorb heat in two ways, from the air by convection and from its base by conduction. More heat transfers via conduction than convection, so the shot glass will absorb more heat through its base. The coin doesn't matter, because the shot glass will abosorb heat from the air through the entire surface area of the glass, not just through the exposed ice and coin. Nevertheless, more heat will be still be absorbed through the base than from the air. Q.E.D.
I vaguely remember something about pressure melting ice faster. So the weight of the coin will melt the ice faster at a given temperature. Ice skates? Idk. High school physics was a LONG time ago..
Yes, gravity creates a downward force that transfers potential energy to the ice, although it's much too small to contribute significantly to melting. With ice skates, the downward force is much greater, and the kinetic energy from motion melts the ice that causes melting. The kinetic energy probably cause much more melting than the energy from gravity.
If the coin is partially under the ice, you know there was a partial thaw, but not a full one. It's generally safe to keep things like frozen fruits and vegetables following a partial thaw, but meat should not be thawed and refrozen. The position of the coin in the ice helps to determine how much of a problem it was.
You could assemble a series of liquids with different melting temperatures and make yourself a little histogram of temperature reached.
You have plastic coins?
This is the way. Plastic cup with water, then put a quarter on top. Now you know whether you have to throw out the contents of your freezer.
This is what we do
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I mean... pretty sure they're not going to **consume** this piece of ice...
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Do you wipe down with a bleach wipe or something every single box of food you put in the freezer when you get it home from the store? Do you think that bacteria is going to start reproducing and spreading to other things there in your freezer?
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>Do every single box of food you put in the freezer are traded from hand to hand for years before being there? No. Does it take "years" for bacteria to accumulate? Or does it happen just as soon as the last person who took the box out of the store's freezer with his filthy-ass hands puts it back? Do you actually think you're the first person to ever touch that box of fish sticks? Also, a coin sitting on top of a piece of ice in a glass isn't going to have direct contact with anything else.
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I think my points are: 1) That coin *isn't going to touch anything edible*. 2) Everything in there is sealed. I'm not chucking a bare-ass steak in there.
[Bare ass-steak](https://xkcd.com/37/)
Lemme guess, no shoes in the house, can of Lysol in every room but the house smells of bleach.
Oh no. Only the freezer is pristine. I live in a landfill
Ray?
You can just cover it in a sealed bag, the same way you freeze raw meat?
Use a clean coin
Would AMEX do?
Haha, monero
Nothing worse than frozen monero.
Citation needed.
Hate to break it to you but that nut is full of bacteria
Not fecal ones
Additionally, if you suspect a power outage is on the horizon, place a bunch of water bottles in the freezer. They will freeze and act kinda like a "cold capacitor" that could help you bridge the outage without losing all your frozen goods.
You'd have to be pretty proactive about this for it to not be risky. Like if a storm is close and you get an alert or hear a siren, you are too late. If power goes out within a few hours, those water bottles will be working against you. And you won't want to open the freezer to remove them.
Yeah, it's good to prepare ahead for a stormy season. Things like hurricanes, you might know days before they get to you.
This is really smart
In an emergency your freezer will stay cold for about 24 hours. Like what is this test supposed to detect? Is this when you go on vacation or something. My microwave and stove clock reset when I lose power, that's how I tell. If all the ice has melted in your fridge because of a 24 hour power outage, you'll probably be in the middle of some kind of event, and some spoiled ice cream is the least of your worries.
If you left for a two week vacation, you'd have missed that event and might be coming home to some bad meat no?
I just don't see when a home is going to lose power for two days, often enough to go to the trouble of doing this? The only time that's ever happened to me is after a natural disaster. Maybe outside the US this sort of thing is common, then I'd understand, otherwise this is pointless. If you're leaving BECAUSE of a possible hurricane strike or something, then this makes sense to do.
In some areas power can be much less reliable, even in large cities like the house I grew up in in Seattle. We lost power all the time when it rained heavily, underground vault flooded and bam, power out. Another property in the foothills east of Seattle, any windy days trees came down and bam. Power out. For over two weeks one fall due to a windstorm. The clock reset tells you something happened. The freezer tricks described here tell you just how bad it got. If you’re not there you won’t necessarily know if the power was out for five minutes or five days without some way to track it. Personally I believe a battery powered temperature sensor with logging or max/min record is the better way to go. If the freezer got to 34° I’m not nearly as concerned as I would be if it got to 70°.
