Posted: 11/14/2010 6:01:22 PM EDT
| Im going to purchase a chest freezer shouild i get 2 small ones or one big one. My concern with one big one is what do i do with everything in it when it needs to be defrosted.Im thinking with two i could empty one when the time came and still have preps and also have a back up if one fails during a bad time. |
| Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. |
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We have 1 that I got for free or almost free––I don't remember anymore––we didn't use it really until we began to buy fresh milk from a farm a ways away. Chest freezers do not frost up much, so defrosting could be done at a convent time. A time like when it is cold enough that your food would stay frozen if you set the food in a box outside for a bit while you cleaned the freezer. We also have a giant Ice chest that I have used to hold the food while cleaning the freezer. |
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Quoted: Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. I got some milk crates from the office supply store––I think it was the tax season sale. I put veggies in one and meat in the other. now it is not such a deal to to see what is in the lower part of the freezer; just lift out the top crate. |
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Quoted:
Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. good point i didnt think of that. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. good point i didnt think of that. The upright will have more frost trouble because the cold air of the freezer will flow out of the freezer each time you open the door; this cold air will be replaced by air that has more water, and the water will become frost. The chest freezer will have much less air change when you open the door, so the frost is much less. just food for thought |
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Several comments regarding freezer energy consumption:
1. Upright freezers use quite a bit more electricity than chest freezers. Since cold air settles below warm air, the cold air "falls out" of an upright freezer every time the door is opened. With chest freezers, there is no place for the cold air to "fall out" of. 2. If you compare the Energy Guide stickers for a large chest freezer with a small one, you'll probably notice that the large one doesn't use a lot more energy than the small one. Typically, a freezer that is twice as large as another one won't use nearly as much electricity as two of the smaller ones. So, using one large chest freezer is usually quite a bit more efficient than using two small ones. |
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Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. good point i didnt think of that. The upright will have more frost trouble because the cold air of the freezer will flow out of the freezer each time you open the door; this cold air will be replaced by air that has more water, and the water will become frost. The chest freezer will have much less air change when you open the door, so the frost is much less. just food for thought Exactly. And will require more energy to operate. |
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One more point. Keep the freezer full. This keeps the air out. If you freeze water bottles you can do some good things for yourself. First the ice will be a large cold thermal mass that will help the freezer stay cold when you open the door. Second; should you suffer a power loss or the freezer get turned off accidentally. The ice will help keep the other food. Another poster here reported that by habitually keeping the ice at the top of the freezer that the ice melted but kept the food frozen when the freezer got shut off while they were out for a few days. this works for both types of freezer |
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Just bought a 15 cu ft chesty at Costco for 279.00 to replace an older. Great deal IMO. Probably going to buy another for some more meat, until then just keep in the box in storage.
My 15 has an elk, antelope and 2 deer in it. That's some serious high protein zero fat meat for 2 people until next season. Just not interested in the upright. Wouldn't seem like I could get the same acreage in an upright. |
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Just bought a 15 cu ft chesty at Costco for 279.00 to replace an older. Great deal IMO. Probably going to buy another for some more meat, until then just keep in the box in storage. My 15 has an elk, antelope and 2 deer in it. That's some serious high protein zero fat meat for 2 people until next season. Just not interested in the upright. Wouldn't seem like I could get the same acreage in an upright. Inaddition to all of the pros mentioned about chest freezers staying colder longer for less $$, this is an excellent consideration. You can just put more in 'em! Done deal. We just bought a Fridgidaire 15 cu ft chest and its awesome. We keep it in our prep room in the basement now, which never gets above 70F in the summer. I'm interested in seeing how much it impacts our bill. |
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Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. I got some milk crates from the office supply store––I think it was the tax season sale. I put veggies in one and meat in the other. now it is not such a deal to to see what is in the lower part of the freezer; just lift out the top crate. We got the largest chest freezer GE makes and I knew this would be a problem, so I got some large stackable bins from ULine. They come in colors, so meats go in the red ones, veggies in the green ones, dairy in the blue ones, etc. No more digging down through three feet of frozen food to get to something on the bottom, or finding old freezer-burned meat in the back corner. They also help minimize the amount of time the freezer is open since I don't have to search the whole freezer for a specific item. |
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The advantage of the upright is only one, its easier to organize and rotate food. Otherwise, a chest is way more efficient and holds more food for the cubic feet involved, gravity works for you not against you.
My entire family uses the small chest freezers and multiple ones. Besides easier to rotate things, you can segregate food stuffs like meat in this on and vegetables in that one. Its a little more hassle when the power goes out to power a couple but they do run on those little $150 2cycle gens just fine. Tj |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Go with one upright. I bought a chest freezer a few years back, and now I'm buying an upright. With a chest freezer, things tend to get burried and forgotten until you empty it for whatever reason. You can spend $200 on a chest freezer TWICE, or get an upright once. In my case,due to my lack of experience, I now have a chest and an upright and could have done with one good upright. I got some milk crates from the office supply store––I think it was the tax season sale. I put veggies in one and meat in the other. now it is not such a deal to to see what is in the lower part of the freezer; just lift out the top crate. We got the largest chest freezer GE makes and I knew this would be a problem, so I got some large stackable bins from ULine. They come in colors, so meats go in the red ones, veggies in the green ones, dairy in the blue ones, etc. No more digging down through three feet of frozen food to get to something on the bottom, or finding old freezer-burned meat in the back corner. They also help minimize the amount of time the freezer is open since I don't have to search the whole freezer for a specific item. Did you do this because you are confident that some politicians would be distressed by it?  |
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Big chest freezer FTW!
