I am getting to be a desperate woman. I can't get the fish smell out of my refrigerator. I tried cleaning with baking soda, bleach and water, 409 disinfectant spray - no luck. I've soaked the refrigerator with all of these for 1 hour or more, and no luck.
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When we had a house fire, the Pro's brought in a large "Ozone Machine"... & within 2 days the whole house smelled fresh & new again. You can buy or rent smaller ones, for more information look in your yellow pages under "Fire & Water damage" & ask these guys about where you can rent a small ozone machine. These machines will remove ANY bad smells...
BUT FIRST TRY THIS: try putting several bowls of white vinegar in various places all around your fridge... (you can also use the vinegar to wash down the walls of your fridge) Then the following day, put in a tray of high quality brand new kitty litter.... This will absorb the rest of the odor if there's any left after you've used the vinegar.
You can also use "OUT!" ... it sold at Walmart for only $3.99 & it's made with good bacteria & enzymes to "eat" pet stains & odors.... It works wonders removing smells, plus it leaves a nice Vanilla scent.
Sometimes a fishy smell is not from fish, some refrigerators like Frigidaire models have a non removable bottom tray where water not removed by the vent fan stays, if you then fry meat or fish, the fan seems to draw this smoke especially if you have these charcoal ventless fans on the hood over the stove so, grease and smell is drawn into this tray and with the water it starts to stink later. Now, the only way to clean is to remove the back in the bottom of the rear of the refrigerator, then get a flashlight and see if the tray is holding water and stink (smell) get in there and using paper towels and squeezing your hand in there you can remove this, can use a sponge also.
I tried everything ! Then I removed the door seal and saw there were 4 tiny drain holes - I sniffed the bottom one and BINGO, the whole of the seal was full of yellow green jelly gunge. I used a small plastic pipette to fill the seal with dilute bleach and repeated this 4 times - only then was the rinsing water clear and odour free
We had a leaky bag of crab legs in our fridge and we couldn't wash the odor away. It always remained on the plastic edges of the glass shelves. The posts about using vanilla extract caught my eye. Vanilla extract is mostly alcohol.
I will try it...I am desperate! Thanks
Check your baking soda box. I had horrible, lingering fish smell. After cleaning, throwing things out and checking every nook and cranny, my husband came in and sniffed the soda box I taken out. It reeked of fish odor, having effectively done its job. Problem solved. Change your soda box often.
Thank you so much for that tip! And I learned that its not necessarily the baking soda itself, but the cardboard box it is in. I also had a cardboard sleeve of eggs and it smelled terrible! Problem solved!
Very simple Just put a bowl of charcoal in the fridge,
In a couple days NO SMELLS at all
just regular charcoal that you would grill with!
lorac
Try fresh lemons in a bowl, place in the fridge and the odor will go away.
Place 5-6 charcoal brickettes (I know it's winter, but maybe a neighbor has a few left over) on the shelves in the refrigerator for a week or so. We purchased a used camping trailer and the husband only used the refrigerator to keep the fish he caught in it.
I've heard that placing a pie tin of used coffee grounds in the frig and leaving it a few days will remove any smells. I haven't tried it myself, but a good friend used it in her RV frig and it worked.
Hi, I read somewhere that you can crumple up newspaper and fill the refrigerator, close the door overnight and the smell should be gone. I have never tried it, so can't say for sure it it works. Worth a try any how. Good Luck
If the other things listed don't work try Kitty Litter; the plain clay type. I just bought a 5# bag, punched holes in it with the ice pick (unopened) and put in my freezer when it had spoiled meat in it for a week before I found the power had gone out on it.
That must have been some fish! I would suggest vinegar and let the door stay open for a day, but that charcoal idea sounds right. Sure hope you have success with one of these ideas. Cay from FL P.S. Since fresh fish has no smell, better freeze the next one right away if you're not planning to cook it the same night you get it.
there is a product called x-o odor neutralizer by don aslett. i have bought it on QVC. it is natural and organic, it is wonderful. i used it for cat urine smell and it got rid of the odor permanently. it can be used in the fridge. good luck, karen jean
When I had some deer meat that had thawed in my camper refrigerator because my husband used the extension cord I had connected to the camper and forgot to plug it back in. I took about half a cup of new coffee grounds and put them in a pie tin and placed them in the refrigerator with the door closed (after thoroughly cleaning up the mess) and left it for a few days, NO SMELL.
When I had some dear meat that had thawed in my camper refrigerator because my husband used the extension cord I had connected to the camper and forgot to plug it back in. I took about half a cup of new coffee grounds and put them in a pie tin and placed them in the refrigerator with the door closed (after thoroughly cleaning up the mess) and left it for a few days, NO SMELL.
USE vanilla, we went crabbing one time in Virginia beach,brought the steamed crabs home in a cooler and the camper fridge .Talk about a rotten smell! I wiped the fridge down with vanilla, and put cotton balls in fridge and laid some around the table, sink ect., of camper, within a few days smell was all gone.
There's still something in there causing the smell to linger--perhaps under a false plate @ the bottom of the 'fridge? Years ago I had the same problem with an upright freezer whose breaker had flipped off while we were gone for 2 week vacation--in one of the hottest summers in Oklahoma no less! Like you, I had tried everything & my father-in law suggested a plate or something at the bottom of the freezer where rotten juice had probably leaked. The freezer was in the garage & I started prying on things & sure enough, there was a cover at the bottom of the freezer. It popped off pretty easy. I got the Dawn dish soap & the broom & scrubbed it really well then rinsed it all with a high power spray hose. My DH put the freezer outside the garage then & aimed the open door toward the sun. We left it that way for a few days & when I plugged it back in & it started to freeze, the smell was gone!
Just use plain coffe grounds - place a cupful in the fridge and it will absorb the terrible smell.
I see another friendly helper has suggested this, but it really works. Try wiping your fridge out with vanilla and then leaving a container of bi-carb soda in for about a week. Hope this helps!
I've got a small fridge which stinks of rotting fish (I let a friend use it on his boat but in the end he was too mean to pay for the shore-power electricity). It's now been hosed out and left in the sun with the door open but it still attracts flies and slugs.
Next attempt will be a steam cleaner of the wallpaper stripping type as there is still slime in the door seals. When fridges get this bad they really need taking to the dump. As the old saying goes "Friends cost money".
Did you ever find a solution to get rid of the fish smell? I've tried it all, like you have.
I have the same problem as desperate woman. Tried everything to get the fish smell out of my refrigerator. Did everything to get the odor out. baking soda, vinegar, washed all drawers and shelves. Please help.
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