Meat freezer recommendations?

[Jimss]

I have 2 upright freezers in my garage. I prefer upright for organizing capes, meat, fish, etc. It's nice having narrow door storage (not available with chests). I often have 1 of my freezers relatively empty....especially in the spring when I bring home multiple turkeys that I freeze whole until I have time to cape them. Same thing is true in the early fall when I want to freeze boned big game and capes...especially when it's super hot outside.

In regard to freezers....take a look at reviews. I would recommend a freezer with a light that is on when working properly.

 

[caseroj]

During the peak of the covid crisis in 2020 I bought a 10 cubic foot RCA chest freezer from Costco. I had planned to use it for storing wild game harvested during the hunting season but I ended up storing frozen meats and other goodies I buy in bulk. For example frozen turkey's become dirt cheap after the thanksgiving and christmas holidays. So it's a real bargain to buy 3 or 4 of those birds and just put them in the freezer to be consumed the following year. Ditto when I find a real gang busters deal at my local shopping club (Costco). So a year later I found that freezer fully stuffed with little or no room for wild game. So I decided to buy a 20 cubic foot upright freezer from Maytag recently. This freezer will be inside the house (not in the garage) and all my my frozen foods purchased at supermarket or shopping club will go there. The chest freezer is in the patio outside the backdoor of my house and that will be exclusively for wild game (deer, turkey, hogs, etc). That's the plan anyway we'll see if it turns out that way. I will say that digging into a heavily laden chest freeze to find some meat item at the bottom is a real pain. I would prefer to use the chest freezer for wild game exclusively where you have an instinctive feel where everything is. The other frozen stuff that everyone in the house likes to get at I will keep in the new upright freezer where it will be much easier to organize and find things.

 

[caseroj]

I have 2 upright freezers in my garage. I prefer upright for organizing capes, meat, fish, etc. It's nice having narrow door storage (not available with chests). I often have 1 of my freezers relatively empty....especially in the spring when I bring home multiple turkeys that I freeze whole until I have time to cape them. Same thing is true in the early fall when I want to freeze boned big game and capes...especially when it's super hot outside.

In regard to freezers....take a look at reviews. I would recommend a freezer with a light that is on when working properly.

I look at reviews a lot and weigh them heavily when making a purchasing decision. Everyone seems to think Frigidaire is great or at least that is what they write in online reviews. To be honest I have had terrible experiences with Frigidaire. My mon and dad were familiar with Frigidaire freezers and refrigerators they had purchased in the 1960's. Because of that experience they believed it was a reliable brand. Big mistake! We purchased a brand new frigidaire refrigerator back in the late 80's early 90's and it was an unmitigated disaster. We ended up throwing it out after a little over a year and bought a Whirlpool fridge. I have not had any problems with Whirlpool or Maytag appliances but I simply do not trust Frigidaire.

 

[GreenNDark Timber]

Keep in mind, if you get a chest freezer you also have to unstack all the crap your wife sets on top of it before getting meat out. I really wish mine would die so I can justify buying a new upright!

 

[Jimss]

You are right about digging deep to find stuff in a chest freezer. It’s pretty easy to partition off and organize chest freezers though. I have quite a few life sized capes, large fish, etc. I have 2 boned out antelope and a deer in mine that I had plenty of room to freeze when I got home from a couple trips when the weather was in the 80s. I do the same with several turkeys from 1 trip. Now I can take my time and process them. That would have been impossible with an upright.

 

[Gar]

Keep in mind, if you get a chest freezer you also have to unstack all the crap your wife sets on top of it before getting meat out. I really wish mine would die so I can justify buying a new upright!

When I first read this I thought you wished your wife would die… Lol, then I read it again and figured it was the freezer, and probably not your wife.

 

[pirogue]

If you want it for the garage, I just got an upright Gladiator, to replace a chest type. In AZ, summer heat in a garage is not taken lightly, and this one was recommended. Has a foot pedal to open door, if your hands are full.

 

[bow_dozer]

Keep in mind, if you get a chest freezer you also have to unstack all the crap your wife sets on top of it before getting meat out. I really wish mine would die so I can justify buying a new upright!

Lol, i was laughing at this... and then I read the second sentence and about fell off my chair laughing!

 

[Wyobohunter]

A chest freezer will be more efficient. When you open an upright a lot of the cold air falls out. There is also a lot of wasted space in an upright. A freezer is a simple thing and I don’t see any real advantage in buying anything too fancy. I’ve had the same Holiday 7 cubic foot freezer for well over 15 years. I’ve moved it from AK to southern WY, then to northern WY, then to OK, then back to Wyoming and it’s still going strong. It can fit most of a smallish moose, some halibut and about 24 salmon fillets. The tighter it’s packed the more efficient it will be. Stack things strategically and you won’t need to dig around much. Take up any extra space with frozen water bottles to keep it running efficiently. Then you can use those in your cooler instead of buying ice. Keep a small ziplock bag with a few ice cubes in there. When you go on vacation check the ice cubes when you get home. If they aren’t cubes any more you’ll know that you lost power at some point and anything in the freezer is suspect.

 

[GreenNDark Timber]

When I first read this I thought you wished your wife would die… Lol, then I read it again and figured it was the freezer, and probably not your wife.

haha....yeah, I guess I didn't think the wording through enough on that last sentence.

 

[as.ks.ak]

I have three freezers. Two upright and one giant chest freezer. We dedicate one upright to all meat. One upright to misc. house stuff like frozen peeled garlic, pizza, butter, milk, bread, veggies etc. we live in AK so we do Costco runs and stock up for 6 months at a time, so my use is a bit different than most. But the one freezer dedicated to meat I do the same thing as pods. It just so happens that plastic milk crates for the shelf height perfectly in my freezer so I have a fish crate, a goat crate, bear crate, sheep crate, etc. you get the picture. And then my chest freezer get used for capes and whatever overflow I need from the house/meat freezers. Cannot speak highly enough of the value of the upright freezers.

That chest freezer is money for bulky capes though. Thing has saved my ass on more than one occasion.


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