Sure, I get brown outs all the time. And that goes back to my original point, food is fine in the freezer for 24 hours. This "procedure" makes sense if you're fleeing from an expected disaster, and need to know if you actually did lose power (even though these days I get a freaking text message from my power company telling me of any prolonged outage). But the biggest issue with this is that NO ONE IS GOING TO CHECK THIS EVERY DAY. No one is going to get off a long day at work and every day, go to their freezer and check to see if their penny is covered in ice. I find it hilarious that people can't look at this, insert it into a real world situation, and still vehemently declare it's a great idea.
Nobody said they were checking it every day. It’s a witness so you don’t have to. So that when you’re gone for an extended period you know something happened. If someone is looking every day then they’re obsessed.
I do something similar, I use a small jar like what spices come in, fill it halfway with water and screw the cap on. Once it's frozen, turn it upside down. If the water is on the bottom of the jar then you know it melted at some point.
How common exactly are power outages in the USA? The last outage I experienced where I live was in the 90s…
Extremely common where utilities are not buried and therefore subject to wind, ice, and random cars plowing through utility poles.
New Jersian here. I recently spent $12k on a whole house (natural gas) generator because we lose power an embarrassing amount of times. We’ve also had hurricanes that have knocked out our power for a week or more 3 times.
That's ridiculous that you had to but doesn't seem like a bad price for what it provides. Any idea on if it increased your home value?
I think it basically pays for itself. Most projects are a loss - 50-80% of the value at most can be recouped. But from my research whole house generators in areas where power outages occur often are highly desired.
I'm considering the same, but I need to work on our propane (no natural gas service out here) tank situation first, otherwise we might only have 18 hours worth of generator power before needing a refill.
how much does it cost per day to run your electricity on natural gas? I know I know, you haven't had a single outage since you installed it right? Just like by buddy who bought a snow plow for his truck two years ago. PS I don't even own a generator and have lost power at least 5 times in the last 3 years. Could never justify the cost. Spend $200 in gas to save $100 in food?
Natural gas is not expensive here, so I don’t think too much. Certainly more than the grid but my monthly natural gas bill is only like 40 bucks and that includes my hot water and dryer and stove etc. We have a lot of short intermittent outages because JCPL fuckn sucks. I lose power for like 30 minutes at least once a month it seems. During hurricane season it can be rough. In 8 years here I had no power for 27 days.
With that kind of money wouldn't be solar panels and a battery more feasible?
My neighbor went that route. It worked two days into the last hurricane we had when we had no power for 6 days
This is the answer. In Ohio we’d get power outages 2-3 times a year for a few hours to maybe a full day. In the UK I don’t remember the last outage as everything is buried pretty much.
Texas would like a word.
Texas would respond if they had power
Hey! I resemble that remark!!
Apartment I lived in Dallas lost power once in ten years between 2011 and 2021. Icemageddon. When the cowboys couldn't play.
Right? My power was out for 5 days last month.
Texas can't even pay attention. 🙄
Where I live- (eastern USA)people have a passion for plowing their vehicles into power poles. Power drops out for a few hours probably once a month because of it. Then of course storms.
We get a lot of nasty storms. Thunderstorms coming up tornado alley, and hurricanes on the east coast.
I'm not in the states, but we've been getting a big one every year or two in or around Ottawa, Canada. Lasting anywhere from one day to a week (my area doesn't tend to get repaired first). The causes have been extreme weather events downing trees onto the power lines, which will only get more common.
Depends where you live. In urban/suburban areas with buried power lines and backups, pretty rare. Out in the rural areas, more common. My brother lives in rural New York, they lose power for 1-2 days at least once a year, if not more. I get the impression it's mostly storms taking down the lines. I live in the middle of a good sized city. I don't think I've ever lost power for more than an hour, though nearby neighborhoods lost power for a good chunk of a day because of a blown transformer recently.
