I need a freezer

**frugalfranny** · 05-13-2011, 01:24 AM

Originally Posted by Ali Lee

Mine is a 1962 chest & absolutely NOT frost free. The next one will be frost free upright. I'm 5'.. I can't reach the bottom

Any frost free freezer will burn the food quickly.

I have a chest freezer and love it. NOT frost free and I wouldn't have one that was. I defrost/clean it about once or twice a year. It only gets ice on it up towards the top and I can keep that cleaned up without a 'full' defrost.

Lots of people on here don't like the chest freezers but I am tall enough to reach everything. Plus I have a 15 cu. ft. and can get more in mine than a friend that has an 18 cu. ft.

You do have to keep it organized........or sometimes do what I call
'go ice diving' and find treasures.

**Spirit Deer** · 05-13-2011, 10:59 AM

Our side by side is frost-free and doesn't seem to burn the food. It doesn't get as cold as our chest freezer. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. It keeps food quite well though.

**mndtrp** · 05-13-2011, 11:03 PM

Frost issues also depend on where you live, as well as where your freezer is located. In Colorado, ours is in the basement laundry room, and it never accumulates frost, despite not being a frost-free freezer.

**Spirit Deer** · 05-13-2011, 11:21 PM

I agree. I've noticed ours gets frosty a lot quicker when it's humid and warm. I try to clean it out when it's cold and dry.

There should never be anything warm put in it, either. Chill stuff in the fridge before freezing it, so the warmth doesn't cause more frost.

**peanut** · 05-14-2011, 10:25 PM

We have a small 9 cu. ft. chest freezer in the basement laundry room. I'm short but find I can actually reach the food in the bottom of this freezer...if I stand it up on end. Our last one was a 23 cu. ft. chest freezer I had to crawl inside to clean. I still can't reach to clean this one. I clean it once a year.

I find organization is key too. I keep things in baskets and in plastic bags and boxes. I section out the freezer. Grains and beans to the left, fruit and vegetables in the centre, meat and stock to the right. I have a little shelf on top of the compressor where I set frozen condiments. And my bins are for small packages of meat: pork and beef in one, chicken/fish and bones for stock making in the next, and then small packages of frozen vegetables like green peppers and onions in the last. Works for us. But we're only two people.

Now the freezer above the fridge is another matter! It's a disaster that things slide out of all the time.