So we think it may be time to get an extra freezer. We have the room to squeeze in a small one, we bulk buy, and our current over the fridge freezer is full. How many of you have extra freezers? Do you like it? If you could buy one over, what features would you want? What is a waste of money? Would you even buy one at all? We don't want a huge one. Currently, we're thinking of one similar to this. We are not against buying used, but we do want it to be fairly new still, because of improved energy standards.
We're still not sure (about that size, about getting one at all) though.
Owners of freezers, advise away! I thank you in advance.
13 comments:
We have - and love - a huge upright freezer. This has enabled me to shop monthly, which has saved us quite a lot of money. Obviously, we can also take advantage of sales on meat (like the 60 lbs. of Echrich Farms smoked sausage that we picked up for $1/lb last month).
I know uprights are less efficient, but I'm glad we went with upright.
With a chest freezer, food tends to get "lost" in the bottom; this isn't very frugal if you find frostbitten veggies 11 months later. I can pack my upright solid with grocery goodness and still reach everything therein.
Also, chest freezers can be a major pain to clean, and even the newer models will need defrosting sooner or later (like when something gets in the way of the door so it stays slightly ajar and stuff starts melting and pooling in the bottom). Not fun.
I think the main reason uprights are less efficient is because the cold air "falls out" when you open the door. We combat this by keeping frequently used items in the small freezer above the fridge, and...um...theoretically we just open the big freezer a couple of times/week. Then I move everything I plan to use soon into the little freezer.
I wholeheartedly recommend a freezer of some sort, and having owned both the chest and the upright types, I think the upright is worth a few dollars/month extra on the electric bill: Worth it in both time *and* money saved.
I've used a chest freezer for over 30 of my 38 years of marriage. In its most useful life,with 3 boys, husband & me, had one about the size you're looking at. I would recommend getting baskets for organization. I had one for beef, chicken, pork, etc. I shopped at the "day-old" bread store and froze the bread. If you get one, be sure to keep it full - that can mean jugs of frozen water, too. Freezers are most efficient if full. We also froze produce from the garden, "leftover TV dinners", cookies and cakes, pie filling, etc. I think they're fabulous!
About 10 years ago I bought a 20-year-old Kenmore chest freezer at an estate sale for $50. It's in perfect condition even though it's pretty old and if anything does break on it, Sears has parts for everything!
I have an upright 13 cubic foot model. I love it!! It is a super investment, and you will not know what you did without it. I don't like chest freezers---things get lost at the bottom. I didn't see much of an increase to the power bill at all, which was weird. I'd get a bit bigger upright if I were you...that one on your link doesn't look very much larger than the freezer in my fridge.
Thanks everybody! Keep it coming!
Used chest freezer (about 3.5 ft high, 3.5 wide, and 2 ft deep) -- on Craigslist, $10 + pickup. It even fit in my Scion xB, so no truck/van borrowing, either! Our indoor freezer has no shelves, so even when we only had a few things in there they were falling all over each other. The chest freezer is awesome. I like the chest-ness as I am short and therefore able to utilize all of it; I tend to lose things on top shelves of big uprights. It fits my KitchenAid ice cream maker bowl, a few good tubs of homemade ice cream, extra frozen pizzas, Hot Pockets, Eggo waffles, and all the meat I buy shamelessly on sale. I especially love buying the same-day expiration meat (sometimes as much as 2-3 bucks off at sale) and throwing it in the freezer when I get home. I've even gotten prime sirloin and organic ground buffalo! It doesn't suffer too much for the thawing, as long as you marinade either before or after and are not aiming for bleeding rare treats.
Very worth it to have (my mom has had a huge chest freezer for years)....have you checked on freecycle near you for one?
Kethrai
We bought a small upright freezer from sears last year-wow what a blessing! you know, you can even freeze milk when on sale! It has been so helpful to freeze whatever is on big sale at the store, and try to just shop sales to replenish what we use, and avoid some of those emergency grocery store runs
Thank you everyone! I'm watching Freecycle. The only thing we know for sure is that we want a new(ish) one because of energy concerns. I'll have to check into an upright. I thought that the chest freezer looked like a pain, but uprights take more electricity. Ahhh, choices, choices.
Fun fact: The exact same freezer that is listed at 199 on the Lowe's website is 157 in the store. It's not even on sale! Sears had one for 200 in the store, but nothing cheaper. I'll have to check again. So when comparing prices, be sure to go to the actual store if you are not ordering. This is not the first time I've seen something cheaper in the store than it was online.
Good point, Jilly. The manuel defrost is a big part of the reason that we were mostly looking at chest freezers.
Question to all who have manuel defrost: How big of a pain is it? Where does the water go? I will have this freezer in my apartment, not in the basement on concrete or anything. We were going to put whatever we got on carpet scraps we have. Will defrosting a manuel distroy the carpet? That may be a stupid question, but I have this vision of a huge flood in our rented apartment.
My parents have an upright, and mostly use it to store flour and extra meat.
We have a fairly large chest freezer, probably 20+ cu ft.
Regarding defrost: I put this off entirely too long (like 4 years), thinking it would take forever (like 24 hours) and require a lot of mopping up the inside of the freezer (there was ice a few inches thick in some places). HA! for the most part, the chunks of ice fell off in chunks. So, since I was around, I just walked in every 30 minutes or so and picked them up (a bucky was useful) and threw them in the sink. It was probably over in about 2 hours, not counting the 15 minutes it took me to cart all the food outside to the garage and the 30 minutes I took putting it back in the next morning (that's when I sorted through and tossed and organized). The "worst" part was the cleanup after the ice was gone. But even that wasn't too bad--yeah, I was leaning way in, but it wasn't too uncomfortable (for reference, I'm 5'6"). There was no mopping--the bit of ice that had melted was easily wiped up with a towel.
I do try to organize the freezer about once a year. This prevents losing things for too long. I generally know what's in there, the problem for us is actually using it (we just didn't eat frozen veggies for a while and DH didn't like the hamburger patties he bought!). Some people keep a list of what's in there--helps in meal planning as well. Some people use paper bags and other containers to help organize things. I have one bag for bananas and another for meat and also use a "milk crate" for our veggies.
I also love it because it enabled me to buy an ice cream maker last summer and I always haave plenty of room for storing it (and the ice cream, too)!
I couldn't imagine living with just the fridge's freezer anymore. But I do have a garden and fill up the freezers with fruits and veggies in the summer/fall. (I buy a lot of fruit and freeze it, too.) I also store flour in the big freezer.
LOVE my upright freezer. It's 8 cu ft I think, I bought it so long ago at a scratch and dent.
It lives in the garage, so defrosting isn't a problem - it has a pull-out button that turns the coils warm. It defrosts totally in about 1/2 hour and refreezes in about that time on a power freeze setting.
I stay out of mine too, theoretically. Maybe I'm in there twice a day at most. We never notice the electricity cost.
I will say, if you can do a new scratch and dent, that's your best bet. If someone's selling slightly used, ask WHY. Maintain the seals, keep it clean, and buy a good brand. It will pay for itself rapidly. Mine is over 6 years old and still works a dream.
Check out this article in the Dollar Stretcher:
http://stretcher.com/stories/05/05feb28a.cfm
Post a Comment