Run out of freezer space yet?

Between what I'm freezing from the garden and what is being frozen for the worm bins, my freezer is over stuffed. I am in serious need of a second freezer. Any advice on types that you like or would stay away from?

Chest freezers are cheaper to run but harder to keep organized.

There,,, my thought for the day. I think I will roast a tomato and then lay down.

and the same cu ft chest freezer uses more floor space. Just my 2 cents.

Kay

Beware of some of the modern ones that do not have a coolant & compresor system in them for they do not like being in places like slightly damp unheated garages or on long cable runs from the main dwelling's electrictal fused protection units where as the older black selfcontained compressor types are great.


I have a secondhand shop commercial icecream sales chest freezer unit that has the thermally insulated sliding glass tops , it is brill for you can see at a glance where you are going to pick out the frozen foods and you can see how well it is stocked without opening the lids.

I got mine from a guy who I found out in polite conversation that he was closing up his struggling shop and it only cost me a thankyou and a hand shake.

And it is easier to pack more into a chest freezer. But you may never be able to find it again......

I have 2 chest freezers in the mud room. Now that we are fewer at home one is turned off and holds my bulk yarns.

A broken chest freezer can be used to make root cellar or mouse proof grain bin.

I like each of your useful comments, thumbs up for each of you!
More comments anyone? I would keep a new freezer in the basement and can run it off the large backup generator if the electric failed.

And it is easier to pack more into a chest freezer. But you may never be able to find it again

A big +1 on this. It's why I decided to go for the upright back when I had a freezer. Just me now.

Kay

I like the upright freezer my friend has... she got it a few years ago at Sears during their Labor Day sales event for a good price. I think it uses a bit more power over the course of time but she says it is very much easier to maintain and rotate her frozen goods.

Very Good points there too. With two of us here I'm considering storage needs for garden veggies and storage for meats which I found a local organic source. Sounds like an upright for convenience and upcoming Labor Day sales is a good combination. Maybe with an anniversary this week this will be doable. Many thanks to all.

We had an upright and switched to a chest type. I will agree, it can be a bit more of a pain to dig through, but I think unless you're really organized either type of freezer takes a dedicated effort to keep organized. The chest may take a bit more but either one in my experience winds up being a bit discombobulated. I like the chest. I can fit much larger items in there. Like right now I've got about 80 lbs of Starbucks coffee grounds bagged up plus all my spent grounds and veg scraps from the summer. When we have our beef butchered, that's the time the freezer gets weeded through and organized, annually. I like the fact that things don't fall out when you open the door. A frozen turkey sliding out can really cause some damage!
We use our freezer a lot. Our normal freezer on the fridge is small for a family of 5. It will hold items that you use on a really regular basis but pretty useless for storing anything bulk.
I guess for us, the upright took much more organization to keep things in and from falling. Yes, our chest freezer may be a bit more unorganized, but it doesn't take all the special attention our upright needed to make things fit. I will also add that most who've posted so far I don't think still have kids at home or larger families still present like I do. YMMV

Good practical info Rooster coming from a family of 5. Pros and cons to both types of freezers. whew. Maybe a smaller chest will be the way to go for the two of us.

Our freezer is big and I love it. It's reassuring having the extra space. I think if I remember right, the price tag was cheaper than an upright as well.
Maybe I'm not normal, but I love having the space to freeze compostables if need be. Like mentioned, the chest does take up more floor space, but that's not really a concern for us as it's in the mud room. It's just less space for poopy work boots

Yeah think someone else said the chest was less expensive too. Huh, I don't think we eat 3 pounds of meat a week. On a six month basis I'm guessing between veggies, meat, and little bit of worm foods I would want about 100 pounds or so of storage. (?)

My stinky barn shoes and boots are in the garage. By next morning have to shake out spiders and occasional frogs. You would think I'd get a plastic lidded tote to store them...

I have two regular refrigerator/freezers. One is quite large (in the kitchen) and the other is quite small (in the basement). In addition, I have a chest freezer. I chose a chest freezer because of the price at the time. If given the chance, I would change my mind and get the upright. It is difficult to utilize the chest freezer in such a way as not to lose food in it.

At the time of purchase, we still had two teenage boys at home. They are both just out of college now with only one living at home still. Regardless of there being 4 or 3 or even 2 in the household, I would still go with the upright if I had the do-over.

(Little aside: did you know that if you are buying a turkey to freeze you can ask the store to saw it in half? We rarely need a whole turkey after a holiday but holiday pricing is the best. I got this idea from the meat guy at a regular supermarket.)

Wow, strong comments for both types of freezers, it's like asking which is the better political party...
If I had unlimited finances I'd get both types of freezers and see what works for this household

And no I didn't realize you could get a turkey cut in half. As a holiday priced bargain it would make economical sense to stock up. My husband would love roasted turkey throughout the year. Thanks a bunch!

I have a chest freezer and I love it! I got it at Sears also. Mine has compartments and racks so it's pretty easy to keep organized.

Oh, too be clear, in case there was a doubt...you do still have to buy the whole turkey. You probably understood that, but......

(I had them wrap the two halves separately and then together with the original price. At home I separated the halves and storage was easier.)

cpl100 wrote:Oh, too be clear, in case there was a doubt...you do still have to buy the whole turkey. You probably understood that, but......

