A story from the field: Somporn's corner shop and its three coolers

Somporn has run a small grocery shop in a side street near Min Buri Market for almost ten years. Most of her customers live within a few hundred metres. They drop in for bags of ice, bottled water, milk, eggs, a cold drink on the way home, or an ice cream for the kids after school. The heart of the business is refrigeration: one glass-door drinks cooler at the front, one solid-lid chest freezer for ice cream and frozen food, and a two-door fridge at the back where she keeps milk, yoghurt and eggs.

When the 2026 floods reached her street, water came into the shop to a depth of about forty centimetres and stayed for nearly ten days. Electricity to the whole lane was cut on the first day for safety. Somporn and her son carried everything they could lift up to the living quarters on the first floor, but the three refrigeration units were far too heavy to move, and they were still full of stock.

On the day the water finally went down, what greeted her was a smell of rot so strong that she had to leave the shutter open all day just to stand inside. The ice cream had melted into a sticky syrup that had leaked into every corner of the freezer. Frozen sausages and meatballs had spoiled. Cartons of milk had swollen and split. Under the units sat a layer of black mud and stagnant water. The rubber door seal on the drinks cooler was speckled with black mold and coated in slime. Somporn and her son threw out the ruined stock and washed the cabinets several times with dishwashing liquid and then bleach. But every time they closed a door overnight and opened it again the next morning, the smell was back, as strong as ever.

Two questions kept going round in Somporn's head. The first was: can these units be plugged in and used again? The second was: even if they can, will the smell ever go, and will customers still be willing to buy anything from them? She contacted the World Health Disinfection (WHD) team on LINE. The answer she got was honest and simple: "The first question has to be answered by a refrigeration technician. The second one, we can help with."

Why the smell inside a flooded cooler is so stubborn

It is tempting to think that a fridge is just a plastic box that can be scrubbed clean. In practice, a flooded refrigeration unit holds on to odor in several places at once, and many of them are not visible when you open the door.

• Rot odor soaks into plastic and rubber. The inner walls of most coolers are moulded plastic, and the door seal is a rubber gasket with several folds. Odor molecules from decomposing protein and dairy settle into the surface of the plastic and deep into the folds of the gasket. Washing the surface removes the visible residue, but much of the smell stays behind.
• Floodwater reaches parts you cannot see. The drip tray beneath the unit, the defrost drain line, the condenser coil space at the bottom and the cooling fans can all hold mud and foul water long after the floor has been cleaned.
• The insulation inside the walls may have absorbed water. Most coolers and freezers have foam insulation sandwiched between the outer skin and the inner liner. If water found its way in through seams, screw holes or drain openings, that insulation can become a permanent source of odor and moisture. Only a technician or the manufacturer can properly judge whether this has happened and what it means for the unit.
• Closing the door traps the smell. Coolers are designed to seal tightly. When a damp cabinet is closed up overnight, odor and mold build up every single night, which is exactly what Somporn experienced.
• The smell is not only in the units. The shop floor, the wall behind the coolers, the shelving and any wet cardboard boxes all absorb odor. Even if the cooler itself were perfectly clean, customers walking in would still smell the shop.

This is why a flooded shop needs to be treated as one connected space rather than a set of separate appliances. If you clean the cooler but not the room around it, the cooler simply re-absorbs odor from the walls and floor.

What is at stake: health, income and customer trust

Health

Any food that was inside a cooler during a long power cut, or that came into contact with floodwater, should not be sold or eaten, even if the packaging looks sealed. Floodwater mixed with sewage can carry gut pathogens such as E. coli onto cabinet surfaces and onto the outside of packaging. A shop floor coated in mud is also a leptospirosis risk for anyone who wades through it or has a cut on their foot. Mold growing along door seals and on the wall behind the units can trigger allergies in staff who spend all day in the shop. Thai public health authorities regularly advise discarding food that has been exposed to floodwater, and that advice applies just as much to a small shop as to a home kitchen.

Income

For a neighbourhood grocery, refrigeration is a major source of income. Every day the coolers are out of action is a day without sales of ice, cold drinks and ice cream, which are often the items that bring customers through the door in the first place. At the same time, replacing every unit at once is a large expense that many small shops cannot absorb straight after a flood. Getting a fast, clear answer from a technician about which units can be saved, and dealing with the smell properly in one go, helps the shop reopen sooner and spend money only where it is truly needed.

