I need advice on purchasing a freezer

[11 Bravo]

Hey all.......My wife and I are looking at buying a freezer that will go in the garage for overflow, meats, venison, bulk purchases, etc. It is just the 2 of us, no kids, and it won't be something that we are going into on a daily basis. The decision is getting an upright or a chest freezer.....My mother says that getting stuff out of an upright will be alot easier to do as well as finding what I am looking for. Also that things get lost in a chest and you might find 2 year old steaks buried at the bottom while defrosting. My cousin has a chest freezer and hates it, wishes she had an upright, but they also use it all the time and she and her hubby have 2 kids.

A co-worker has an upright and hates it, says that if all your stuff isn't square, it can have a tendency to fall out when the door is opened. Also, an upright needs a little more room since the doors swing out, and during a power outage, an upright will defrost alot faster than a chest.

Just wondered if I can get some pro's/con's from everyone or experiences good/bad with the style they have..........I will admit I am leaning towards a 7.2 cu.ft. chest freezer......Thanks for your wisdom....................................Paul

 

[Highbeam]

I have just recently wired in a plug and framed out a recess for an upright freezer. Now shopping for full size estar upright. New ones are about 600$ For me it was the garden vegetables and the bulk meat purchases that made me want the freezer. Plus I occasionally kill a big game animal and also want to start buying bulk from the butcher. I grind my own burger and find economies of scale with meat purchases. Blanching and freezing is way easier than canning.

On chest vs. Upright:

They require the same amount of space since the door opens up on the chest so you can't have a shelf there. The chest freezers are slightly more efficient but they have more negatives than positives. The negatives for me include reaching to the bottom to try and grab a turkey and then hoisting it up and out while bent over, I'm not old and fraile but that could be a pain. The other negative is stacking, you have to pile everything into a chest freezer but the upright has shelf space allowing many single layers of product that you can see and retrieve vs. a huge pile of stuff. What are you going to do when the wife asks for that turkey that is set on the bottom of the chest? You'll need to unload the whole dang thing to get it so you had better save some adjacent shelf space to set things on.

I would say that the coworker's freezer is not level or he/she is too lazy to properly place things in the freezer. I am guilty of this too with the ice cream container since I want to hurry up and eat what I've dished up I will kind of toss the ice cream back into the overfull fridge/freezer combo in my kitchen. The wife hates it when the ice cream comes falling out the next time she opens the door!

So yes, listen to your mother.

 

[crazy_dan]

I have several chest freezers and I simply love the chest freezers as stuff doesn't fall out. I can also use a Larger percentage of the stated volume.
Chest freezers are cheaper I do not know if that is a factor or not.
I have a 10 cubic foot and a 5 cubic foot chest freezers in the kitchen, and a 10, 15, and 20 cubic foot freezers in the shed.
we use the 10 footer for meat and vegitables that we use alot of the 5 footer we use for gallons of milk and loafs of bread.
We buy stuff when it is on sale and buy a bulk amount of the stuff we use a lot of.

If price is not an factor then buy both and give them a thorough testing and report back.

 

[Highbeam]

Five freezers! All running? What does it do to milk when you freeze it? We freeze butter but never thought to freeze milk. Texture, taste, homogenized?

 

[rowerwet]

Don't buy a frost free freezer, that is great in your fridge as you will be reaching in all the time and letting moisture in, the freezer is frost free because it actualy slightly heats the sides on a cycle to melt off the ice. In a deep freeze this will cause freezer burn and higher energy use. I went with a small chest freezer, the big ones do allow you to loose stuff, it is a lot harder in a small one, and (important to my family at this time) breast milk will keep in a chest freezer almost twice as long as an upright. Also as cold air sinks a chest is more efficient, an upright has only the thin door seal to keep the cold in compaired to the insullated walls of a chest. Also make sure the chest has a drain for the defrosting times, we defrosted ours during the power failure right before Christmas, it was the first time in 6 years and the ice wasn't more than an inch thick at the top (where it was the thickest)

 

[crazy_dan]

Five freezers! All running? What does it do to milk when you freeze it? We freeze butter but never thought to freeze milk. Texture, taste, homogenized?

If you let it thaw completely you will never know the difference, just make sure to pour about a cup worth out the gallon before you put it in the freezer. I just pour the cup in to the jug that is in the fridge. We have froze milk for 1% all the way up to whole milk. As I stated before make sure to thaw it completely before use.

