Is an extra freezer worth the expense?

[share.home]

What a great topic and perfect timing, as DH and I were just debating this. I only have a fridge with the frezer compartment on top and it is always crammed but I wasnt sure if and chest freezer was worht the expense. -- Now I think I will get one next week.

With some of the other great tips I have picked up about storing vegetable it would be crazy for me not to. I thought a freezer would be harder on electric than $30-50 per year.

 

[miss_thenorth]

What a great topic and perfect timing, as DH and I were just debating this. I only have a fridge with the frezer compartment on top and it is always crammed but I wasnt sure if and chest freezer was worht the expense. -- Now I think I will get one next week.

With some of the other great tips I have picked up about storing vegetable it would be crazy for me not to. I thought a freezer would be harder on electric than $30-50 per year.

Hi! Welcome! you have to make sure you know the eergy star rating on the freezer. Buying new will get you a more efficient freezer, buying used you probably won't know. If you look at new, call around the stores and see if they have any scratch and dents, they are usually marked down in price.

Why pay more than you have to

 

[Farmfresh]

I have two BIG chest deep freezers, a everyday refrigerator with freezer, AND and occasional refrigerator freezer. The chest freezers and occasional refrigerator stay in my (fairly) dry basement where they work less hard keeping cool.

The occasional refrigerator is unplugged and the door is blocked slightly open unless I have a need for the space, like when I am chilling freshly butchered chickens for a couple of days before freezing, working on large quantities of veggies or fruits to preserve, Christmas and Thanksgiving. The door MUST be opened to prevent it from getting moldy and gross when not in use. (Use extreme caution if you have small kids in the house, maybe even chaining the door open for safety sake.)

I recently bought the chest freezers upgrading from my old less efficient one. If you buy an energy star rated freezer you are money ahead! Chest freezers are much more energy efficient than uprights. Also a full freezer works less. If you don't have stuff - freeze water bottles! When the electricity went out for 10 days a couple of winters ago (gotta love Missouri ice storms!) we lost NONE of our food. We checked only one time per day. After a couple of days with no electricity we collected icicles from the garage roof and placed them in garbage bags then filled any empty freezer space in the top with them. Everything stayed hard frozen!

You also save money by buying the filling for the freezer. We buy meat in bulk a cow or pig at a time. We buy from local farmers and they deliver them to the butcher, then we pick up the custom cut and wrapped meats. The quality is SUPREME! And the cost is overall much less than you would pay for the poor quality supermarket meats. We also freeze lots of other things: make ahead meals, fruit, veggies, bread, cakes.

It is like having a grocery store in the basement. I say BUY that freezer AND buy it NEW - a Energy star model!

 

[Georgiagirl]

We just bought another freezer about 3 weeks ago, I ran out of room in my big upright so we bought a smaller upright to keep meat in. I think it was a wise investment for us.

from thelooks of your avatar, I can see why you ran out of freezer room!!!

 

[me&thegals]

Hi--we have 2 freezers--an older upright and a newer energy star chest. We try to consolidate things to 1 freezer when possible, but some times of year (like fall), we have so much from the garden and then venison and other meat that we need both running.

If you grow or pick your own things free or cheaply, a freezer is absolutely worth it. The only way for me to have all my free veggies and fruits is to freeze them, especially since I'd rather not can a lot of it because of it losing its quality or nutrition (like berries and greens).

I'd highly recommend buying a new freezer. I get almost everything else used, but appliances are so energy efficient these days that they pay for themselves rather quickly in electric bill savings. You can Google appliance use and there are sites that list the styles, years, models, everything to help you figure out how much certain appliances would use yearly. Good luck!

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I have three freezers and love having them. I have fruits and veggies in one, meat (we have our own beef) in another and I have baked goods, dried things,butter, flour, cornmeal, left overs, and my bee's wax in the third one. I can tell no difference in the electric bill (ours are in the basement and the room temp stays pretty even summer or winter.. When we were without electric for a week we threw sleeping bags over them, didn't open them often and only had a few things that defrosted some..

 

[VT-Chicklit]

I have a freezer in the top of my refridgerator, as well as a medium sized upright model that we keep in the basement. I prefer an up right model to a chest type because frozen food can get "lost" in the chest type some times. If you are not going to freeze huge quantities of meat and veggies, the upright model might be for you. Because it looks like a refridgerator and has shelves inside, it is harder to "loose" food in it. I a chest type if you don't empty it before adding more into it, some items get burried at the bottom, and don't see the light of day until you defrost the freezer. Since most of the new freezers are frost free, items can get lost for years. My mom has a small chest type that she lost a chicken in one corner of the freezer for 18 months! My upright model has shelves that I fill completely. It is packed like a brick right now because fo the garden, but as it empties I have room to move items around to get to the back of each shelf and check for older items. I try to use the FIFO rule (First In First Out) so that things dont get too old. I also try to keep like items on the same shelf (beef together, chicken together, fish ect.). I didn't find a big jump in my electric bill when we got it either. Good luck

 

[PotterWatch]

When a neighbor of ours in our old condo complex moved out (rent was getting too high), she couldn't take her freezer with her so she asked if we wanted it. Couldn't say "yes" fast enough! It wasn't very old and still had the energy star sticker on it so we could easily see the rating. We shop in bulk most of the time, so having an extra freezer is a big plus.