So, I want to buy a freezer.

[mdc]

Hey folks, I need your anecdotes and opinions. I have not had a dedicated freezer before, but I'm looking for one to give me the option of buying slaughtered animals from farms. Of course, I would store other foodstuffs, but I really need the cubic feet for meat. We have a small french door fridge and the freezer there is easily maxed out.

It's me, my wife, and our one-year old girl. I think buying a new freezer is the right choice so I can benefit from energy saving technology. As of now, I'm thinking the 14-15 cubic feet models would give us the versatility to have a quarter cow, half a pig, and other freezeables. Is this overkill, should I be thining larger is better, or am I on target?

Home Depot has a 14.8 cubic ft GE model for $420. Any preference regarding brands or features? Thanks for any info!

 

[Teppanyaki]

When I look at home appliances, I go to Consumer Reports. Unfortunately, my subscription has lapsed, but if I were buying a freezer I'd renew it just to check their ratings out and which features are out there.

 

[mdc]

Thanks, Teppanyaki,

I have a Consumer Reports subscription and they are good for ranking temperature control, noisiness, and energy efficiency. That info is great. If you have any experience with one and if there's anything you'd like to pass on, let me know. Thanks

 

[grumpybear]

If you are looking for energy savings you could look at a SunDanzer, they use less power than most laptops. However they are not cheap. The only reason I can see to get one is if you plan to live off grid, in that case I would probably go with a propane freezer anyways.

There are 2 types of freezers besides the ones attached to refrigerators, they are upright and chest. Upright freezers its much easier to find what you are looking for but when you open the door your cold air flows out. Chest freezers its harder to find what you are looking for but because cold air sinks you don't lose much when you open the lid.

I have a Kenmore 19 cubic foot chest freezer I bought to store venison and boar. I have put 3 deer and 5 hog (processed) in there at once and still had a little room left. If I had it to do all over again I would have got 2 smaller freezers instead of 1 big one its easy to lose things in a big chest freezer and if it ever fails everything is lost, where if you have 2 if 1 fails you can transfer some stuff and limit your losses. Personally I swear by Kenmore, you get all the features of the name brand appliances, you may have some features only found in frigidare, and others only found in whirlpool, but you can get both in a Kenmore and you get it at a store brand price. I paid $300 for my freezer in 2006 comparable name brands were at least $50 more.

If you want self defrosting you can get that, personally I'd rather defrost it myself than have it leaking all over my floor when it defrosts itself. Plus when I empty the freezer I'll take a hammer to the walls, knock the ice off and feed it to the dog (she loves ice in summer time.) One thing I do like is metallic walls, not only is it not the same color as the wax paper my game is wrapped in making it easier to see, it also won't break when I defrost it with the hammer.

 

[mdc]

Fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

The strategy of having small freezers is interesting. Metallic walls, too. Thanks!

i am looking for a chest freezer for the energy savings and performance, from what I gather. I have yet to see a self-defrosting chest freezer, so I'm fine with having to defrost it mysoef. Where's that hammer

 

[oc_in_fw]

I prefer the stand up freezers- the ones that look like a refrigerator and not a chest.

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

I would worry about turning mine into a kegerator.

Having said that, I wish I had room in my condo to bring my 15 CuFt freezer out of my storage unit. I would have a hog in it ASAP.

What do you have room for?

 

[Luc]

I'm looking at buying a standing freezer at the moment. I will stack the washer/dryer to make room for it. They are next to the kitchen so it's a good place to put the freezer.

I need to find the parts to attach the dryer to the washing machine. I might have to move the light switch that will end up behind the dryer and install a new power outlet for this. I measured the future location and I should have 1 inch all around so it will fit perfectly.

 

[Bear1889]

Look up freecycle.org. A guy told me about this you might be able to pick up freezer that someone didn't want to move for little or no cost.

 

[jovan]

I have a Sears / Kenmore stand up (refrig style) freezer in the garage. 20 yrs old and no problems. Personally I prefer this to the chest type as I use to never get below the first layer which resulted in too many science projects. I still lose some items here but far easier to rotate than a chest IMO.

 

[Mick]

We have owned both types of freezer, chest and vertical. Both have good points both have bad points.

Chest freezers will not "dump" the cold out of them when you open them up like a vertical does. This would be important if you plan on going in and out frequently. When a vertical dumps the cold, warm moist room air replaces it so they tend to ice up quicker (for non frost free models). ON the issue of frost free or deep freeze go with a deep freeze (non defrost cycle) as in order to defrost, a freezer needs to be heated up to dissipate their frost (read, thaw, refreeze cycle).

Chest freezers are a PITA to dig through so you will find you do not use the "stuff" at the bottom and only find it on those every other year clean out adventures

Error on the side of TOO BIG. You will find that no matter how large you go, you will wish you got a larger one. The cost to run is negligible between the sizes of comparable models. You can't make one that is too small grow but you can fill up the empty space in one that is too big with gallon jugs of water (to freeze and store the cold energy).

