Need a new Freezer: what's good, what's bad, what's on sale?

[dickfoster]

My wife says we need another freezer. We currently have 11 cu ft chest freezer, but it's ful and she has a hard time using it. So we want to get an upright, make it asdierfor her to use plus take up less garage floor space.

Three choices: Lowe's, HD or a local appliance store. LAS will *probably* have by far the highest prices, but they also will be able to service it, if ever needed. They came out a couple days ago and fixed our dryer for $76 vs. $650 for new or so, I'll take it.

+18 cu ft. Frost Free, what are the good makes and what are the ones to avoid?

Thanks!

Up rights aren't as efficient as the chest types. Especially when you open the door. Frost free isn't such a good idea either as to run frost free the temps have to be higher for the defrost cycle. That kinda defeats the purpose of having a freezer in the first place. Keep your long term stuff in the chest type then maybe move the soon to be used foods to the upright if you get one.

 

[TnAndy]

The one surprise was that we have never turned off the one. We just now freeze more items.

Yeah....that's how we ended up with 6....ahahahaaaaaa

Friend was at the house one day, looking at 'freezer row', and said "Wow....why so many freezers ?"

I replied "Well, as it turns out, we all have the same amount of freezer space. Yours is at the store, or the distribution center, or the manufacturer.....Mine is where you see them. The big difference is I control mine.....and you don't."

We freeze a beef every 15-20months, (4-500lbs) 25-30 whole chickens/yr (150-175lbs) (raise them for 8 weeks in the spring, that is our years supply), 2 pigs/yr, (400lbs) plus we'll typically grow 25 gallons of strawberries, she freezes a lot of broccoli, and so on. The freezers are in addition to root cellar for potatoes/apples/etc, and canning things like beans, sweet potatoes, and so on.

When you produce most of your own food, you need a place to store it until the next harvest.

 

[TnAndy]

As far as I'm concerned though, I'll never by choice use a chest freezer again. If I had to, I would use milk crates or something similar to keep things organized. I've seen way too much stuff come out of the bottom of chest freezers that had been in there for years and the owner had no idea was in there.

Only way to beat that is be organized. You see that inventory list on my pic ? Wife is great about keeping it, and using stuff out of the freezer.

Dinner today, for example: Fried in our lard chicken breast strips...freezer. Green beans (normally our canned, but she picked the last fresh from the hoop house the other day). Mashed potatoes from the root cellar.

 

[joefromga]

Just about every freezer failure is the thermostat.

It's a 120$ part and takes 20 minutes to replace with a screwdriver and wrench.

I've done many and saved thousands.

 

[teejk]

Have had both. Cost of running newer ones in either chest or upright are about the same and I prefer the upright simply because things in the chest tend to get buried never to be seen again plus I find the periodic defrost (I avoid the frost free models) to be much faster (empty, pan of hot water with a catch basin on the bottom and the job is done in less than an hour). Quite frankly I don't think brand is important. Most appliances today are "throwaways". The only think I would look for on an upright is how the door magnet works to ensure it closes tightly every time.

 

[MossRoad]

Our first freezer after we got married was an upright. It was nice to have right next to our beer fridge in the basement and didn't take up much floor space. However, once we started buying bulk, it soon became apparent that upright is a pain to stack well and utilize all the space. No matter what we did, it seemed like every time we opened the door, something would fall out and we'd do "the dance" to keep our toes from getting smashed. We kept it for about 10 years, and when we moved, we bought a chest freezer like we had when we were kids. As others have mentioned, you have to be careful to not let things get buried. It has dividers and hanging baskets, so its easy to rotate new and old stock.

 

[FTG-05]

Went to both HD and Lowes, wasn't impressed with their selection, so I called a local appliance dealer (well "local" in that its about 15 miles away from us, but I digress).

I told the salesman (turns out to be the owner) that I was at HD/Lowes and what did he have in +20 cu ft upright freezers that would make the drive worthwhile. First off, he said he couldn't compete with the Big Box Stores on price (more about that later) and that he had two 21 cf Frigidaires, one with adjustable shelves, one without. Told me the price, it was $200 more than what I thought was the equivalent unit at HD, but then he gave me the model number so I could compare it to Lowes/HD! He told me that it was FF, so I said the heck with it and that I'd see him in an hour or so.

Drove the 40 miles or so to the place, walked in and immediately noticed that he had twice the selection that HD/Lowes had - combined. Told him so and he was surprised by this.

Got the biggest one he had: Frigidaire 21 cf Frost Free with adjustable shelves, pretty nice unit. Thought I did ok for only $200 more with a slightly bigger unit (21 vs. 20), all adjustable shelves and known local service support if we needed it. They'll deliver it tomorrow.

Then just a few minutes ago, I decided to check if HD/Lowes had this unit; HD did (though not in my local store, Lowes had one sort of equivalent.

Found out I didn't pay $200 too much. I found out I saved $100!!!

Here's the unit that I got for $799 (the HD shows it in my area as $899 (10% off from $999)): Frigidaire 21. cu. ft. Frost Free Upright Freezer in White, ENERGY STAR-FFFH21F4QW - The Home Depot

Of course when I got home, I told my wife that I got a small 11 cf unit, in other words, about as high as our 11 cu ft chest freezer (she wanted a +20 cf), it was black (she wanted white) and that it was a manual defrost (she wanted frost free). To say she was disappointed was the least of it. She said don't bother having it delivered.

She's either gonna be really surprised tomorrow when she gets home or she's going to kill me in my sleep tonight. Anyone wanna take bets?

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Whirlpool does NOT stand behind their warranties.

Other than that, good luck finding anything decent these days.

 

[KubotainNH]

We had a chest freezer when I was a kid, I hated digging for stuff in there. They seem to be better now but still not as easy in my opinion. We have a big upright now and use plastic bins on the shelves to keep things tidy. Yeah not quite as efficient but we don't go in there constantly like the fridge. Do make sure the unit has an alarm or add one like mentioned. Ours has gone off at least twice because the door didn't get shut quite far enough because something was sticking out. We didn't lose any food because of that buzzer. I'll also take the frost free, had a smaller one that wasn't and we did lose food because of the frost and no alarm. The food loss cost more than the electricity between the two. I don't think brand is that big a deal these days, even the cheapos seem to last forever, our small version was a department store unit we got for free and we gave it away when someone gave us our current one for free. No issues for close to 10 years and it was already used.

 

[dadster4]

Ask about scratch and dent deals at the stores you visit...I picked up a nice upright for less than 1/2 price with a small crease in the side and a missing door handle. When they delivered it the guy said he will put in an order for a new handle since it didn't come with one...had one sent a week later!