Not all of my freezers are running all the time only if I have stuff to put in them. It makes its way from the largest running freezer to freezers in the kitchen. I take about an hour a month or so to reorganize the freezers oldest on the top of the freezers in the kitchen (first in first out principal)
We usually get about 12 -16 deer a year and we buy a 1/2 a beef occasionally and a 1/2 hog when we need bacon or sausage.
We have a 1 1/2 acre garden. I also butcher a goat, sheep, or chicken when we need as well. I have not had to toss anything out in a few years.
We do not eat out and do a lot of crock pot cooking that means a lot of stew, chili, soup, roasts, just about anything you can toss in the crock pot set it and go come back when you are hungry and get you some food and leave it in the crock pot for the next person as we are on different schedules it works for us.
I figure we probably save $2,000 plus year on food being able to stock up when it is on sale and buying meat from a local cattle producer who will haul it to the butcher for you, The meat we buy avareges just a little under $2 a pound when it is all said and done. That is burger, steaks, roasts, bacon, sausage, pork chops, ribs, etc it is as fresh of meat as you can get. It is grown with no hormones and is very close to organic.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I've had an upright and didn't like it. It may have been the location... a garage in Houston, TX which caused me the pain. My mother had purchased it for us with the feeling that uprights were more convenient than a chest. She had a few large chest freezers in the past and at 5 feet tall she had issues with stuff in the very bottom. Twice I found it wasn't completely closed... maybe a car tapped it, maybe kid, maybe wasn't closed all the way. Either way, it introduced me to making beef jerky when the freezer thawed.

Fast forward a few years after the upright was sold and I was in the market again. I now live in NY and have a garden... plus buy meat in bulk. The literature stated that uprights and chest freezers use the same amount of electricity, but I personally don't understand how since all the cold would fall out the bottom the moment the door was opened. Maybe they measured it with the door closed? I was looking for an energy saver because electricity isn't likely to get any cheaper. The insulation appears to be the same between the energy saver and non energy saver models so the difference must be the compressor?

I looked at uprights and chest freezers and settled for a 10cuft chest. I can reach the bottom easily. With things like turkeys and hams I looked at how much was actually eaten when my family came over for Thanksgiving and decided to not cook a 30lb turkey. They don't eat that much anyway. A 15lb with lots of sides works just fine. There are a few trays that slide around the top so often grabbed things in small packages can be kept on top. I chose a manual defrost model for the energy savings listed by an above poster. I also liked the fact that a chest will hold the cold in a power outage even if the door is opened to remove food.

I would look at what is offered and visit lots of stores. Read the Consumer Reports writeups. Both uprights and chests are good products and have their advantages. When I was researching I was surprised at the options that some models had. The chest works the best for my family, but maybe yours is different. The best advice I can really give is to check out what Lowes has. I was surprised to find that their prices are lower than many online places and appliance dealers.

Matt

 

[Biglumber]

Chest. I have two vintage 50's international harvesters. Defrost once a year, no big deal.

 

[Gooserider]

We have an upright, and it works well for us, but I think its a question of picking the tradeoff... An upright will have a smaller "footprint" than the same size chest, which was important to us. We also like being able to see what is in the unit fairly easily... However I'd agree with the others that say that a chest will stay cold longer in a power failure, and can possibly be filled more efficiently...

Each style has it's advantages and disadvantages, you need to pick which set you prefer...

Gooserider

 

[billb3]

I've had both.

Digging to the bottom can be a pain with a chest. Especially with a lot of cuts of meat from buying a half a cow.
I have an upright now because it is mostly vegetables from the garden and lots of small lots.
That would be a pain with a chest.


All those shelves can be a pain in an upright (especially the freezers that use the coils as shelves) if you want to store a cadaver for a while.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

That's what the small "limbing" saw is for.

Matt

 

[Highbeam]

Five freezers! All running? What does it do to milk when you freeze it? We freeze butter but never thought to freeze milk. Texture, taste, homogenized?

If you let it thaw completely you will never know the difference, just make sure to pour about a cup worth out the gallon before you put it in the freezer. I just pour the cup in to the jug that is in the fridge. We have froze milk for 1% all the way up to whole milk. As I stated before make sure to thaw it completely before use.

Not all of my freezers are running all the time only if I have stuff to put in them. It makes its way from the largest running freezer to freezers in the kitchen. I take about an hour a month or so to reorganize the freezers oldest on the top of the freezers in the kitchen (first in first out principal)
We usually get about 12 -16 deer a year and we buy a 1/2 a beef occasionally and a 1/2 hog when we need bacon or sausage.
We have a 1 1/2 acre garden. I also butcher a goat, sheep, or chicken when we need as well. I have not had to toss anything out in a few years.
We do not eat out and do a lot of crock pot cooking that means a lot of stew, chili, soup, roasts, just about anything you can toss in the crock pot set it and go come back when you are hungry and get you some food and leave it in the crock pot for the next person as we are on different schedules it works for us.
I figure we probably save $2,000 plus year on food being able to stock up when it is on sale and buying meat from a local cattle producer who will haul it to the butcher for you, The meat we buy avareges just a little under $2 a pound when it is all said and done. That is burger, steaks, roasts, bacon, sausage, pork chops, ribs, etc it is as fresh of meat as you can get. It is grown with no hormones and is very close to organic.