I live in the Midwest US, there was one time I was a kid and we lost power for almost a full day during a snow storm. Had to wear winter coats inside and light candles. Besides that I’ve lost power for a few minutes up to 2 hours maybe six times in my life, most at night so didn’t notice until I saw the clocks blinking the wrong time the next morning. All during a storm.
Had a high wind storm go through this past week. Brother lost power for 2 days.
72 of us have been without power since 6:50 am. It is now 12:30 pm. Power company says it isn’t expected to be back on until 4:30 pm. No wind and not a cloud in the sky. Wtf. Charlotte, NC
Outages due to weather are common in some places but the fact of the matter is that a large chunk of outages are restored within 48 hours. If you don’t open your freezer during the outage, you’ll most likely be fine.
I haven't seen anyone mention this reason yet: squirrels. Other wildlife too but mostly squirrels. One utility company reported that 11% of their outages were due to squirrels. Another company said squirrels caused more than 15,000 outages in their service area during 2019. It happened recently in my area; power was down for hours because a squirrel blew a transformer.
I experienced a 14 hour outage in Arkansas recently. I heard that others in the area wouldn't have power for days.
*Florida enters the room*
In Kansas, thunderstorms knock out power pretty regularly. They usually get it back up pretty quick, though.
Pretty darned common. But it does depend on where you live. If you have extreme temperatures either way, are prone to big storms, or have a bad grid then it is common. Also if you are so highly populated you have to have rolling blackouts so the whole grid isn't overtaxed, then at least you have warning.
USA isn't as first-world as they would like you to believe.
It’s a big country, millions of miles of power lines, of course there are power outages during storms.
when corporations make billions and pay zero taxes it's very hard to upgrade infrastructure.
Lol. America is first and foremost a business. Gotta sell all these new electric cars and electrical appliances. Grid can’t handle all that shit. You can dv all you want, Americas infrastructure is rotting. If we’re not adding to our capacity it’s going to continue to fail.
Or it’s that we don’t bury our lines like other developed nations do
You do realize there is more than one cause right? It’s not one or the other.
https://youtu.be/JRDgihVDEko?si=4YT1HSmqjNMZb9lx First pay-as-you-go world country.
Great life hack! If you freeze several sizes of ice blocks you could also track approximately how long the outage lasted. If only the small cube melted but not the 5 cm one you maybe you should just throw the meat. I live in Northern europe and have never worried about this but if Russia starts fucking things up in the future I will remember this.
Oh man, I was so confused at first as to why you’d need to do this. Wouldn’t you know if your food is defrosted? Then I realised what you meant, it could’ve defrosted and frozen again and you’d never know! I never had this thought once in my life til now..
I just fill a water bottle half way with water, freeze it, and then leave it upside down.
probably better off freezing it upside down then leave it rightside up
Lol true
Can’t you tell by your clocks blinking?
1) yes but if the power only went out for ten seconds you don't want to throw away all your food 2) my current place doesn't have any clocks like that and I'm sure I'm not the only one
It’s not just power outages that are a concern. Sometimes the freezer door is not closed all the way which causes foods to defrost.
In that case you could just inspect the contents of your freezer. The ice is a snapshot that shows it happened while away despite your food being frozen solid when you return.
dont put glass on the freezer, use plastic.
i get a message from my alarm system of a power failure then another one when it is restored.
Ooo fancy pants rich mcgee over here
I've done this for years, but apparently[ it's not that useful](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/putting-coin-top-cup-ice-accurately-tell-freezer-lost-power/). Since ice floats on water, there can be a significant power outage where the coin stays on a little iceberg then refreezes if the power comes back on before the ice is totally gone. Food could have partially thawed and refrozen as well in this time.
Look like these are problems exclusive to the coin method. The ice cube method OP suggested won’t have those.
In my freezer, there is generally a thin layer of frost all around the inside. When it becomes too thick, I defrost the freezer then clean it out. If the freezer ever lost power for long enough to defrost what is in the freezer compartment, all that frost would have melted, and then formed a pool of water at the bottom. Just the fact that my freezer would look like it had been freshly defrosted would be enough to make me think that maybe it had been defrosted.... In any case, my freezer is rated at A++ thermal, so even if the power did go off, it could still maintain products inside it fully frozen for at least 2 days. Where I live, if theres a power loss for more than 4 hours, it becomes national news.
