Chest freezer

Yay. Hubby came home with a new 7.2 cubic ft. Chest freezer. The only down side isits not frost free. But for the price it was worth it.
Anyone else have a chest freezer

I used to, you'll find the frost really doesn't add up to much, especially if it's full. Otherwise once a year with a blow dryer works!

di and bob
Thanks That's good to know.
I'm looking at the sales papers to start stocking it up.

Mine is an upright, but whatever.  What I do is use everything up during the summer and then unplug it and throw towels in it while I'm home for the day.  Dump towels into washing machine and wipe out freezer with cleaner, then plug back in.  It's never gotten terribly over-frosted, but I think once-a-year defrosting has helped with that.

And oh yes, boy does it save you money to buy meat only on sale and I saw no difference in my electric bill (high anyway).

We bought a used small chest freezer on cragislist for $35 two years ago. We have no space for it inside, so it lives on the deck with a tarp. :lol3: We get more frost because of that, but even we only need to defrost it once a year. It gets some build-up around the top, but it doesn't really impact anything. We do the same as peaches08. Use everything up in fall. Put what's left into some coolers. We put a fan in it to defrost it quickly, and then clean it up, and it's good to go!

It holds maybe... 150 pounds or so? Probably more. But we have stacking plastic boxes in it to make things more accessible. That reduces the amount that can be packed in there - but makes it all more usable.

I only have a little freezer in my fridge at home but work with a whole load of the things in a food store!  The ones we have in the store have linings that are OK to scrape the ice frosting off .   We unplug them first, empty any contents to another freezer (or freezer bags if you have them at home) then use a plastic car windscreen scraper to get all the ice frosting off the insides. It's far easier to scoop the frost scrapings out of the bottom of the freezer than water!  Use a dust pan with a rubber or silicon front edge to pick up the ice scrapings and shovel in to a bowl or bucket down in the freezer.  Then all you need to do is a quick wipe round to get any remaining loose frost and water.  It takes about half an hour to do a large freezer if you keep at it, even if there's about 1/2 cm or 2/8" frosting at the top of the sides. Like LDG, use upside down crates - and pack them with scrunched up paper in the bottom of the freezer to pack things closer to the top if you don't have much stuff in there: it helps make things easier to reach as well as keeping the freezer more efficient energy wise.

Enjoy having all that freezer space.  When I was growing up my parents had one, and friends and family have them now.  Friends raise their own animals and send for slaughter, so freeze large amounts of meat like half an animal, and also grow vegetables and fruit so they have large amounts of stuff when it's in season and big freezer helps manage that through the year too.  

I used to have one but I have nowhere to put it here so I sold it when I moved. We are looking to move again (need a bigger place) and I hope there will be somewhere I can put one.

I have a chest freezer. I bought it in 1994 the summer before going into nursing school. I was working and I stocked up on food so that I didn't have to worry about going hungry while in school. Best investment I ever made.

However, 20 years later while it still works great, my back isn't so great. I find it very difficult to find things and things tend to get lost in the bottom and forgotten about.  I would love to have an upright freezer so that I can more easily find things. Ideally I would like 2 uprights: one for uncooked food, and one for my make ahead meals and baked goods.

My parents had a chest freezer when I was a kid.  That was many years ago before frost free and it didn't have to be defrosted very often.  The freezer on top of the fridge always needed to be defrosted but I don't think the chest freezer was done more than maybe once a year.

We have a chest freezer for vegetables, leftovers and such. I simply can't do without it. 

When my mom passed away and we had to go through my parents' things, I asked if I could have their upright freezer. Nobody else wanted it, so it's in our basement, too. I use that to store meats when different cuts go on sale. Now that we've had it, I can't do without that one either. 

Usually on Sunday mornings, I take the laundry basket and go down to the basement and "shop" in the freezers, getting enough to see me through for a good week or so. I will have enough meat, veggies, and such in the freezer to our fridge that I can pretty much cook from the freezer for the week.

It's really great when I go through my periods of only preparing meals that I can scrounge from in the freezer. I think it saves money for us in the long run. I stock up when things are on sale and when the garden bounty is ready, it's just wonderful for us.

It only works though, if you have a list of what's in your freezer and you use that list. My list is in the kitchen and I know down to the pound every single item that we have in our freezers.  I try to keep it all properly labelled and I try to use it all well within the allotted time. 

Both freezers need to be defrosted and I have found that once a year is plenty for us. I take everything out and heat water in my large stock pots. Then I take them downstairs, stick the pots in the freezer, and shut the door. It only takes a couple of hours to de-ice the freezer.

Congratulations on your new freezer! You're going to love it!

I love our little chest freezer and couldn't do without it now. It's great to be able to stock up when things are on sale. Last week I bought two prime ribs because there was a good sale on.

I've been wanting one; especially since we started keeping a small vegetable garden!  My Grandparent's still have one.  They have always had a huge upright one.  Plus an extra refrigerator/freezer in the basement.  If we had a basement we'd likely have gotten one already. The only place we have for one is the garage and DH isn't keen on keeping one out there.  We did just get a shed over the winter; so maybe he'll let me use the extra space for one now.