Freezer got unplugged, meat spoiled, freezer cleaned, smell remains. What can we do to get rid of smell?

The drip pan on any freezer collects ice melts from the evaporator during the defrost cycle. Most of them are mounted on the compressor and use the compressor waste heat to evaporate the water.
If there is rotten meat smell in the drip pan it means there is also rotten meat smell in the evaporator coils and fins.
It's almost impossible to get "stuff" out of the evaporator fins unless you take the unit apart.
This means you will probably have to remove and replace the refrigerant plus evaporator and the entire process could take two 8 hour days or more.
Alternately,
after you completely wash it out you can try placing a pan of hot water in it and run it empty. The steam will condense on the evaporator and freeze. Then defrost it . Hopefully this will wash some of the funk away. You might have to do this several times.
If that doesn't work then cost wise the unit is junk.
Suggest in future wrap your meats in freezer bags or other
water/air tight containers in case power goes off.
Monitoring your freezer is a must to catch issues before smelly spoilage can set in.

Hello Mary;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

Putting in the wrong water filter will not effect the smell in your refrigerator. At times the granules in a water filter will break down and get into your water dispenser and ice cube tray. This should not create a bad smell, just cloudy water.

Your plastic liner in your refrigerator has pores and holds odor. You have something in your fresh food section or freezer that is spoiled. Your fresh food section receives cooling air from your freezer. If you have a spoiled product in your freezer you will not smell it because it is frozen. But, as the cooling air goes into your fresh food section and cools down you will smell it.

Find the bad product in your freezer and discard.

With a 50% solution of white vinegar and water wash the plastic liner.

Now you can put a tray of baking soda in your unit, until you purchase deodorizers based on temperature requirements, one especially designed for the freezer section and one for fresh food section. These deodorizer are about $12.00 each.

Try Lowe's and Home depot.

Hello Norm;

My name is peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

Plastic liners hold odor.

1.) Scrub down the liner with vinegar and water. Place baking soda on the shelves and close the door.

2.) There are special air fresheners for freezers to prevent odor. Sears carries them for about $12.00.

there may be a gas leak. call the fridge technician and have it checked out.Check that the power plug is in properly and that the point is alive (blown fuse in meter box)

Clean the inside of the freezer properly with a strong detergent and then, using a very old trick, place an open packet of baking powder or a piece of coal in the freezer to remove any remaining smell.

Wash it out with a mixture of 1 ounce ECO friendly bleach mixed in 1 quart of hot water.

use a strong solution of clorine bleach(in a spray bottle) to get into every nook and cranny/drainholes/drip trays/door seals and wipe dry(clorine is a gas and will dissipate within an hour or so)then wipe over interior with a damp cloth and plenty of bicarb,leave to dry and leave any bicarb residual inside fridge as this will absorb any smells left.leave door open for about a day in a warm (ish) room, this is the only way of deoderising......

Well an old remedy is to put a box of opened arm and hammer baking soda in the freezer and fridge to keep it from having bad odors.If that doesn't work you can try some charcoal it is perfect for absorbing odor, just don't use the matchlight kind or it will smell like lighter fluid.

can you verify the odor. Does the odor smell like burnt wire insulation or of that of burnt meat?

Hi - we had this problem, and it was in fact where some blood from a defrosting pice of meat drained into the compressor condensation tank and began to decay!

I agree the smell is terrible, so a good clean up is needed but this solves the problem immediately!

Kind regards,

Mike