Help me with freezer chests please

[Night Elf]

In an effort to be more frugal, DH and I are thinking about purchasing a freezer chest. We want to stock up on meat sales, and I want to prepare double batches of dinners to freeze for the next week. (Which would be another post after we get a freezer because I have never frozen meals before.)

 

We're looking at small freezer chests, 5.0 cu ft. or 7.2 cu ft. The ones we've seen online are manual defrost. How often must they be defrosted?

 

Any tips on them before we buy? We don't know anyone that has one so we're really new to this idea.

[OrganicAnn]

About once a year will do to defrost - unless you have a power outage or spills or some other issue. We usually try to clean ours out before we make a big purchase of meat or before we start stocking up with garden produce.

 

If I could buy a new one, I would get an upright one instead of a chest. The chest are really better for keeping things cold and storage. But the upright are just so much more convenient and easier to organize.

[anissa]

I agree the uprights are more convenient. Be warned, however, ours keeps the ice cream too soft. It works great for meat though.

[Sharon H in IL]

Old-school chest freezer here. My grandmother taught me how to defrost mine. It should be done when the ice gets an inch thick at the top. The less you open it, the less frost there will be, since it is from outside air condensing on the sides it collects near the top.

 

Our freezers have always been in the garage, so this is how Grandma said to do it:

 

To defrost, set up a nice clean table nearby with something to protect the surface if it isn't plastic. Have big kettles of water boiling on the stove, and a hair dryer and plastic spatulas ready. Now unplug the freezer, empty the freezer onto the table, and start pouring water over the ice on the sides. It will melt off quickly, so you want to be pouring in a very controlled way, not splashing and sloshing. Use a teakettle or such so you can control the flow.

 

Use your spatula to help loosen the ice and knock it off into the bottom. If you run out of water, use the hair dryer.

 

Now you either hook the drain spout to a garden hose and drain that way, or (what we do) tip the whole shebang over and pour it out onto the garage floor.

 

Now you wash out the interior very quickly with a sponge and sponge clean. Mop up the water from the bottom. That's it.

 

Turn on the power, and return the food to the freezer. I use plastic laundry baskets to organize the food. Meats go bottom left, baking supplies go bottom right. Vegetables and dairy goes top left, and breads and juices go top right. So loading and unloading is pretty simple, if very heavy. ;)

 

Total time not including gathering supplies, about half an hour. I need someone to help tipping the empty freezer. My 12 year old serves the purpose very well.

 

I love mine. I don't do freezer cooking due to picky eaters, but I save much moola by stocking up on loss leaders and sales on expensive items.

[mamato4girls]

I would get an upright if you can swing it, we have had a chest freezer and they are a pain to defrost, get stuff out of, know what is "in there", etc:)

[BillieBoy]

Why I like Chest freezers: Chest freezers have 15% more useable space than an upright and they are more energy efficient. Some do come with auto defrost now but you pay for it. The chest freezer can accommodate irregular sized objects, like baguettes better and will hold longer if kept closed during a power outage, up to 3 days. I organize my chest freezer with wire milk crates for chicken, beef, fish, and veg. and know precisely where each is. I also only tend to go in once a week and transfer over to our fridge/freezer once I have a weekly menu planned out. Whichever way you go the only other thing I would suggest as important as a freezer is a really good vacuum sealer.

[WiseOwlKnits]

We have had a chest freezer for ~5 years. We just upgraded to an upright because I can't stand not being able to reach things at the bottom and having to unload the whole thing if something falls to the bottom. So I'd definitely go with an upright over a chest freezer...

[Lakeside]

Why I like Chest freezers: Chest freezers have 15% more useable space than an upright and they are more energy efficient. Some do come with auto defrost now but you pay for it. The chest freezer can accommodate irregular sized objects, like baguettes better and will hold longer if kept closed during a power outage, up to 3 days. I organize my chest freezer with wire milk crates for chicken, beef, fish, and veg. and know precisely where each is. I also only tend to go in once a week and transfer over to our fridge/freezer once I have a weekly menu planned out. Whichever way you go the only other thing I would suggest as important as a freezer is a really good vacuum sealer.

How big is your freezer and how big are your crates? Trying to keep track of stuff in our freezer has been such a pain. I'd love to find a better way of doing it!

[Colleen in NS]

In an effort to be more frugal, DH and I are thinking about purchasing a freezer chest. We want to stock up on meat sales, and I want to prepare double batches of dinners to freeze for the next week. (Which would be another post after we get a freezer because I have never frozen meals before.)

 

We're looking at small freezer chests, 5.0 cu ft. or 7.2 cu ft. The ones we've seen online are manual defrost. How often must they be defrosted?

 

Any tips on them before we buy? We don't know anyone that has one so we're really new to this idea.

 

I'd consider a bigger one, too, because you can also stock up on frozen veggies when they go on sale. We have a 12 cu. ft. chest freezer. You can also store bulk grains in them to prevent them from going bad.

 

Defrost? Whenever the ice builds up enough that I can't get my storage boxes (a cardboard box for meats, and one for veggies) lifted up and down easily.:lol: Probably twice a year.

[Lakeside]

In an effort to be more frugal, DH and I are thinking about purchasing a freezer chest. We want to stock up on meat sales, and I want to prepare double batches of dinners to freeze for the next week. (Which would be another post after we get a freezer because I have never frozen meals before.)

 

We're looking at small freezer chests, 5.0 cu ft. or 7.2 cu ft. The ones we've seen online are manual defrost. How often must they be defrosted?

 

Any tips on them before we buy? We don't know anyone that has one so we're really new to this idea.

We have a 7 cu. ft. Magic Chef chest freezer. I don't think I would recommend this particular freezer. Although we haven't had any problems with it, it doesn't have a strong seal. We've owned it for around four years and over the past few days it has started to make some strange noises. (That's one of the reasons I checked this thread...I'm arming myself with information so that we know which one to buy in case this one conks out on us!);)

[Night Elf]

Very cool! Thanks for the tips. DH and I are going to go look at them in person, but it sure is nice to hear from people who have owned a freezer.

 

And then I'll need a vacuum sealer! Thanks BillieBoy! I would have never thought about that it looks very helpful.

[4kiddies]

I'm also shopping for a freezer and am reading the replies in this thread with interest. I'm looking at ones that are a little larger and I was very happy with the ones at Lowes as opposed to Sears and Home Depot. I found a 13 cu upright for $398 at Lowes and they offer free delivery.

[BillieBoy]

How big is your freezer and how big are your crates? Trying to keep track of stuff in our freezer has been such a pain. I'd love to find a better way of doing it!

Right now I'm down to one small 5 cubic foot freezer ($75 craigslist find) I did have a big 9 cubic f before we moved, but same principle applies. You can use regular plastic milk crates which you can even get at Target but I have 1 cubic foot wire baskets that look some thing like this. I have 3 in use now for different meats and there were two built in baskets that came with the freezer. One nice thing about the crates is you tend not to squash things when you first put things in. When I want the crate on the bottom I quickly take the top ones out, stack them, grab what I want and stack them back up. Of course you kind of have to train Dh to respect your whole oraganization set. ;)