Q & A
Coupon Clipper: I've convinced my husband that we need an extra freezer. In your opinion is it better to have a chest or upright freezer? I know the chest is less money. I'm just concerned about getting to the food at the bottom.
Me: Great question... We have a square chest and it fits wonderfully under our staircase in our basement, so I need to keep tabs on what I have stored in there, or I have to dig!
I also did a bit of research when we were planning our purchase and I found out that it is not recommended to run a spare freezer in your garage since the motor has to work much harder in the heat of summer and frigid winter- to maintain its interior temperature. Some claim that a freezer that is working harder takes years off of the life of the unit.
Do YOU have any good freezer advice?
9 comments:
The best tip I got from my MIL, use milk crates to store foods in. Keep all your chicken in one, beef in another etc. That way when you need to find something you can easily pull out a crate to look underneath. Use one to keep all the meals for the upcoming week in, that way they are all handy and your hubby doesn't pull out something you planned to use for a different meal.
Brilliant! You must have a pretty large freezer!
YES! we use milk crates too! We have a HUGE chest freeze and we do keep ours in the garage because we don't have a basement. we've had it for 7 years and it still works great, although if i had the room i'd keep it inside! I am thinking of getting a smaller upright for boxes things and veggies since i still have to dig for those...BUT word to the wise it's not a great idea to store meat in an upright. both my parents and grandparents had a combination of uprights and chest freezers and when the uprights quit or power goes out its a huge mess...blood running through their garages and basements...plus the chest will hold the cold air better if power loss happens.
We JUST bought one last weekend at Lowes - we did a lot of shopping around - we're starting w/ a little one (5.5) and got it for $125 - best deal around - Many on craigs list were $50-75 and OLD - this way we know where it's been and how it's been taken care of!
I've heard from many people that newer freezers (within the last ten years or so) cannot be kept in a garage. Something to do with how they make them now, they can't be kept outside. But if you have an older freezer, it can stay out in a garage. Our freezer is over ten years old and does fine in the garage. OUr friends bought a brand new freezer this past year, put it in their garage, and it quit on them after a month. So it seems to have merit. Not sure why though:)
We just purchased an upright freezer this year and I love it! I have to say that it has been one of the BEST purchases we have made in our married life (going on 19 years!). I don't know what took us so long! We do keep it in our garage and it is running fine. I like it because I can see everything at a glance. Good luck!
We have an upright and I LOVE it! I am quite a bit shorter than the average person and cannot reach to the bottom of a chest freezer. I really didn't feel like having to hang upside down to dig to get to the bottom so it was not even an option when we were searching for one. My parents had a chest freezer while I was growing up and it was awful trying to get to the bottom of that thing. We've had the upright for about 8 years or so and it is still working fine. It has had to be in a garage for the last 5 years...and spent the first few years of it's life in a basement when we lived in a different house (we no longer have a basement).
The only space we have for a freezer is in the garage. We had an old -- no, ancient -- chest freezer until about three years ago. We replaced it with an upright. What a difference!
I don't know about the cost of running the thing, but it is so much easier for me to store and find things in the upright. That alone makes up for any increase in electric use in my book.
One thing that might help you decide: you can usually get more in a chest freezer than you can in an upright due to all the shelves. We've found that a chest freezer always holds more than any upright of the same size does. It might be a bit harder to keep organized, but to us it is worth it!
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