Freezer power cut off

When we got home from a Labor Day trip, I discovered that our freezer wasn't running because a ground fault interrupter turned off the electricity.  Steaks and hamburger in the bottom shelf and fish on a middle shelf are still frozen, but the temperature in the upper shelves was 40 degrees, and the fish and sausage on the upper shelves defrosted.  I need to do some Googling to determine if the fish is still OK, or if I should throw it all out.  This really sucks. I have spread the defrosted fish out on racks so it will re-freeze faster and is less likely to be mushy.

Sorry to hear that.  Something similar happened to me this spring.  My fridge/freezer had clearly quite and then restarted while I was gone several days. I could clearly tell not everything had thawed so figured out worst case that the thawed food had not been thawed too long and never reached an unsafe temperature.  The fish that did thaw will be used for fish stew or curry where texture not as important.

It was a 30+ year old unit so I got my money’s worth.  Replaced it with a unit that might last 5?

I'd been away from our place at the coast for a month, returning in August, to discover the power had been off probably for a month. Nothing was worth saving. A squirrel had built a nest on a transformer and somehow managed to die up there and cause the outage. I spent an evening scrubbing mold out of the whole fridge/freezer. A Ziplock of salmon eggs had leaked and run down the inside and solidified. I had to chip that off with a butter knife.