(I had them wrap the two halves separately and then together with the original price. At home I separated the halves and storage was easier.)

Thanks, yes, I got it re: buying the whole bird. Which would be great to cook 1/2 a bird for us and have the other 1/2 at Christmas for the visiting kids.

I had an upright freezer first. I loved the ease of keeping it organized and foods rotated. What bothered me most was that all the cold fell out when I opened the door which is inefficient and causes freezer burn. Then it took to icing up which I think was because that is a relatively large door and seal and thus more likely to get lifes little problems. If a chest freezer starts having seal troubles on the door you put a heavy box on the problem area
We replaced it with a chest freezer and found it much more efficient to run. I have some cardboard boxes that fit in it and divide it into 3 areas. And then it has wire hanging bins on top for little stuff and the last packet of sausage etc. I think that food stores longer in a chest freezer because the temperature is so stable in the depths. So I try to use the top bins for stuffs leaving fast. We built our mud room to fit the freezers on one end and the boots and coats on the other. There are hanging cupboards over the freezers using all that space. The second freezer was used only for meat. We raise or hunt all our meat. A chest freezer can easily handle 3 days with out power if it is fairly full and you do not open it often.

Great input thanks!
Well! I think everyones generous upright vs. chest freezer thoughts has me leaning (currently anyway) towards the chest type. Now all I need are the flyers for the upcoming Labor Day sales.

llama momma wrote:Great input thanks!
Well! I think everyones generous upright vs. chest freezer thoughts has me leaning (currently anyway) towards the chest type. Now all I need are the flyers for the upcoming Labor Day sales.

In that case, let me tell you that I purchased mine in either February or March during the supermarkets 'Frozen Food Month'. It was a special offer (Star/Shaws/Jewel chain). The price was something like $129.00 and you got (inside it) a booklet with about $100.00 of grocery coupons. At least half of them were for free products and the others were very good value. This was about five years ago. I do not know if they still run that promotion. I know they did for several years because that's how I learned of it. You might want to check that out if you can wait until the winter for it. Then again, you may want it now to freeze your yummy produce. Either way, I thought I would mention it in case it benefits anyone. I ask so many questions and need so much advice on these forums that I am very happy when I have any kind of knowledge at all that might be of help to anyone here.

llama momma wrote:Wow, strong comments for both types of freezers, it's like asking which is the better political party...
If I had unlimited finances I'd get both types of freezers and see what works for this household

And no I didn't realize you could get a turkey cut in half. As a holiday priced bargain it would make economical sense to stock up. My husband would love roasted turkey throughout the year. Thanks a bunch!

when my dad was alive he won top prize in a raffle at Christmass . a 25 pound deep frozen turkey .. that a tidy mel for just one 76 yr old pensioner.
Before it was delivered i zipped off to the local harware store and purchased a new bushmans Bow saw and a spare blade with a bit of set & finer teeth on it.

I washed the fine blade in boiling soapy water and rinsed it well, put it in the saw frame then sawed the turkey into four quarters in about 6 minutes and then heat sealed each six pound block.

He'd have never got the whole bird in the oven , but if he could have it would have been a case of him starting at one end and meeting the flies & maggots in the middle months later .

You did great cpl100, and earned your keep around here ha haaah!
I don't have those chain stores here, but I do have a bunch of others. Yay, hope to go freezer shopping soon.

and Plantoid! you just crack me up, even when I sit there trying to decipher some of the stuff you say in one of your other posts you used a word, "brill" I was briefly stumped till it hit me it must be European shorthand for brilliant, which made me feel like a doofus, or it was special "Plantoid-speech" ! Either way, funny.

llama momma wrote:Great input thanks!
Well! I think everyones generous upright vs. chest freezer thoughts has me leaning (currently anyway) towards the chest type. Now all I need are the flyers for the upcoming Labor Day sales.

if you do get a chest freezr one thing that is useful is several cut sheets of blue closed cell insluation material so you can make three or four internal compartments in the chest . I also have 1 " thick polystyrene squares in the bottom of our chest freezer so that they take up empty space that would other wise always need freezing ..this helps keep the running costs down by a tremendous amount .
Because it is out in the garage there is no prob in storing the unused foam or styrene sheets.

One disadvantage of the upright drawer /shelf type freezer is that the cold air falls out the bottom every time the door is opened and it costs you money to get the temp back to freezing even in the latest high efficiency frost air freezers ( We have one of these combined freezer / icemakers & fridges in the kitchen it stands about 6 foot tall by four foot three feet wide& is 20 inches deep .

The cold temepratures in a chest freezer tends to stay there when the top is open as cold air does not rise like hot air.

If you are going to go ahead and get another freezer read up on line the specifications for each type you are intersted in and have a good think about what quantity of unfrozen food you can freeze in one batch & how long it will take to freeze. this becomes a pertenient factor when you are considering large batch freezing .. the chest freezer can do fifteen pounds of beef on the bone in one go the upright can only handled four pounds same principle will apply to veg but the quantities will differ.

The upright freezer ice maker fridge is good for it provided me with six large bags of ice to use when coolong down veg after blanching them in readiness for deep freezing.

cpl, what size is your freezer?

CC