Customer trust

Small shops in residential lanes live on loyal, repeat customers. If a regular walks in and is hit by a smell of rot, or opens the cooler door and catches a musty odor, their confidence in the cleanliness of everything on the shelves disappears in a moment. Some will simply start going to the convenience store on the main road instead and may never come back. Restoring a shop that smells clean is therefore not a cosmetic exercise. It is part of protecting the business.

First things first: a flooded cooler must be checked by a refrigeration technician before it is plugged in

Coolers and fridges have their compressor, control board, fans and wiring at the bottom or the back of the unit, which are precisely the parts that go under water first. Plugging in a unit without an inspection may create a risk of electric shock or a short circuit, or may turn a repairable fault into a total loss.

• Do not plug in any unit that has been submerged until a qualified refrigeration technician or electrician has inspected it and confirmed it is safe.
• Ask the technician to assess whether the insulation inside the walls has been damaged, and whether the unit should be repaired, have parts replaced, or be replaced altogether.
• Extension leads and wall sockets in the shop that were under water also need to be checked by an electrician.

WHD does not repair electrical appliances and does not certify their safety. Our work starts once the units are unplugged, and it focuses on disinfecting surfaces, removing mold and eliminating odor, both inside the cabinets and throughout the shop. If the technician concludes that a unit has to go, we can still restore the shop space so that it is clean and odor-free when the new unit arrives.

Why washing it again and again does not work

Strong bleach. Bleach does disinfect surfaces, but it does not break down odor that has soaked into plastic and rubber. Used at high strength in a small, closed cabinet, it can leave a chlorine smell that later transfers to drinks and food, and it makes rubber door seals age and crack faster. It is also unpleasant and irritating for the person doing the cleaning.

Charcoal, coffee grounds or baking soda. These can help with a mild smell in a household fridge. A cabinet that has held rotting dairy and meat in floodwater for ten days is a completely different scale of problem, and these home remedies are simply not strong enough.

Leaving the doors open to air. This helps the cabinet dry, which is good. But if the floor and walls of the shop still smell, the open cabinet will absorb that smell from the room, and you are back where you started when the door is closed.

Perfume or air freshener. This should never be used inside a cabinet that will hold food or drinks. The chemical scent can transfer to products, it does not address the source, and customers often find the combination of perfume and rot even more off-putting than the rot alone.

The WHD approach: disinfect the whole shop, then ozone-treat the units and the room together

Ozone treatment is the core of this job. Once the technician has inspected the units, they are unplugged, cleaned of visible residue and wiped dry. The team then props every cooler and freezer door wide open, closes the shop, and releases ozone at a dose calculated for the volume of the space. Ozone is a gas, so it reaches into the folds of door seals, the grooves of shelf supports, ventilation openings and the wall behind each unit. It breaks down the molecules responsible for rot and musty odors and helps destroy airborne mold spores. When the treatment time is complete, ozone reverts to oxygen, so no chemical scent is left behind on the cabinets.

Disinfection fogging with CHEMGENE HLD4H through ULV foggers covers the shop floor, walls, shelving, the checkout counter and the outside of each unit. For the inside surfaces of the cabinets that will come into contact with food or packaging, the team explains the steps on the product label, including wiping down with clean water before stock goes back in. This keeps the process both effective and appropriate for a food business.

Treating the units and the room in the same session matters. When the whole space is deodorised at once, the cabinets have nothing left to re-absorb, and any unit that still smells afterwards is clearly telling you something about its own interior, which is useful information to pass to the technician.

Ozone safety in a shop

• The shop is closed during treatment, with no people, pets or plants inside.
• Any food stock that is still good to keep is removed from the area beforehand.
• The ozone dose is controlled to limit the effect on rubber door seals. Electronics such as the cash register and receipt printer should be removed or covered.
• After treatment, the shop is ventilated for the period the team specifies before anyone goes back in.

Step by step: restoring a flooded shop and its refrigeration

1. Discard all food that was in the units during the flood or the long power cut. Bag it securely before disposal to limit smell and insects.
2. Have a refrigeration technician or electrician inspect the units and the shop's electrics. Keep all units unplugged in the meantime.
3. Remove mud and residue. Take out shelves and trays and wash them separately. Wipe the inner walls and door seals with an ordinary cleaning solution, clean the floor under and behind each unit, and dry everything. Seals that are torn or have mold deep inside should be replaced on the technician's advice.
4. WHD site survey. The team identifies the strongest odor points, checks the wall behind the units and the shelving, and flags wet cardboard or packaging that should be thrown away.
5. Fogging with Chemgene HLD4H. Floor, walls, shelving and the outside of the units, avoiding direct spraying into control panels and plugs.
6. Ozone treatment. Every cabinet door is propped open, the shop is closed, and treatment runs for the calculated time.
7. Ventilation and odor re-check. The shop is aired out and each unit is checked individually. If one still smells from within its walls, the owner is advised to discuss it further with the technician.
8. Wipe the inside of each cabinet with clean water before use. Once the technician confirms a unit is safe, run it until it reaches its proper temperature before loading stock.

