What's Your Choice? Upright Or Chest Freezer

[Jules]

Don’t know what age you are Jules but I doubt I’ll last another 20 years either !

Though I’m not expecting another 20 years, I don’t want to go through what happened with our fridges. They barely lasted 5 years. Fortunately two of them had a 5 year warranty. Then a different type acted up right away. Replaced with a different style. I mustn’t put a hex on it by mentioning it.

 

[Jules]

I just spent two hours doing the semi-annual defrost. In the middle of this if I could have found the right small freezer with auto defrost, it would be arriving tomorrow.

 

[mike4lorie]

We have a Samsung Upright, have always owned chests, but find them a pain in the a... to clean, Upright, turn it off, open the door, let it defrost, and wipe out without any problems...

 

[win231]

I just remembered another chest freezer episode years ago on "Adam-12."
A guy the cops were chasing ran into a garage & hid in a chest freezer. It took several minutes for the cops to find him.
When they got him out to arrest him, he was really cold & shivering.
After handcuffing him, one of the cops said, "Let's go, Frosty."

 

[Knight]

Samsung
27.4-cu ft Side-by-Side Refrigerator with Ice Maker (Fingerprint-Resistant)

Didn't realize there were still refrigerators that had a freezer compartment. This is what we have. No defrosting no bending to unstack what is under other frozen food.

 

[IrisSenior]

Samsung
27.4-cu ft Side-by-Side Refrigerator with Ice Maker (Fingerprint-Resistant)

Didn't realize there were still refrigerators that had a freezer compartment. This is what we have. No defrosting no bending to unstack what is under other frozen food.

Bit those fridge freezers are so small compared to chest or upright freezers. I wish had smaller freezers just to store what I need for the week.

 

[hollydolly]

Bit those fridge freezers are so small compared to chest or upright freezers. I wish had smaller freezers just to store what I need for the week.

I have a half and half in my kitchen.... most people do in the UK...our kitchens tend to be quite small compared to US kitchens , so 1/2 and 1/2 are idea size..

however I do have a chest freezer , and 6 foot upright freezer in the outbuidlings too..

 

[rkunsaw]

Upright or chest? Why choose? we've got both.

 

[old medic]

Prefer a chest to an upright... there more efficient, and dont want self defrosting... can ruin long term storage stuff.
And yes the upright is more convenient for searching for stuff, but we have ours set up with baskets for easier separation
of items and twice a year empty defrost and long dated stuff goes to the regular fridge for getting used up.

 

[Tommy]

The laws of physics: warm air rises, cool air sinks. When you open a chest freezer the cold air within stays inside. When you open an upright, it dumps onto the floor and the machine has to re-cool it. All other things being equal, a chest freezer will use less electricity and maintain better temperature uniformity than an upright.

Our current 16 cu. ft. chest freezer is five years old and we'll defrost it for the first time this winter although the frost build-up isn't all that bad. During one of those periods when our daytime highs remain in the teens, the food will go into several large Coleman coolers placed outdoors. Unplug the freezer, open the drain plug, and let it drain into a nearby floor drain. When all the frost is gone, wash and dry the interior, close the drain plug, and re-cool the freezer. Return the food to the freezer and we should be good for another five years.

 

[Knight]

Bit those fridge freezers are so small compared to chest or upright freezers. I wish had smaller freezers just to store what I need for the week.

The side by side I've shown has more space than we actually need. We have access to 4 major American markets & 3 major Mexican markets all with competitive pricing

example.
https://www.bonitamarkets.com/ofertas

Storage visible at eye level works. Aside from that cold filtered drinking water & filtered water for the ice maker at all times is a bonus.

 

[Pinky]

We had one upright side-by-side fridge/freezer. We never did completely fill the freezer side, and found the fridge side was not spacious enough.

 

[squatting dog]

Upright or chest? Why choose? we've got both.

Same here.

 

[MarciKS]

There's no way I'd want anything I have to defrost. I don't have room for a chest freezer here unless it went in the basement. It would be nice to have a side of beef in there. Or whatever they hold. That way I could just worry about the sides at the store. Our doctors lounge has a little mini fridge and one time the lead had to defrost it and found chocolates frozen into the ice on the sides. LOL

 

[Lethe200]

I have the smallest frost-free upright freezer - 14 cu. ft. Love it. Use a vacuum food sealer (Foodsaver et. al.) and meats will keep a very long time without any freezer burn. Liquids, raw nuts and grains also will keep without freezer burn.