Thanks Dan, great info. I just doubled my garden to 1000 SF (2-20x25 cells) and hope to use the freezer for the vegetables and jams. If I don't freeze it then it is a waste. I also hope to be able to take advantage of bulk savings on meat and bread which must be frozen so that is a cost thing too. The third item is independence. I have been to a store right before a windstorm and have seen the shelves empty of basic items really fast, it was an eye opener.

I have a backup genset so I am not worried about loosing the food investment.

 

[savageactor7]

11B we've had both chest and upright freezers ...and will never go back to the chest type. As far as stuff falling out that's totally bogus.

 

[gpcollen1]

11B we've had both chest and upright freezers ...and will never go back to the chest type. As far as stuff falling out that's totally bogus.

Amen to that Savage. Spent my younger years diggin through the chest for steaks, lamb chops and stuffed cabbage - I think I got frost bite one time...

My upright is a commercial Kenmore and it is awesome. Big shelves and lots of door space. MOstly some frozen peas and spinach, and then meat. I do a bit of butchering myself - just from buying whole chickens when on sale and whole NY Strips and misc stuff. I save bones and veg scraps in ziplocs for stock and scraps of meat and even some left over meat for stew and chili.

 

[kenny chaos]

We've recently become empty nesters. We had a very large old chest freezer out in the backroom that quit about a year ago. It had removable and slideable wire baskets on the top half for easy access to the bottom. We were told repeatedly that a freezer should not be kept in an unheated space. It worked out okay. I've also heard that you lose more cold faster with the upright.
We're down to a smaller upright in the house and that's going to be going soon.
The people here before us had nine kids and no freezer. They canned everything.
I'd try to get you to reconsider your needs. Americans in general are very wasteful and a freezer can add to that tremendously both in electric consumption and food.

 

[d.n.f.]

Uprights don't tend to be as efficient. Check the energy use on both. At least they weren't two years ago when I checked and bought mine.

We have a chest freezer and we just put boxes in it. Chicken goes in one box, steaks another. Kinda a pain but it is a longer term storage. Stuff gets moved from there to the regular freezer and then consumed.

 

[Czech]

Both here, and both have goods and bads. The chest holds cold better and less defrosting, the upright tends to frost quicker but is probably better organized. Those little hand baskets that some grocery stores have are great organizers in the chest, just make sure to bring them back when you're done borrowing them....

 

[jdemaris]

Hey all.......My wife and I are looking at buying a freezer that will go in the garage for overflow, meats, venison, bulk purchases, etc.

I don't know if you care about effieciency or not. A chest freezer is more efficient, period. And, a DC chest freezer like a Sundazer is more efficient that just about any USA built AC powered freezer. Not because it's DC, more because it's built in Sweden with effieciency in mind.

Some freezers are NOT rated for use in unheated areas. That's something you ought to check if using in a unheated gargage. Sounds silly, but some don't work correctly in cold areas.

I'll add that much of the Energy Star labels are BS. Some new high-efficiency freezers are not much more efficient that freezers built in the 1940s. I did an energy audit of my home before changing over to solar electric. I replaced a good working International Harvester freezer built in 1948. Bought a new high-efficiency Energy Star rated freezer with the same storage capacity. Hardly any difference in power useage.

 

[TMonter]

I’ll add that much of the Energy Star labels are BS. Some new high-efficiency freezers are not much more efficient that freezers built in the 1940s. I did an energy audit of my home before changing over to solar electric. I replaced a good working International Harvester freezer built in 1948. Bought a new high-efficiency Energy Star rated freezer with the same storage capacity. Hardly any difference in power useage.

Likely because of the coolant used R-134a is much less efficient than R12.

 

[11 Bravo]

I found that out. I currently have a fridge freezer in the garage, almost new. The freezer doesnt work so well in the cold, so I am selling it to my wife's work for the employee lounge and picking up the freezer.........I'll check to make sure whatever I get is rated for a garage......

 

[Later]

A small chest freezer is one of the best things you can have. Easy to get into and too small to loose the turkey. Wrap and label properly and you'll be quite happy.

 

[bjkjoseph]

the small chest freezers are very affordable,and when you open them to put something in or out you dont lose cold air,and they are cheaper to run.