Getting smell out of cool box

[JohnPW]

I need suggestions on cleaning the cool box on my 2016 LC. A friend gave me several small packages of frozen ground beef from his farm. I didn’t have a cooler, so I used my cool box to keep the meat cold in transit. For various reasons unimportant to my problem, I was distracted when I got home and didn’t take out the meat from the cool box until it had partially thawed.

The next day, there was blood from the meat dripping down under the truck onto the garage floor…apparently one of the three packages had leaked into the cool box, into the vent inside, and under the vehicle. I faced the smell of blood in the cool box.

I have been dumping water into the cool box, some but not all of which will drain out under the vehicle. I have shop vac’d out the remaining water and thoroughly cleaned the box itself. But I’m concerned that the blood that flowed into the cool box vents cannot be cleaned beyond the rinsing method I’m using.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone besides me ever been this dumb?

 

[TheIcemanCometh]

Use an odor-absorbing mixture like baking soda, activated charcoal, or vinegar. I would start with vinegar.

 

[LC200Fella]

Agree with vinegar. Pour then spray as a follow up. Then pour rubbing alcohol, spray as well. Leave a day or three between them.

 

[Sandroad]

If it was mine, I would start with a good scrubbing with ultra Palmolive pure and clear detergent to get the oil and blood cleaned out. After a very warm water rinse, I’d then rinse with full strength white vinegar, followed by leaving an open cup of vinegar in the closed cool box overnight. Finally, I’d rinse out the vinegar with warm water and air out the LC.

And a quick explanation for that specific detergent…..I hate the perfume smell in pretty much all dish washing products. That one has no stink of its own.

 

[40Man]

Get an enzymatic cleaner first. If you can't get access to where the bloid csme out it may be hard to get rid of. Follow-up with an ozone machine. Fairly inexpensive and a great way to get rid of smells in cars. Just make sure to air it out after.

 

[GrouchyTech]

Get an enzymatic cleaner first. If you can't get access to where the bloid csme out it may be hard to get rid of. Follow-up with an ozone machine. Fairly inexpensive and a great way to get rid of smells in cars. Just make sure to air it out after.

I agree with all of this.

Try the somatic cleaner first. Then you could try a small about of chlorine dioxide maybe just in the cool box area. Probably an ozone machine, too, but use it sparingly—maybe about 30 minutes at a time.

I feel like the console needs to come out to access everything that needs to be cleaned up.

 

[JohnPW]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. At this point I’ve put a couple of gallons of vinegar water mix into the coolbox and let most of it drain, then shopvac’d the remaining water out. I’ve thoroughly cleaned the box. At the moment I’m not noticing the smell anymore. Vehicle interior hasn’t gotten hot yet, we will see if I need to take further action when it does. I have no idea what it looks like behind the walls of the coolbox. This was a small package of ground beef, it shouldn’t have been that much blood although there was a pretty good sized spill under the truck when it happened.

Interesting ideas on this thread, thanks again for the thoughtful comments.