Save the Food, Not the Refrigerator — Volume I

Volume I of What Actually Failed. 72 numbered checks, 66 pages.

The freezer you already own is the wrong shape for an outage, and that has

nothing to do with what you paid for it. Cold air is heavier than warm air, so

a front-opening door pours it onto the floor every time it swings, while a

top-opening lid holds it like a tub holds water. Everything in this book

follows from that.

Inside, nine modules:

1. It's a shape problem — why the appliance you own works against you

2. The box itself — sizing it, buying it used, and the 20-minute inspection

3. Thermal mass — the free step that does the most work

4. The blanket, and the order it goes on in

5. Topping it back up — surge ratings, panels, and your vehicle as a fallback

6. Running a freezer as a refrigerator

7. What actually goes in the box

8. The generator question — including the one instruction that is not negotiable

9. Test it on a Saturday

Every check is written the same way: the claim, the part nobody mentions, what

to actually go and do, and — on all 72 — the honest limit. What it will not do.

There are no prices in this book. Prices go stale within a year and this is

meant to still be right in five. What is here instead is the shape of the

decision: which of two things to buy, which specification actually matters,

and what the box will not tell you.

Six diagrams. Instant download. Nothing in it expires.

This is general preparedness information from one man's experience. It is not

legal, medical, or electrical advice. Where something varies by where you

live, the book names who to ask.