Freezer question

**lissaky** · 01-10-2012, 11:12 AM

Another post got me thinking. We have been talking about getting a freezer for awhile now.
Which style do you think is better, the upright or the chest?

**pinetree** · 01-10-2012, 01:01 PM

I have both. They each have their pros and cons.

The chest seems to hold alot more, but I seem to lose and have to dig to find things, I'm trying to keep it more organized now. I'm also tall enough I dont have a problem leaning over and getting into it.

The upright is easy to get into, when we get the beef from the packing house, the packages are really slick, and slide right out of the freezer.To me its hard to pack alot into.

I also lost ALOT of meat about a year ago. DIL was in the upright, the door didnt close and was open about a week before we found it. !/2 of the upright was thawed out and had to be thrown away.

I think now it just comes down to which one you want. Make sure you buy one big enough for what you need, it really doesnt take long to fill one up, especially if you have a garden and freeze things.

**Uniwolf** · 01-10-2012, 01:13 PM

My only input on this is, when you look at it on the sales floor. Reach in, and touch the bottom. We have had both, and I am short enough that reaching the bottom on our chest was horrible. But as Pinetree stated, an upright can be harder to keep things in, and you do have more of a challenge on most of them with the door. A chest you let go, it is shut the whole gravity thing, most uprights, you have to actually close them. Mine however does have a VERY anoying(sp) beeper on it, it the door is ajar for more than 10 min it goes off, and if it gets warmer than the temp that you have it set for it goes off.

**greekislandgirl** · 01-10-2012, 01:52 PM

I had an upright freezer and while it was easy to organize and to get in and out of, if I had the chance to get a freezer now, I'd go for a chest freezer, because of the amount of storage. I'd probably use organizing baskets of some sort in it, but I'd rather have the extra storage. Also I think I read somewhere that chest freezers are more energy efficient - not sure if that's true, and if it's because of the door thing, or what.

**Lady_V** · 01-10-2012, 02:11 PM

I'm a whole 5'2.... and I have quite the "reach buffer" in front of me.

We have a chest freezer. It is quite deep, but also has a part on the right side that is higher than the rest. I got around the "not being able to reach" bit by putting the things in a grocery bag. Considering I am not going to grow any taller, I had to make adjustments.

I had looked at stand-up freezers, but the smaller versions seemed TOO small to hold the bulk items, especially turkeys

**Uniwolf** · 01-10-2012, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by Lady_V

I'm a whole 5'2.... and I have quite the "reach buffer" in front of me.

LOL I am in this catagory too. My youngest calls it T-Rex syndrome

**nodmicks** · 01-10-2012, 02:40 PM

I have one of each and prefer the upright. I also have the can't reach the bottom problem without practically climbing right in. I prefer the upright.

**eclectictexan** · 01-10-2012, 11:48 PM

I vote upright. You can use baskets to put like things in to keep them from sliding out. I'm not getting any younger either and lifting things out of a chest freezer to find the oldest in the bottom is not my ideal of efficient. What ever you choose make sure it's frost free; or what ever they call the ones you don't have to defrost now days.

**Libby** · 01-11-2012, 12:03 AM

We have a medium chest freezer and while Im ok with reaching in to grab things...keeping it organized and digging to find things are my biggest problem. We are now looking at switching over to an upright - a larger one.

**NikoSan999** · 01-11-2012, 08:29 AM

I'd do the upright. I'm 5 3" and that dosen't go very far either. Also I have a very bad back and after bending over 2 or 3 times or for a few minutes I'm done for a couple hours at best.

In the freezer/fridge side by side one one shelf is chicken, another beef and another pork/fish. The rest are one for misc, one for veg/fruit. On the door are juice etc.
Laid out like that if I'm looking for something, say beef, and I want hamburger at least I don't have to move a ton of stuff to unbury it....I know it will be on that particular shelf. AND I don't have to bend and kill my back for the rest of the day.

**Ponderer** · 01-11-2012, 10:05 AM

I have a chest freezer. when I was doing research the chest freezer, non self defrost, came out on top for efficiency. When a chest freezer is opened you do not lost nearly as much cold air as you do when you open an upright unit. As far as self-defrost, that feature causes the unit to be approx. 40% less efficient then a non self-defrosting unit.

**nuisance26** · 01-11-2012, 11:39 AM

~We have a manual defrost upright. I love the upright. I can find everything so easily. Grew up with a huge chest freezer. We'd be upside down, dangling in that thing digging for stuff. Hated it, although it was pretty funny.

My upright has a lock so I can be sure the seal is tight. And keep the kids away from the chocolate and ice cream stash.

It takes less than 2 hours start to finish to defrost it and I do that every season change. Electric is really high here and doing that saves me $5+ per month.
Another consideration is that a manual defrost protects your food from freezer burn longer than an automatic defrost. Foods only last a month in my fridge freezer before they dry out or taste stale/off but the same items are still perfect 6 months later in the manual defrost freezer.
And that brings up another consideration, selecting the proper size. For a couple of years I thought my 14 cubic foot freezer was perfect for my family. Now I think it's too big. Better a bit too big though because you can fill space with water jugs and that will improve efficiency.
One thing I hate about mine though is the pull out drawer on the bottom. I would need to have about 9 inches of clearance on the hinge side to swing the door out of the way enough to pull the drawer out. I don't have a space in this house to put it to have that clearance so I can only pull the drawer out about 6 inches. That's a pain. My fridge has the same issue, right up against a wall on the hinge side, so the drawers don't come out enough.
So think about where you want to put your freezer, go see your choices in person and measure the clearance you'd need with the door open and drawers out to make sure it will fit. Otherwise, it may be better to get a chest style and use cloth totes to organize things. If you can't access your food easily you will forget to use it.~

**frugalfranny** · 01-11-2012, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Ponderer

I have a chest freezer. when I was doing research the chest freezer, non self defrost, came out on top for efficiency. When a chest freezer is opened you do not lost nearly as much cold air as you do when you open an upright unit. As far as self-defrost, that feature causes the unit to be approx. 40% less efficient then a non self-defrosting unit.

Yep........agree.

I have a chest freezer and like it.

If you are short you might not like a chest freezer....for reasons posted by others.

Whatever you get.............would advise AGAINST the self-defrosting.........THEY BURN FOOD much quicker. With good seals you will probably only have to defrost once or twice a year......depending on how long you keep it open.....and how full you can keep it.

**Cricketlegs** · 01-12-2012, 10:57 AM

I have a medium chect freezer. I love having a freezer but we have outgrown the one we have but have no room for another .

If I have my way(hardeeeharrhaarrrrhaarrr like when do I NOT get my way??) when we buy our next and final house I will kepp my chest freezer for grocery meats and get an upright for boxed and prepackaged things. I can always find hamburger meats and chicken in the chest but tend to have to hunt for breakfast sausages and the like.

When I shop it gets full to the top and it is getting to be a challenge for me.