Always keep your freezer packed full. Use bottles of water to take up space as you empty the contents. Air heats and cools rapidly, solid ice is a store of cold so if you keep your freezer packed, it will run less and the temp will remain more stable than if it needs to cool air over and over again.

This is good advice for your fridge too. Take up empty space with water bottles to keep it from cycling so often.

EDIT:

Beer is another good store of cold in your fridge. Never been able to convince SWMBO this but I know it is

 

[COHunter]

When I was looking for one I opted for the vertical. I'm tall, and hate bending down to dig things out of a freezer. Secondly, really take a look at the yellow energy tag on the models. I was comparing a frost free which qualified for rebates for being energy efficient only to find that it actually used almost DOUBLE the energy to run.
In all honesty I wasn't considering a frost-free since for whatever reason I seem to experience more loss due to freezer burn as compared to the models that frost, well that and it used twice as much energy to run.
I ended up with a Kenmore and have had a side of beef, 2 antelope, an elk and other miscellaneous items in at once. Get the biggest one you can afford financially and have space for. Nothing worse than having too little space when you need it.

 

[xraygun]

Go big.
When I bought mine I only had room for the small one, and it's always full.
Turtle is spot on about the freezer working better full.
I was going to buy one at Costco, but after calling customer support and finding that it was only rated for 10F not zero, passed.
Ended up looking on craigslist, found a 1 year old pristine Kenmore for $95 the first day I looked. Rated for zero. In my mind a deep freeze that doesn't go to zero or below is not a deep freeze. The seller had a thermometer in it when I arrived and it was -10F. It was just too small for him.
I wouldn't think the technology of freezers has changed much in the last 5-10 years. I'd take a peek at craigslist. People moving sell them for cheap, they aren't in great demand.

 

[grumpybear]

One thing I forgot to add, I took some Styrofoam insulation board and made dividers for my freezer. So my 1 freezer now has 6 smaller compartments in the bottom in addition to the baskets on the top, plus we ordered some more baskets. That makes it a lot easier to find stuff. Something to consider if you are buying a chest freezer.

 

[Alacrity59]

I think mine is 17 cubic feet. Vertical would be nice but I tend to have bags of flour and rice. Freezer diving needs to happen either way.

 

[john parker]

Bought a smallish Kenmore chest-style freezer in Norfolk, Va in 1966. It went from there to Florida, to Washington State, back to Virginia, then into storage while overseas, and even as we speak it is running cheerfully in Nebraska! Non-self-defrosting; never needed a repair.

 

[mdc]

John, I've got plenty of room in the garage. There will be a shed coming too ad that will free up more space in the garage. Maybe the car will fit!

Mick, thanks for the pro tip of using bottles of water.

Thanks for sharing your stories. B&B is great because of you folks.

One thing I forgot to add, I took some Styrofoam insulation board and made dividers for my freezer. So my 1 freezer now has 6 smaller compartments in the bottom in addition to the baskets on the top, plus we ordered some more baskets. That makes it a lot easier to find stuff. Something to consider if you are buying a chest freezer.

Lots of the current models have dividers to help in organizing the goods.


At this point, my gut is telling me that a 14 cubic foot chest model is the way to go. We're a small family, and I can always add another freezer or a fridge/freezer combo, later. Diving in for food is ok, so a chest should be fine. I'm not too tall and I like the freedom of storing odd sized items without hassel.

I'm considering Frigidaire ad Kenmore. The one complaint about the Kenmore is how quickly frost builds up. Frigidaire seems to lack the aluminum walls offered by Kenmore. I might take a week to poke around on Craigslist for a recent model, but knowing myself, I'll probably buy new. Then the fun begins.

Whirlpool and Amana seem to rank well, but don't seem as popular. And there you have it. This is my thinking after researching for a few days.

 

[mdc]

I bought the Kenmore 14.8 cubic foot freezer. Thanks for the advice. At the end of the day it was accessible--I went to Sears--and on sale.

 

[jkingrph]

A bit late to this debate. We have two, both uprights and self defrosting.. One an older Sears Kenmore. The door shelves are very fragile and broken, otherwise it has been ok. The other is a Frigidare and is a much better unit. They are both quite a bit larger than the one you got, I want to say in the 21cu foot range.

Before these we had a manual defrost model and hated it. It was out in our garage, so I made a platform base with large casters so I could roll it to the door, empty it and hose it out to defrost. That still took about an hour to get all the old ice and frost out. I have never had one of the self defrost models dump water on my floor, they have a drip pan and the defrost cycle apparently occurs often enough as to not overflow the drip pan.

 

[mdc]

Again, I'd like to say thanks for all the advice, folks. It's really allowed me to step up my game. I was fortunate enough to butcher a hog over the weekend. It feels great to get to know your product on another level. The vacuum sealer was working overtime.

Here's one of the more spectacular shots of the day. Don't click if butchered parts offend you.

Spoiler