In the weeks after reopening, a few simple habits help keep the smell from creeping back. Wipe the door seals once a week and check the folds for any new dark spots. Empty and rinse the drip tray under each unit regularly, because standing water there quickly turns sour in hot weather. Keep cardboard boxes off the floor and away from the wall behind the coolers, where air circulates poorly and damp tends to linger. If you notice a musty smell returning to one particular unit while the rest of the shop stays fresh, make a note of it and mention it to your technician, since that pattern often points to moisture trapped somewhere inside that cabinet rather than a problem with the room.

The order matters as much as the individual steps. Technician first, cleaning second, disinfection and ozone third, and only then stock back in. Following that sequence avoids wasted effort and avoids putting anyone at risk.

10 reasons a flooded shop should let WHD handle odor and germs

1. Rot odor hides in rubber and plastic. It takes a gas that reaches into every fold, such as ozone treatment.
2. The whole shop is deodorised at once. Coolers no longer re-absorb smell from the floor and walls.
3. No perfume or chlorine left on your stock. Ozone reverts to oxygen after treatment.
4. The muddy shop floor is disinfected with our disinfection fogging service.
5. A disinfectant designed for surface work. CHEMGENE HLD4H has no harsh smell.
6. A clear sequence. Technician check first, then disinfection and ozone.
7. Easier decisions about each unit. Once the room is odor-free, it becomes obvious which cabinet still smells from inside.
8. Reopen sooner. The work is completed in one visit rather than days of repeated washing.
9. Win back your regulars. A shop that smells clean is a shop where customers are happy to buy cold drinks and ice.
10. Care for the living space upstairs too, with residential ozone disinfection and a mosquito spraying service around the shop.

Before and after

In the shop owner's words

"I was ready to buy all new units because I was sure the smell would never go. The team told me to get a fridge technician in first, and he said two of them could be repaired. After the whole shop was fogged and treated with ozone, the smell dropped right down. The neighbours are coming back for their ice again, just like before."

— Somporn, grocery shop owner near Min Buri Market (a story from the field)

Frequently asked questions about flooded shop coolers

Q: Our cooler was submerged. Can we dry it out and plug it in ourselves?
A: We do not recommend it. Always have a qualified refrigeration technician or electrician inspect it first, because internal damage is not visible from the outside.

Q: Can WHD repair or inspect our fridges?
A: No. We do not repair electrical appliances. Our work is disinfection, mold removal and odor elimination, carried out after the units have been unplugged and checked by a technician.

Q: Will ozone remove all of the smell from the cooler?
A: Odor held in the plastic liner, the door seals and the shop itself usually drops noticeably. But if water got into the insulation inside the walls, the smell may come back from within, and a technician needs to assess whether the unit should be repaired or replaced.

Q: Can we still sell food that stayed sealed in its packaging?
A: Food that sat in the units through a long power cut or that touched floodwater should not be sold. Follow the guidance of the public health authorities and dispose of it securely.

Q: Do we need to wipe the cabinets again after ozone treatment?
A: Yes. We recommend wiping the inside surfaces and shelves with clean water, then running the unit until it reaches the correct temperature before loading stock.

Q: How long will the shop need to be closed?
A: It depends on the size of the shop and how strong the odor is. The team will tell you the treatment time and ventilation time clearly before work starts, so you can plan your reopening.

Q: Should we also treat the living area upstairs?
A: If the family lives above the shop and odors or damp have spread upstairs, it often makes sense to treat both floors in the same visit so that smells do not drift back down.

Shop still smells of rot after the flood? Let WHD deodorise and disinfect it.

Ozone odor removal for shops and for unplugged, technician-checked coolers, plus Chemgene HLD4H disinfection fogging, for businesses in Min Buri and nearby districts.

Book Ozone Treatment — Click Here

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Call 065-556-6294 · LINE @whd268 · Email worldhealthdisinfection@gmail.com

Related links

• Ozone treatment for odors and chemical residue
• Master Ozone Generator
• CHEMGENE HLD4H 750 ml spray
• All articles
• External source: World Health Organization — Floods and health · Department of Health, Thailand