As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on a chest freezer. I'm looking for something that is at least -15° and budget friendly.

I feed my pups partly raw, and I have been using an old refrigerators freezer, and it's just not big enough. I have been making it work, but a few times I had to pass on deals because I didn't have enough room.

So, I'm finally going to get a chest freezer, but since budget and room is tight, something around 7 cu ft is looking to be the sweet spot.

So, what do you like?


ARman

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/i...5046.p?skuId=6385046


I bought this one a few months ago. So far so good. I store venison in it Price was right. Will see how it goes. Hray.

I buy sides of beef from a local rancher and I have been for probably 15-20 years at this point. I buy the commercial chest freezers and sell/upgrade every 5 or so years. I would rather avoid losing all my beef due to a freezer failure by spending money every 5 years for a new freezer.
You can find the Kelvinator Commercial freezers at restaurant supplies and I would recommend those: Kelvinator freezer

Are you set on a chest freezer? Personally haven't had much luck with them, had 2 fail within 16 months of being new. The other aspect is digging through it whilst getting battered by a lid that's also blocking your view.

I got an upright freezer, and square footage is less than the old chest and is far superior. I don't know your budget, but there's a sale on 13 cubic feet uprights from Frigidaire at HD now. Think they're 550ish. Not cheap, but not wholly unreasonable.

I bought a Frigidaire 48” chest freezer in 1998. Still going strong. Never been touched for maintenance or anything. A chest freezer will stay colder way longer in a power outage than an upright will, and you can open them to get something out without compromising all the cold air inside.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
I bought a Frigidaire 48” chest freezer in 1998. Still going strong. .

I bought a Kenmore 12cu/ft from Sears in '96 that's still going strong. I also have a yuge upright. I agree that the chest freezers are better at keeping things frozen, but the only issue I have is that there's still probably things in the bottom that I put in there in '96. . Finding things and organizing things inside chest freezers is difficult at best. One of these years I'll get some cardboard boxes and try to organize it somehow. But going on 30 years, I can't complain.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteer:
Are you set on a chest freezer? Personally haven't had much luck with them, had 2 fail within 16 months of being new. The other aspect is digging through it whilst getting battered by a lid that's also blocking your view.

I got an upright freezer, and square footage is less than the old chest and is far superior. I don't know your budget, but there's a sale on 13 cubic feet uprights from Frigidaire at HD now. Think they're 550ish. Not cheap, but not wholly unreasonable.

Sometimes it's worthwhile to spend more for better design or quality. When I bought a weed trimmer I bought a Stihl commercial trimmer. I figured it's designed to be used every day so it should last me longer. Same with freezers, commercial is supposed to be made for harsher use and so far they gave done well. I sold my last one to a friend and it's lasted twice as long as I had it, even in his non climate controlled garage (in south texas).

I use a chest freezer since they stay cold longer during power outages. Used to be a concern since I'm in a hurricane prone area. It's no longer a concern since I have a whole house gen. FYI they make containers designed to organize food in chest freezers. They work well.

Will the freezer be stored in climate controlled areas or a garage that might get very hot and cold? Some freezers say they are rated to handle being in a garage, others aren't.

Most store chest freezers we looked at had a one year warranty. Costco had one with a five year warranty for about the same price with free delivery and it's turned out well.

I bought a Woods branded 5.5 cube chest off craigslist around 2009 for 50 bucks. It sits in the garage next to the door.

I had to replace a cycling T-stat in it around 2015. Appliance Brad showed me how to bypass it so I could use it while I found the right part. I think the part was around $5. Meanwhile it ran 24/7/365 for about 18 months.

Still cools well below zero.

These things seem pretty hardy overall.

I bought a 5 cubic foot one at Walmart for like $115 two years ago, not sure if they even still carry that kind of thing as I’ve had no need to look. It was for the garage and just for over flow freezer stuff in the house. It has worked very well

Cest freezer because they retain the cold better, and I'm always having short term power failures.

It will be in a garage, and space is tight.

This will be used to store bulk mostly ground beef for my dogs raw food diet.

I would like for it to get below -10° and colder the better, as I also get wild game offal in season, and to make sure that any parasites taken care of, the offal needs to be frozen for 3 weeks at below -10°F.

Looking at spending less than $500.00.


ARman

I bought a small chest freezer for the overflow of yearly local 1/4 grass fed beef purchase.

These baskets fit my freezer dimensions Sterilite Deep Ultra Basket and allow access to the bottom half much easier.

In April 2022 we bought a GE 10.6 CuFt Chest Freezer FCM11PHQQ to replace a ~30 year old 19 CuFt Kenmore upright that had seen better days. The chest freezer is in the garage whereas the upright was downstairs in the house. We've been quite pleased with the new freezer.

Checking the GE site I found this 10.6 CuFt chest freezer on sale for $276.90 (MSRP $659)!
Looks to be the current model of what we have.
https://www.geappliances.com/a...st-Freezer-FCM11PHWW

We have two frigs with freezers, and a stand-alone just freezer and that is not enough for my wife.

Been using this for the last 7 months, no issues. Wanai 5.0 cu ft chest freezer

I have two chest freezers in the garage. Hisense. Remote temperature claims -27 degrees.
The GE fridege in the house won't maintain temperature below 44 in the fridge section. It's 11 months old.
Seems like buy cheap amd monitor it.

Not a fan of chest freezers. We bought a small upright about 12 years ago. Still going strong. Very similar, if not the same as this one.

Kenmore Upright

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
I buy the commercial chest freezers and sell/upgrade every 5 or so years. I would rather avoid losing all my beef due to a freezer failure by spending money every 5 years for a new freezer.
You can find the Kelvinator Commercial freezers at restaurant supplies and I would recommend those: Kelvinator freezer

Yes I agree.

There are tons of restaurants closing around here, as well as everywhere else around the country.

If you want an alternative, check out a Restaurant Supply Store for a used commercial freezer or fridge.

Here locally in OKC there are several Restaurant Supply Stores that have tons and tons of used commercial equipment. I know of one that is now using an overflow warehouse to store all they get in.

Everything from tables chairs and booths to ranges and flat tops to refrigerators and freezers and everything else.

Of course they have older equipment but they are getting back in equipment that is only a few years old or even a year old.

I have a Maytag upright feezer purchased from Home Depot, lasted a few months longer after the warranty expired. I lost a lot of frozen meats.

I'm looking long and hard for a couple 2 3 or 4 year old commercial freezer. They have so much available that they need to sell some.

This is a great time.

Check your local or nearby area for Commercial Restaurant Supply stores and if they have used equipment for sale. These units are repairable unlike todays inexpensive made in china or wherever junk that is not repairable, just throw it out.
.