advice on buying a freezer

[lazarus]

We're moving into a house soon, and want to get a freezer to store meats and stuff (the freezer in a refrigerator is too small).

Question: Which is better, upright or "coffin" style? And why?

[LastKnight]

1. the way i see it ...

it has more to do with your space constratints, we have a coffin style, because thats what would fit under our basment stairwell, which turned out to be the best place to store it.

[lazarus]

2. we'll have tons of room

big garage, plenty of space in the kitchen, etc., so space isn't a problem.

For some reason, Haele thinks a coffin freezer is better. I'm more used to the uprights. :shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Chest is usually cheaper

both purchase and running the darn thing. We opted for a manual defrost model and it's dirt cheap to run. Needs defrosting about every 6-9 months. The biggest disadvantage to a chest freezer is the lack of shelves to aid in organizing the contents, but if you have one or more wire baskets to hold the smaller items it's manageable.

[Salviati]

4. Like the other poster said...

size and shape considerations are probably the most important, but I figure that with a chest type freezer, when you open it up, the cold air is going to tend to stay inside, rather than pour out all over the floor (not that there's a lot of heat capacity in air), so they might be a hair more efficient that way...

[yellowdogintexas]

5. think about whether you want to spend the rest of your life doing

headfirst dives into the chest freezer. Not pleasant. My mom had one approximately the size of Rhode Island and stuff tended to migrate to the bottom regularly.

Upright freezers on the other hand offer much more convenience.

Get the frost free. It's worth it. Energy star efficient, of course.

[lazarus]

6. you win

We've got some nice efficient frost free models for sale through craigslist around here, so I'll start looking.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. have you seen the Frigidare freezer/refrigerator pair?

In the store, they sit side by side, but are two separate units.
One is a complete refrigerator, w/shelves in the door etc. ONE door.
Tons of room

The companion is an upright freezer, with icemaker and water chiller.
Side by side they look like a combo unit but are actually sold separately. If I had the room I would go that route instead of the Ref/freezer combination. However I do not so will opt for the biggest sidebyside I can fit into my kitchen. My garage does not have space for a freezer, unless it is a very small upright type.

Have fun shopping.

[lazarus]

9. out of our range

we're looking to pick up a used one cheap.

[LeftyMom]

7. If you want to get into it frequently, get a frost-free upright

if you want max efficiency, and are willing to open it less often (if you get in there every day, it'll frost up inside faster,) get a chest freezer. For the chest models, migrating stuff to the house freezer once a week or so works nicely, in my experience. They're really easy to defrost, you just unload it, open the drain at the bottom and unplug it. Food keeps longer in manual defrost, too. Getting to the stuff at the bottom is mighty inconvenitent, so we keep most everything in the wire baskets near the top. Buy as many as will fit, they're a lifesaver and cost less than $10/ea.