I have two 20-22 cu ft chest freezers that rarely frost up. I'll defrost them only about once every two years or so and it only takes about an hour or so each; not enough time for your food to thaw out. I just unplug the freezer as I take everything out and set it on folding tables. Set a fan up to where it will blow into the freezer will speed up the defrosting process. Once the ice starts to loosen up, take a putty knife / scraper and take the ice off the sides in sheets and toss into a 5 gallon bucket. Once all the big stuff is gone, a shop vac easily gets all of the little stuff and water in the bottom. Then it's just a matter of wiping down the inside with a towel and re-stacking the food. As mentioned above, they are more efficient than an upright, but also require a bit more planning when loading. I typically put one or two steers in one of the freezers each year depending on how much beef we eat during the year. There is a lot of hamburger so I make a layer of that across the bottom and then stack it up one side. Roasts go in a stack, T-bones in another, Delmonte, sirloin, flat iron, etc.. each goes in there own stacks which makes it much easier to locate what I am looking for. BTW, several pieces of 1/4" plywood cut to fit the freezer makes great dividers and keeps the stacks from falling over. I'm liking the milk crate idea too.
My second freezer is for other misc. frozen foods like microwave dinners, veggies, fish or game, or any beef that didn't fit in the first freezer. IIRC, my biggest freezer pulled around 800 - 900 watts on startup (maybe 3 or 4 seconds) and about 120 - 180 watts while running. I don't remember the KWh rate since my "KillaWatt" died before I could record it, but it was pretty low. On a side note: For those of you who might be considering putting a large amount of meat in a freezer at one time, be aware that it CAN spoil in the freezer if it's not frozen / cold enough when you put it in. I like to leave my beef in the butchers freezer for a couple of days if he can spare the room so it has time to soak up more cold. I'll then pick it up early in the morning and take it home as quickly as possible with the AC on high the whole way. ( I live in Florida. If you're in North Dakota, you might have a little more wiggle room.) |
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Lowes is having a sale on Frigidaire freezers. 20% off
I bought a 20.6 Cu Ft upright yesterday for $519. Eneryguide said it costs about $67 per year to operate, so not too bad. Probably not as efficient as a chest freezer, but I am tired of digging through endless piles of frozen food to find what I am looking for. |
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I have a little holiday brand chest freezer I am currently using as my fridge. You can buy a toy from folks who sell kegerator stuff and it will turn the freezer on and off at the temp you set it at. As a single guy who spends way too much time at work I was just using one of those double dorm size fridges for my fridge and it sucked a lot of power. Had a newer one as well, replaced an older one when I thought it was using way too much energy. The chest fridge is larger and works better and I am better about organizing chest freezers. Give me an upright anything and I will shove stuff to the back on the bottom shelf and forget about it. I plan to get another small chest freezer soon, this sale at lowes might push me to actually bringing one home. I will use it as a freezer and probably buy part of a cow going to slaughter. Or just buy a bunch of turkeys on sale or something. When I still lived at home with the parents I was working at a frozen pizza factory. For 2 bucks I could buy a case of frozen pizzas. Might be tonys or red baron or freshetta or the school pizzas. Mom bought an upright freezer since I could bring home all kinds of frozen pizza and the upright fit the space we were going to use better. Due to the house being older with fewer outlets we did not notice when the expansion outlet came partway unplugged and the freezer was unplugged for a weekend or so. Lost a lot of pizza. Also had a few cases where people did not always fully shut the door but if the upright had power it had some sort of buzzer on it. But it needed power. I plan to go with chest freezers because I find them more efficient. The one I am using as a fridge is going to be a sort of backup if I fill another one up with meat. One dies and the expensive food goes in the other one and I still have the double dorm size fridge in a back room, I just don't use it. Give me a couple years and I might buy a big chest freezer to complement what I have. Get the big one half empty and all the stuff could go in a smaller one perhaps if something happened. I plan to use milk crates for storage and the color coding mentioned will also probably be done. Anyway, I posted all the above so that hopefully some folks keep in mind what can happen if they rely on the buzzer alarms that require power and what not. I always check my stuff every evening, or morning when working nights, before going to bed. Losing a freezer full of food sucks even if you got the food cheap. I have a free big chest freezer at someone's house if I want it but it uses so much power I have not been in a hurry to go get it. When the ground freezes up in a month or two I will probably drive the jeep and trailer down to the nearest door and load it up. I doubt I will plug it in though. I plan to use it for secure food storage in a shed, no mice or bugs will get in it easily. I will probably have to put something in it to absorb moisture, just a couple boxes of baking soda maybe. Anyway, it then becomes a backup freezer if one of my other ones died. |
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One more point. Keep the freezer full. This keeps the air out. If you freeze water bottles you can do some good things for yourself. First the ice will be a large cold thermal mass that will help the freezer stay cold when you open the door. Second; should you suffer a power loss or the freezer get turned off accidentally. The ice will help keep the other food. Another poster here reported that by habitually keeping the ice at the top of the freezer that the ice melted but kept the food frozen when the freezer got shut off while they were out for a few days. this works for both types of freezer This is exactly what I do - any "extra space" holds forzen water. It's a great back up when the power goes out, and keeps the costs lower. The big drawback for an upright, is that if the power shuts off for an extended period - as soon as you open it, most of your cold air is gone until the power comes back on - whereas in a chest freexer, the col air stays in (and the water bottles help even more). |