Question About Freezers

[Wifezilla]

We'll buy 6-8 turkeys when they are on sale for 6.00 and 6-8 hams when they are 1.19 lb around x-mas and at easter.

I do the same thing I am cooking the last of our 2008 turkeys this weekend.

As previously stated though the chest is a lot more energy efficient. The more full it is the less it runs.

When my upright isn't as full as it should be I put water jugs inside. If the power goes out, those frozen jugs will help things stay cold until the power comes back on. I also use them instead of loose ice cubes in our cooler for camping/picnics, etc... Ice lasts a lot longer that way.

 

[Mackay]

Thanks guys. We will be storing beef, eventually what we raise ourselves. Probably a quarter or half and selling the rest...we hope.
Maybe goat too. Thinking about that. Its our neighbors preferred meat.

Do you think a 23 cu ft is big enough for a half? or a quarter?
on average anyway?

We will likely be storing some fish too.

 

[Mackay]

When my upright isn't as full as it should be I put water jugs inside. If the power goes out, those frozen jugs will help things stay cold until the power comes back on. I also use them instead of loose ice cubes in our cooler for camping/picnics, etc... Ice lasts a lot longer that way.

Good idea Wifezilla!

 

[Big Daddy]

Thanks guys. We will be storing beef, eventually what we raise ourselves. Probably a quarter or half and selling the rest...we hope.
Maybe goat too. Thinking about that. Its our neighbors preferred meat.

Do you think a 23 cu ft is big enough for a half? or a quarter?
on average anyway?

We will likely be storing some fish too.

We put a 1/2 cow that had a hanging weight of 1200 or so. I think it dressed out to 750 or so. It fit just fine in our 23cf upright. There is more usable space in a chest because there are no racks. However you'll have a lot of fun finding that particular steak you are after.

By the way you might try having the butcher put the sweet meats in to the hamburger. Makes the hamburger really delicious. People used to marvel at my hamburgers and want the recipe. I threw them on the grill still frozen from the butcher. Just added some seasoning salt.

 

[2dream]

I have 3 chest freezers. I ended my archaeological digs with simple and cheap plastic containers and a few heavy duty cardboard boxes that I picked up at the grocery store. (The ones with the wax coating that produce usually is delivered in.
Veggies, soups, stews, etc are frozen flat on a cookie sheet and then filed in the appropriate plastic container. Purchased meats like hamburger, pork chops, steaks are seperated into portion appropriate bags, made a flat as possible and then placed into the beef, pork or chicken plastic container. (I have about 3 beef containers). I keep veggies, soups, stews stored on one side of the freezer and meats on the other end. Now all I have to do is open the top, and lift out the plastic containers. Even if the peas and beans are in the bottom plastic container the most I have to move is 3 or 4 plastic containers. I never have to remove them from the freezer just stack the on top of the meat and vice versa when looking for meat. It sure is simple, and my food never gets buried at the bottom to be forgotten. I will take chest over upright everytime. Defrosting the chest freezer is easier for me than the upright as well. I never make the mess with the chest freezers that I made when I had uprights.
And never offer me a frost free freezer.

And yes I love Pterodactyl wings. Its been years since I had any. I use to have them all the time until I discovered freezer organization. Actually I was eating them so often that they are what prompted the freezer organization.

Edited for at least one spelling error. Probably a lot more I missed. LOL

 

[xpc]

I bought a 6 cu.ft. chest earlier this year and if packed just right may hold a quarter beef but iffy. It costs about 6 cents a day or $2 a month, I checked the operating costs of two 20 cubic foot models and the chest style would cost about $3.50 vs the upright style at $6.50 a month, both these models sell for about $500. I had an older 12 cu.ft. upright and it cost $5 a month.

I traded the upright for a used washing machine because I was tired of doing laundry in the bath tub and bought the new small chest for $170 because of my plans of going off grid. Note used freezers can cost 2 to 3 times more to run depending on age because of the advancements in compressor and insulation technologies.

Personally If I were going to store several $ thousands in beef I would opt for the upright and not worry about the extra $40 a year in electrical costs. Of course your cost will vary by your local electric rates (i used 0.10 per kilowatt) and where you keep the freezer, a freezer kept in a 90F room vs a 70F room can cost 25% more to run and can put a thousand watts of heat back into the room per day. Since cooling is more expensive than heating a house I cut a hole in my kitchen wall into the utility room and mounted my side by side refrigerator flush which now heats the utility room and makes my kitchen bigger.

Although many people keep fridges and freezers in unheated garages the manufactures will never recommend it as it will shorten their lives unless a cold weather kit is installed, it is basically a cheap band heater that will keep the oil liquefied so as not dry start a compressor in winter.

Also if you don't already have a generator I would look into getting one and test monthly if you are going to have that much money at steak (pun) though some homeowner policies may cover the lose it is still a pain to get the money from their cold dead claws.

 

[Mackay]

Great Ideas Guys!

I will start right out packing my freezer goods in bins of some kind
and now I know that I really want at least a 23 cu ft one, that really cuts down the playing field....hmmm but at 18 cu might do it too.
and I better get a band heater (cold weather kit) for it because its going in the garage.

We do have a generator but I'll have to look into what insurance might cover just in case.

sweet meats? their like organs and weird stuff right? the unmentionables?

and I do remember Pterodactyl wings from when I was a kid...and I think I will pass.

 

[patandchickens]

Another thing to ponder -- if you want a bigger freezer but it's not so easily affordable right now, there is often something to be said for *two* freezers, with the second one running only during months when you have too much stuff for the first freezer. If your freezing is fairly seasonal (like a side of beef) this can save you a bit of operating expenses. And can work well in terms of "get one now, other one later".

Pat

 

[Big Daddy]

What area do you live in? Our upright is in the garage which is not insulated and faces north. We see as low as -12 but not on a regular basis. The freezer is factory stock

Sweet breads (meats is wrong term, sorry). DW just looked up on Wikipedia, yeah it's stuff that the average American wouldn't usually eat. I know ours included the liver, kidneys, heart, tongue. May have had some of the other stuff, brains wasn't on the list. At any rate it made the hamburger real tasty.

 

[xpc]

What area do you live in? Our upright is in the garage which is not insulated and faces north. We see as low as -12 but not on a regular basis. The freezer is factory stock.

Freezers are more resilient than refrigerators in cold weather and older compressors were built tougher and even worked with internal friction damage, newer compressors are built with more exacting tolerances and use different gases and oils.

There are two scenarios, first; with a combination refrigerator / freezer the cold control is in the fridge compartment and as the outside temperature drops it will cool that inside area and once below say 40F the cold control is satisfied and will not turn the compressor on which will result in a warmer freezer compartment. There are garage kits for these which mount near the cold control and trick it into thinking it is warmer than it actually is.

Second; a stand alone freezer can sustain internal compressor friction damage when the lubricating oil in the crankcase is thickened to the point that it will start up dry which basically scores and scratches the moving parts and then allows internal leakage and gas bypass that will lower the efficiency, it may still work fine but will have to run longer to achieve set point. A crankcase or band heater that are used on cold weather heat pumps is the solution for this.

There are many stand alone freezers that will work in very cold weather without the need of extra heaters, just read the owners manual at the store and do not take the sales persons word for it.

I like the idea of two freezers rather than one big one for the reasons mentioned by Pat, plus the likely hood of both failing simultaneously would be rare.