New Freezer

I guess we need a new freezer.

Yesterday DH and I were in the basement going through things for the yard sale in a couple of weeks. I put some items on top of the freezer and when I removed them, I noticed that the freezer seemed overly warm. It had been awhile since the freezer was defrosted, so DH and I immediately removed everything, put it all in large totes, put heavy covers over the totes and started defrosting. (Lots of hot water and a hair dryer.....worked wonders.)

Got it done and wiped the freezer down well. Turned it back on and let it cool back down. Put the food back inside. We kept a close eye on it the rest of the day and evening.

This morning, after giving the kids their breakfast, I went down to the basement. It's not running all the time now, but it's still quite warm on the outside. I'm glad we caught it at a time when the freezer isn't real full of food....Next Tuesday, our blueberries are coming and later on this summer, we'll be filling it with produce from the garden and then applesauce this fall.

We really can't complain; we looked at the paperwork in our files last night and that thing is about 35 years old. At this point, we're better off to buy a new one as the one we have now isn't even energy efficient at this point.

We're going freezer-hunting this afternoon.

My hubby got a stand up Kenmore from Sears and it's got all sorts of features like an alarm if the freezer gets to warm, child proof locks. and I think other things but I can't think of them right now.. LOL! He put a 1/4 of a beef in there (YUCK! LOL!) and in Aug he's going to put a 1/4 of a pig in there (yuck again!) It seems to have alot of space and it only took two shelves for his beef... It's 14 cubic feet and well so far we really like it!

I have a chest freezer that I bought in 1994 prior to going to nursing school. I stocked it really well prior to leaving work and starting school.

I think I would have preferred an upright freezer as it's so much easier to access stuff in. Plus it takes up less room. However, in an apartment, a chest freezer is so much more esthetically pleasing to look at that what looks like a fridge in a hallway.

We bought a Frigidaire chest freezer. At Lowes. They're going to deliver it this morning. (They even deliver on holidays; I was surprised.) And they're going to take our old one with them.

We didn't want an upright. They're harder on electricity and when you open the door, you lose more cold air than you would from a chest. We have a chest now and, other than a bit of bending, it's not that bad.

It's the same size as our old freezer....14.7 cu ft. We debated about getting a larger one, but it's just the two of us. (Except for when our DS comes to visit and ends up grocery shopping out of our freezer, that is!)