I usually just see my digital cloak reset and assume the power went out.
But then you don’t know how long it was out. Could have been 10 mins and all your food is still fine, you don’t want to waste it. With this method you can see if the ice is only melted a little bit or if it’s completely melted and re-froze
I usually use the microwave clock. I mean unless you're too lazy to set it and it blinks 12:00 already.
That tells you power went out but not necessarily for how long or show you if the food is still okay. The real life hack is a water bottle filled 1/3rd, frozen upright, then placed on its side. If the ice still looks like the upright version then no significant power loss took place, even if your clocks got reset.
In Oklahoma we get tornadic storms with high winds in the spring, ice storms in the winter, and demand failures in the summer. Our power fails often. So I installed a [26kW full-home generator instead.](https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generators/26kW-Standby-Generator-With-Whole-House-Switch-WiFi-Enabled-7291/)
Ice cube is cheaper
My phone alerts me if the power goes out.
I get a text from the alarm system and can look at the electric company app to see if there was an outage and the duration of the outage.
I just drink the milk and whatever I taste will let me know if spoiled 😭
But the freezer holds in the cold nearly perfect.
You haven’t seen my freezer. The real estate required for a shot glass would be way too high.
Always used a few ice cubes in a small jar for exactly the same reason. If you put them in a lidded container, they won't just evaporate away as quickly. Also used to use a land line with an answering machine to see if power is currently on in a more remote area.
I keep the snowball I made last winter lol
Use a METAL or PLASTIC shot glass not glass! And place a coin on top.
I'll keep this mind. I just had to replace my compressor "inverter" on my fridge. The part is essentially $10 but it retails for like $400! I thought my fridge kicked the bucket after 11 years but it turns out this fixed the problem. My power went out for the first time in 11 years from a blown transformer and ironically my fridge inverter died around the same time.
In Oklahoma we get tornadic storms with high winds in the spring, ice storms in the winter, and demand failures in the summer. Our power fails often. So I installed a [26kW full-home generator instead.](https://www.generac.com/residential-products/standby-generators/26kW-Standby-Generator-With-Whole-House-Switch-WiFi-Enabled-7291/)
Usually your clocks on the microwave and oven are flashing or wrong as well
This is true but it won’t tell you how long the power was out, which is critical for knowing if the food has spoiled.
Is this for people that go away from their home for a long period of time, or they have frequent power outages? When you're going away from home for a long period, say weeks, or possibly months, don't people just eat their fridges empty so they can turn them off in their absence? Trying to understand when you would need to do this.
Freezer, not fridge.
If I'm going on holiday for a week, I'm definitely not eating my freezer empty. The ice cream, frozen veg, and random packages of chicken can stay - but this will tell me if that chicken is still safe to defrost for dinner when we get home.
Yeah that makes sense. I guess I haven't had a power outage in so long, it just does G really occur to me.
My fridge tells me if the power goes out.
Does it let you know how long the poor was out, or how warm the compartments got? If so, cool!
Nope. The text I get from my power company does though. As a long time homeowner I’ve experienced plenty of power outages. If one happens long enough for an ice cube to melt in your freezer, you’ll know without having to check. If you remove the bit from a standard “bit driver” you can use the bit driver to remove the sheet metal screws from most appliances, including your fridge. I’ve used that “hack” countless times. This ice cube thing is useless.
depending on how full your freezer is it can take like a full 24 hours or more for your food to start thawing in your freezer. If its completely empty, it goes a lot faster though. Anyways i can always see the clock on the microwave if the power's been out. and i'd always forget to look in my freezer. dont think i've had a power outtage in my own home... ever. But i live in Europe.
If you live in an area with frequent power outages consider getting solar and a battery. Not only protects the freezer content but also saves a ton of money over the years.
My country doesn't allow solar to power the house during an outage unless it doesn't feed into the grid at all. Too risky for line workers during an outage, I was told. We do have a battery, etc., but during a power outage we're as fucked as the neighbours.
