Asked on Oct 21, 2014

Chest freezers

Idyllic Pursuit
by Idyllic Pursuit
We are buying a chest freezer to keep in our basement. We are a family of 6+ and do freezer meals. What size and brand do you suggest? Thanks!
  12 answers
  • From my experience- an upright freezer is the way to go with kids! When we first married 18 years ago we had 4 kids together and a chest freezer and I hated it. Bending over sifting through packages of meat, desserts, and kid snacks took me extra time plus the kids could not reach their snacks because the freezer was too deep. Spend the extra money and get an upright and you will be so much happier! you can organize the shelves and the kids can go in and get their freezer pops so much easier. Most appliances are made by the same companies (ie Whirlpool makes most) but check out Sears when they have sales. Plus I have redone my kitchen so my new upright freezer fits next to my refrigerator in the kitchen because I do not want to walk out to the garage to get food. But as far as brands go, there is no real difference anymore since many are made by the same companies and put on different names. good luck
  • Gerry H Gerry H on Oct 22, 2014
    I have had both chest and upright freezers. I would never recommend a chest freezer. Too much work to rotate food and no shelves to place your food until it is frozen solid.
  • Roberta Roberta on Oct 22, 2014
    Coming from a mom, I can tell you that the upright is the way to go...make sure it has an alarm when there is a power failure or one of the children leaves the door ajar...we lost over $600 worth of food...by the door being open
  • Rusty Avery Rusty Avery on Oct 22, 2014
    I agree. The upright is best. Kenmore and Frigadare are the ones i would recommend.
  • Sherry Fram Sherry Fram on Oct 22, 2014
    Definitely an upright!! I have a Whirlpool that is over 30 years old and runs great. Chest type too easy for kids to fall in if they are climbers.
  • Colimbia1 Colimbia1 on Oct 22, 2014
    I also agree with getting an frost free upright. It is much too difficult to have to "dig" for your food. I cannot make a recommendation as to brand, but would suggest reading customer reviews at three businesses along with the recommendations here.
  • Kelly lemire Kelly lemire on Oct 22, 2014
    an uprights the best, we got a chest freezer and It is hard to find anything. We have 9 in our family. Also another thing to consider is making sure you can lock the freezer. I keep my key out of small children's reach but close enough to the freezer. Also I cook in quanity so I freeze meals. Yesterday I cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. Today I took leftover turkey and mixed veggies and gravy, made a large turkey pot pie. And cooked ground beef and made a shepards pie with beef and leftover mashed potatoes. Then took rest of turkey, celery , onions and carrots, rice made a pot of turkey and rice soup. put all in freezer and I have three more meals covered.
  • Designs by BSB Designs by BSB on Oct 22, 2014
    Grew up with a 4' wide chest freezer in the 70-80's .. it was a digging process! But they do make them with sliding baskets now -- and if you are storing a year's worth of meat and other items which would require a 3-4' wide freezer, the inconvenience is less. Uprights are so convenient -- but the pretty huge/risk is door being left open. Since I switched? Ive (accidently) lost over $600 worth of meat because the door did not close properly. Painful. Pros - Cons. Risk vs Convenience.
  • Maryann Bukovi Maryann Bukovi on Oct 23, 2014
    mabukovi riverside ca this is my 3d freezer and two have been Kenmore uprights , I had to sell my 31 cubic feet too big once I was divorced , bought a used one that lasted 8 years and then this last one , its only 14 cubic feet but big enough for me and its a Kenmore. wouldn t have any other and plenty of room . for everything I grown and freeze, bake and buy, love just walking out to get what I need , save trips to the store , less money spent. but stock up on meat when on sale .
  • Susan From Colorado Susan From Colorado on Oct 25, 2014
    We have a 22 cb-ft stand-up (not chest) and it meets all of our needs... we just moved 1000 miles and it is still in storage so I could not tell you the name brand, but we have had it for over 20 years and only need to have freon checked when we finally get our new home and get it moved in.. plus I think I lost the key in the move so will have to have a new lock installed (unless I find that dumb key).. good luck on your search. (P.S. the only other repair we have had to make on our is about 10yrs ago we had to replace the seal around door as it was old and caused door not to seal.. but that is part of the maintenance of any appliance one owns) I think it is Kenmore as I remember it is the same brand as my washer and dryer which we bought about the same time.. they last a long time as long as maintenance is kept up on them..
  • Sharon Russell Sharon Russell on Apr 11, 2015
    Have lived with both uprights, and chest freezers. I prefer the upright, as we get older it is harder to hang upside down searching for something on the bottom of a chest type. I have a Fridgidaire dated 1968 - it's got a lot of ice build up, yes. But I live in severe weather country, and if the power goes out.........
  • B. Enne B. Enne on Jun 10, 2015
    I don't have a big family, but we do have 2 chest freezers. 1 big , 1 small Pros: *better for freezing (cold falls) *things don't fall out *good for folding my laundry :) Cons: *very difficult to thaw and clean *very difficult to reach things on the bottom *difficult to see what you have *constantly need to reorganize the contents (see last point) I have many baskets. They help, but they are heavy and I have to take them out or slide them to get to the contents underneath. Not good for my back and I am short. I inherited it, so I will definitely buy a stand up next time, just for the ease of use, and smaller footprint.