Need help with size of chest freezer-- how big?

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Hi!

We NEED a freezer and we had both an upright and a chest growing up and I preferred our chest type. Now my question is how big? I will need to store a butchered cow and vegies? I want to do my shopping mostly over the phone/net because we live so far and then go to the store where I am going to purchase to make sure its what we want. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Storybook Farm (mumaw@socket.com), July 10, 2001

Answers

I have a large chest which is more efficient they say. They only thing is you can't keep an inventory and your always climbing over the top to see what is in the bottom which is ususally old and needs dumping. I would by an upright if I could do it over again. If your going to freeze big time make sure you have a generator. When utilities are gone so is the freezer! we learn that the hard way when we lost utilities in this area for 13 days because of an ice storm last Christmas. Even when if below freezing outside you stand a chance of losing everything. We dumped all the deer meat but kept our beef & lamb. Lost all the baked items. We trying to find a 2500 watt generator, all we can find is 5000 watts which we do not need.

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), July 10, 2001.

I have 2 freezers. One 23 cubic foot chest and a smaller upright. I have had chest freezers for over 35 years and much prefer them to the upright. The only trouble I have with the chest type is getting something in the bottom. I am 4'9" so have to lean on the front and hang way over to get anything at the bottom, but never have fallen in.

I think they are more economical too. When you open an upright, the cold comes out, with a chest, the cold goes down.

Also, you can organize a chest freezer better. I think they cost about the same to run.

I would get the biggest you can afford. I keep nuts, grains, etc. in the freezer and it does not take long to fill up. When we had our steers and goats I kept half a steer and a small kid plus all the veg. in the freezer.

When I needed to replace my freezer, I discovered not many companies made the big ones anymore....unless you go commercial. I got mine at Sears, on sale for about $500 with free delivery.

Another reason I like the larger freezer is I can buy in bulk when I need to and know I have room to store the stuff.

Good luck.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), July 10, 2001.


Well, let me put it this way, no one EVER complains that they have TOO many closets or TOO big a deep freeze!!! Get the biggest booger you can find, you will never regret it!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), July 10, 2001.

Like Annie, I agree that it's hard to find one too big. You won't believe how easy it is to fill one.

As far as organization, we bought some plastic stacking storage crates, similar to milk crates and use those to help keep everything in order. It's easy to set them under the built in baskets and in the space left for moving those built ins, you can stack a few extra crates. By doing a chart by levels, you can keep track of each basket or crate's contents. You just have to be diligent about keeping it up to date.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), July 10, 2001.


I agree, get the biggest you can. We have bought half a beef and it fills up about 1/3 of the one we bought. If your planning on putting in a whole beef - plus other things - make it big.

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), July 10, 2001.


I chose multiple small units for a couple of reasons. They are easier to put in those smaller areas around the house instead of having to free up one larger space . If one fails, the other is still functional. Quite often you can purchase 2 smaller ones on sale for less than a large chest type and the combined cubic feet capacity of the smallers exceed the larger single unit.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 10, 2001.

We have both, a 23 cu ft. upright and as 10 cu. ft. chest freezer. we freeze half a beef and a whole hog plus produce from the garden and can a lot. The only problem with a chest freezer beside looking for what is on the bottom, is one should not ever put anything on the lid, which is the hardest thing to prevent. The seal/gasket eventually can compress and eventually won't seal completley and soon the freezer is working overtime and building up frost. We have a hard & fast rule about this, nothing is put on top of the freezer ever, even for a minute. My wife does a excellnt inventory of the freezers so she/me know where things are, usually the pork is in the chest the beef in the other, blah, blah ,blah!

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), July 11, 2001.

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