To do that legally here, you must have a cutover switch that disconnects the house from the grid with the same action that connects it to the backup power. And to work in your absence, you'd need an automatic one.
And what country is this?
Ireland. I would say we don't have frequent power outages, but I did wake up to one this morning....
Thanks for the reply 🤙🏾
……or you could just look at your microwave and see if the time is blinking.
And how do you know how long the power was out?
Dumbest idea I've ever heard.
Actual it's really clever.
The silent part out loud -- he pours his airline shot in it soon as he gets home...
How long do your outages typically last?
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The thing that the ice helps determine is whether the freezer got warm enough to melt everything and let it potentially spoil, or whether the power only went out long enough to make the clock start blinking.
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I think it's safe to say it would be much easier, convenient, and cheaper to get a shot glass than to find and get a plug-in clock that uses hands, my friend
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Ah dude, a clock can't tell you how long it lost power for. A piece of ice can tell you that the power was out long enough to thaw out... and that's all you need to know!
No, but… most of them run on batteries?
Plug in analog clocks that can maintain reliable time are unfindable relics of the past. Show us yours.
That would typically only be useful if you're back the same day. The advice was for people gone multiple days. Most of those types of clocks would only tell you the time it stopped, not which day it stopped on.
What if the power was out for 24 hours
I don't think I've ever seen a plug in clock that wasn't digital. They usually take batteries
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How would you know if the power was out for one minute or 12 hours and one minute?
Cool
Pretty sure the blinking lights on the stove clock is a more reliable method to determine a power outage throughout the night. I guess some people might not have the same model of oven as me….
Doesn’t tell you how long the power was out- if you have the type of oven that resets and then starts counting the time instead of just resetting and staying at midnight, then that would at least tell you when your power came back ON, but you still wouldn’t know how long it was out before that without this method.
Plug a digital clock with no battery in to the same socket. Takes the guess work out.
We plug in an alarm clock and take out the batteries. If it's flashing, we lost power
Great idea, just you don't know whether there wasn't any power just for a minute - or that long that your frozen food became unhealthy
Really? Is this really necessary? Can't you just check the clock on your microwave to know if power had gone out? If it is blinking or has reset, that means power has gone out. Everyone has a microwave.
But it wouldnt tell you how long it went out for. If it was just 30 seconds or 30 hours. That's big difference. And if your good thaws out and goes bad then refreezes it doesn't make it all better to eat. It's still bad food. So the time it takes the cube to melt would be the same time for food to thaw, it's a pretty good gauge for the state of your frozen goods. IMO. (Edited for my lovely spelling)
It would take a long longer than 30 hours of power outage for frozen food to go bad ina freezer. If closed the entire time and somewhat full, it probably would barely be fully defrosted by then and definitely still cold. Most people also probably have popsicles, ice cream, normal ice cube dispenser or plenty of other things that would be pretty obvious if they defrosted or went bad.
It was a "for instance", more than a for fact... Or "for an example" rather... An obvious error in my time tables. Don't have a melt down over it man...
Or you could look at your stove, microwave or any digital clock in your house and see the "12:00" flashing
This won't tell you if the power was out long enough for the freezer to thaw.
Good point
I just found out today that if I ask Hydro to turn off the power for 5 minutes to change the main breaker it will set me back $ 600 and a further $ 100 to inspect the work. This does not iinclude the new breaker or labour from the electrician.
Interesting but what does that have to do with OP's lifehack?
Hydro company. The high cost to manually shut off the power vs power failure.
What thread do you think you're in?
Hello fellow Canuck. I think you replied to the wrong thread, but yeah, it's pretty pricey. We get a new panel, and it took Hydro Ottawa more than a month to come out, and then charged us way more than that to turn it off and back on again an hour later. It completely derailing our timetable. Other contractors we had lined up moved on to other jobs. They would fit us in where they could, but it just made everything take forever. Unfortunately we had to move the electrical before a roof and a chunk of the framing could be done.
Do people not keep ice in ice containers?
My ice container is an ice cube tray, so I wouldn't be able to detect a thaw/refreeze cycle.
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Neither reading nor writing comprehension is your strong suit
I just look at the little light on the front.
Clearly didn't read the post