What's Your Choice? Upright Or Chest Freezer

Lee

Lee

Senior Member
Location
Chatham, Ontario
Why can they not make a self defrosting freezer. I dread that job and having an upright freezer I hate it even more. All that ice gets caught on the shelf coils.

The freezer is less than a year old and I am thinking of going back to a chest freezer rather than go through that defrost thing again.

Or maybe a bigger fridge with a good size freezer compartment.
 

We have a upright freezer. I use a hair dryer to help melt the ice between the coils when I defrost it. We've never had a chest freezer so I can't say one way or the other about them.. 😶
 

HazyDavey said:
We have a upright freezer. I use a hair dryer to help melt the ice between the coils when I defrost it. We've never had a chest freezer so I can't say one way or the other about them.. 😶
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I thought about that but worried that the dripping water would cause a shock.
 
Lee said:
I thought about that but worried that the dripping water would cause a shock.
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Put rubber gloves on while using the hairdryer, and keep the dryer a good 3 inches away from the coils.. as long as you don't touch the coils or allow water to splash into the hair-dryer it'll be fine. I used to always defrost my fridge like that before we had frost-free
 
Due to space in a small apartment, the lady downstairs has a small chest freezer and it takes up very little room. If I ever got one, I would have to go with that. I used to have a large chest refrigerator (no freezer in it) and I used baskets in it to make it easier to get things out. But I didn't have to defrost it so ice was not a problem.
 
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Lee said:
I thought about that but worried that the dripping water would cause a shock.
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My wife came home from the thrift store one day with this monster looking hairdryer. Seeing that thing gave me the idea to try it. I use it after having some pots with warm water sitting on the shelves for a while.(With towels on the bottom.) I really don't have to get that close, just kind of stand back and blast the whole shelf. This thing she brought home puts out a lot of hot air, fast. Works well.
 
My choice would be a sleek modern styled upright if I were designing a new kitchen.

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SeaBreeze said:
We always had a small chest freezer that we keep in the basement in the laundry room.

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As a young child my mom would send me downstairs to fetch things out of the depressed for her, and we, too had a chest freezer (a big one), and I recall how I learned to balance my weight (feet off the floor) on the front rim of the freezer in order to reach way down to the bottom.

Safety was not number one in the 60's.
 
I have a 6 cu ft upright freezer. I have a list of what is in it taped to a kitchen cupboard door. Every time I defrost it I update the list, which is in a spreadsheet on my computer
 
Aunt Marg said:
As a young child my mom would send me downstairs to fetch things out of the depressed for her, and we, too had a chest freezer (a big one), and I recall how I learned to balance my weight (feet off the floor) on the front rim of the freezer in order to reach way down to the bottom.

Safety was not number one in the 60's.
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We had one of those old chest freezers big enough to store bodies in when I was a kid.

What I remember most were the arguments about all of the wasted freezer-burned food that was stored in it. We only seemed to use the food stored in the top foot or so of the freezer and would end up tossing the rest of it every couple of years.

We also rented a freezer locker, similar to the one pictured, for our homegrown beef, pork, chicken, etc...

1609341783721.jpeg 1609341813585.jpeg

These days, with proper management, my little refrigerator-freezer compartment is sufficient for me.
 
Aunt Bea said:
We had one of those old chest freezers big enough to store bodies in when I was a kid.

What I remember most were the arguments about all of the wasted freezer-burned food that was stored in it. We only seemed to use the food stored in the top foot or so of the freezer and would end up tossing the rest of it every couple of years.

We also rented a freezer locker, similar to the one pictured, for our homegrown beef, pork, chicken, etc...

View attachment 142321 View attachment 142322

These days, with proper management, my little refrigerator-freezer compartment is sufficient for me.
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I feel the same about the freezer in our refrigerator, now that it's down to just dear hubby and me in the home, that's plenty god for the two of us, even though we do have a chest freezer downstairs.

I wonder if the new uprights of today would be more efficient at helping prevent freezer-burn as compared to the older ones of yesteryear?
 
We have an "ancient" Montgomery Wards 16 Cu. Ft. chest freezer in the basement....we bought it way back in the early 1970's, and it still works good. As some have said, it's hard to get to stuff near the bottom, but we keep some cardboard boxes in the bottom, and just load food into the upper couple of feet.
 
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Lee said:
So I just googled frost free freezer, never realized there was such a thing and this is what I came up with. Apparently they are not good for long term storage.

https://www.thekitchn.com/the-problem-with-frost-free-freezers-247588
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Well gee...how long am I going to keep stuff in it...certainly not for a year. I constantly check my dates and rotate for meals. Also, imagine a chest freezer and me only being five feet tall (on my tiptoes) and trying to reach something on the very bottom. Nope, not going to do that anymore and don't say get a small chest freezer because my boys and hubby eat a lot.
 
IrisSenior said:
Well gee...how long am I going to keep stuff in it...certainly not for a year. I constantly check my dates and rotate for meals. Also, imagine a chest freezer and me only being five feet tall (on my tiptoes) and trying to reach something on the very bottom. Nope, not going to do that anymore and don't say get a small chest freezer because my boys and hubby eat a lot.
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I'm contentious about the same, Iris.
 
I recently bought a Frost Free Fridge freezer, (top half fridge with a three drawer freezer beneath) it’s great and, knowing I don’t have to defrost it is a bonus :giggle:
 
The upright is definitely my preference. Mine is very small, except when it’s time to defrost it. Cleaning out every little nook & cranny takes ages. I too do the hairdryer method. It never goes directly into the freezer, just stand back & blast the hot air & soon chunks will be falling down.

I‘ve been coveting a frost free model. My freezer is 20 years old so expect that I’ll soon have the wish answered. As they say, be careful of what you wish for. Bet a new model won‘t last 20 years, based on the short life of fridges now.

This is a reminder that I need to do the semi-annual defrost. It’s cold enough that I can store the contents in the garage.
 
Many years ago when we had a fridge where the freezer needed defrosted, I'd boil a pot of water and set the pot inside the freezer compartment, close the freezer door, then the refrigerator door and allow the heat and steam to work it's magic.

It was still time consuming and messy, but the boiling water in a pot worked well.

I don't miss those days. Used to wash the kitchen floor when I was done, also used to pull the fridge away from the wall and wash under it the same time.
 
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Jules said:
I‘ve been coveting a frost free model. My freezer is 20 years old so expect that I’ll soon have the wish . As they say, be careful of what you wish for. Bet a new model won‘t last 20 years, based on the short life of fridges now.
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Don’t know what age you are Jules but I doubt I’ll last another 20 years either !
 
Aunt Bea said:
We had one of those old chest freezers big enough to store bodies in when I was a kid.

What I remember most were the arguments about all of the wasted freezer-burned food that was stored in it. We only seemed to use the food stored in the top foot or so of the freezer and would end up tossing the rest of it every couple of years.

We also rented a freezer locker, similar to the one pictured, for our homegrown beef, pork, chicken, etc...

View attachment 142321 View attachment 142322

These days, with proper management, my little refrigerator-freezer compartment is sufficient for me.
Click to expand...
"Store bodies in," LOL. That a frequent use for those freezers - both in movies and in real life.
In one movie (with Vincent Price, I think) he killed his wife, chopped her up, wrapped each piece & stored her in the basement freezer.
Later, he heard noises in the basement. When he opened the freezer to check, a hand reached up & strangled him. Oooooooooh.. :ROFLMAO:
 

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