Taking the deep freeze plunge! HELP!

[April Manier]

We do not have an extra freezer yet. I know it seems silly, but it's just been further down the list.

SO I am getting ready to start looking for one. Please tell me what you like and don't like about your extra freezer? Please include brand and models if you can. Thanks!

Upright or chest? How big? Frost free? And everything else I haven't considered. I don't even know what I don't know!

 

[Smart Red]

Chest

Mine to too small and I could use another one for the fruits, but Mom had an upright and neither of us liked it.

 

[journey11]

With all the meat we butcher ourselves, I got the best freezer I could afford. What I love best about mine is that it has an alarm on it that beeps if the temperature rises above 10 degrees F. I have had power outages and fuses blown before and even once DH unplugged it to plug in his wood splitter and forgot to plug it back in. So I have been very thankful for that feature. I have probably $800 worth of meat in there and I would lay in the floor and cry if I lost it, seriously!

I can't remember the exact model, but it is a Kenmore Elite from Sears. I think it is 21 cu ft. Frost free, definitely. Upright, definitely! They are so much easier to organize and to quickly find what you are looking for...you don't want to leave the door on a freezer open too long. It will lose temp quickly and cause it to have to run a lot to cool back down. And I don't know how many times I have painfully frozen my fingers digging around in a chest freezer!

Mine also has a speed freeze feature that will work quickly to get a new batch of fresh meat down to -10 degrees F. That is supposed to help prevent freezer burn. I've had this freezer for 3 years and have had no problems with it.

My other freezer is over 20 years old, a hand-me-down from my grandparents. I forget the model on it now, but one thing I like a lot about it is that the refrigeration coils run through the shelves and the shelves are metal wire (not glass) and that is probably the best way to keep a constant temperature for all the food throughout the whole freezer.

 

[Carol Dee]

Frost Free makes it easier for lazy me. But might tend to dry out anything not well sealed faster. I like my OLD (very old ) upright. Just wish it was frost free. I am WAY behind in defrosting and the top shelf has nearly disapeared! I prefer the upright to the chest as I was always forgetting what was at the bottom. Not to mention having to stand on your head to get down to the bottom. So things got buried and reburied and finally tossed as they where so old by the time they would surface.

 

[lesa]

I have both. The chest freezer is for long term storage, the upright- day to day. I never put anything loose in the chest freezer. I use bags and milk crates to keep things organized. If I want something on the bottom level- I just lift up a crate or two. You can purchase the alarms that Journey is talking about, if yours doesn't come with one...

 

[thistlebloom]

Ours is a small chest, but I'd go bigger next time. We got a chest because supposedly you lose less cold when you open it as opposed to an upright. I think it's hard to keep organized, and everything I'm looking for is always on the bottom. I think I could rework that with those clear shoe boxes for the smaller stuff, and to keep like items together. It's a Magic Chef, six or seven years old and no problems.

 

[majorcatfish]

there are so many to pick and choose from.

we have a 7.0 cu ft freezer from Frigidaire we purchased from lowes back in 2000 and it is running like a champ, its a basic model but that's all we need, it does a have a basket but it's small.
the only problem is when things go on sale you need to dig and rotate them or at least mark the date on them....

would like to get a bigger one some day..

 

[Mickey328]

We've had both in the past and if I were to get another, I'd go with a chest. They are harder to find things in, but if you organize like Lesa mentioned, you can get past that. We currently have an upright and frankly, stuff gets just as "lost" in it as in a chest, LOL. Plus, often when I pull out something on the bottom of a shelf I end up with an avalanche and bruised toes if I don't jump back quickly enough.

Frost free is extremely handy but as Carol pointed out, it's drying. If you make sure your goods are completely and thoroughly well sealed, this isn't an issue though.

Try to get one that's of a size you'll keep as full as possible...it has to maintain the temperature whether it's freezing air or goods, so it might as well be freezing food.

 

[secuono]

We bought ours from Lowes, it was a floor model, $100 less than a new one.
Many have the same square feet of space, but when you open them, huge difference.
Frigidaire model lffco9m5hwr.
We love it. Standing one might of been nice, but we didn't have the $$ for it and we also didn't need such a big freezer.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't add anything to what the others are saying. But building on Mickey's post. If it's not full, fill up milk cartons or something with water and freeze that. The ice comes in handy for me when I'm butchering chickens for example, but if it is full of ice and you lose power the stuff will stay frozen a lot longer.