Size of chest freezer

[David Gough]

Fingers crossed I tag out on a deer and my first elk this year. What size freezers does everyone have and what is the minimum size I should look at buying for processed meat?

 

[Bynumlife]

Mine is a 7 cubic foot and serves me well. Not sure how many deer I can fit in there but I know it will hold an elk and maybe another deer. Right now I have most of a deer, 30 lbs halibut, some random stuff and think I can fit an elk in if I'm stack it in there correctly.


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[Bynumlife]

Also, spend $10 on amazon and buy a battery powered temperature alarm. I've lost 3 freezers over the last 15 years and it's gut wrenching how much meat I lost. I guess I was a slow learner.


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[David Gough]

Also, spend $10 on amazon and buy a battery powered temperature alarm. I've lost 3 freezers over the last 15 years and it's gut wrenching how much meat I lost. I guess I was a slow learner.


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Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

 

[missjordan]

I got a 17.5 cu and it's a great freezer. Last year we piled 3 elk and two deer and still had a quarter of the freezer left for more. Now that most of that meat is gone, it's a lot to be powering but I'd rather have too much freezer space than not enough


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[David Gough]

I got a 17.5 cu and it's a great freezer. Last year we piled 3 elk and two deer and still had a quarter of the freezer left for more. Now that most of that meat is gone, it's a lot to be powering but I'd rather have too much freezer space than not enough


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Thanks!

 

[Jimss]

Once you get into hunting you may find out the biggest freezer isn't big enough! I have 2 full sized upright freezers and there always seems to be lack of room. Depends upon how much hunting you do, how quick you eat the meat, and how good of a hunter you are! I always bring home meat, capes, turkeys, fish, etc so the bigger the better for me! I go to Alaska on a regular basis and not only bring home big game but also salmon/halibut. I often sell my capes to pay for trips and these take up a chunk of freezer space. Your wife may like having a large freezer to store extra food? I process all my own meat. If the weather is super warm it's always nice having extra freezer/frig room to store game when I first get home from a trip until I have time to process it. As mentioned above, it's a lot better having more space than not enough!

 

[Snyd]

Buy the biggest upright you can find and afford.

 

[Becca]

We run two full sized uprights, and a medium sized chest freezer. The uprights are much easier to organize and find things in, but won't hold as much. The chest freezer holds a rediculous amount of stuff but it's almost impossible to organize well. I have taken to storing fish fillets in the chest freezer since they are awkward to put on the shelves in the upright, and then cured sausages (like polish and hotdogs). Aside from fish , I sort everything in our chest freezer into heavy duty trash bags. That way if I grab a bag and pull something out, I know everything in that bag is the same thing. Our freezers are in our garage and I make a point of looking at the power lights whenever I leave the house or come home.

 

[Bynumlife]

We run two full sized uprights, and a medium sized chest freezer. .

We cut heavy cardboard upright dividers for our chest freezer and it's made a huge difference in keeping organized.



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[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I have a 14cuft upright I store stuff in long term, which easily holds 200lb with room to spare (IE it'll hold an elk and a deer). I find a suitable sturdy carboard box that fits a few of the shelves and load all the frozen packets of meat into the box so it doesn't all spill off the shelf and I can l fill it up almost entirely. I organize ground meat/roasts/backstraps&loins/sausage into consolidated areas so grabbing something is quicker. I also have a 7cuft chest freezer that usually sits idle unless I need overload capacity. During hunting season this is where freshly butchered meat goes into to initially freeze it without warming up the upright, I move it into the upright once frozen. I believe I could fit an elk and deer packaged into this 7cuft freezer but haven't tried.

+1 on the temperature alarm.

 

[LongWayAround]

I believe mine is a 7 cubic foot, it will hold a deer and an elk with some room to spare. It however wasn't big enough to hold my velvet rack.

 

[ljalberta]

I have a 7.5 cubic foot chest freezer in my garage, however my personal experience has been different than some have mentioned. I can't get a full (bull)elk and a full (buck)deer in there at the same time (probably a cow elk/ doe I could). If you want to have both fully in there at the same time, I would reccommend something a little bigger for a minimum.

 

[Jimss]

I got my almost brand new uprights on Craigslist for about 1/2 price! I may get a third one if I can find another great deal for those emergency situations! It's a pain in the rear not having enough room!

 

[Bughalli]

I see you're in Reno....watch Craigslist, the free section. I'm down in the Bay area. Feezers get posted for free at least once a week. There's three up there now. I have a 5 cubic foot chest freezer and a 3 cubic foot upright. (I'm guessing on the size, could be slightly larger) I use the upright most of the time and it holds a processed deer. If I get an elk then I use the chest freezer. ....both were free off craigslist.

 

[harge57]

Also, spend $10 on amazon and buy a battery powered temperature alarm. I've lost 3 freezers over the last 15 years and it's gut wrenching how much meat I lost. I guess I was a slow learner.


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What alarm do you recommend?

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[Bynumlife]

What alarm do you recommend?

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The one I got was the highest rated on Amazon for $10. I think it's a CDN.


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[5MilesBack]

We already have two uprights and a fridge with freezer in the garage, but I picked up a 7 cu foot chest freezer last week. I figured out this year after loading my daughter's bull into them, that I didn't have enough room for my frozen milk jugs for the cooler for my hunting. So decided I needed more freezer space. I really wanted a commercial 15 cu ft model, but the shipping on that thing was almost as much as the freezer. So settled on a Costco special.

 

[icb12]

We run 2 Frigidaire 20.5cf uprights with LED readouts. I really like them.

Cool tip for those of you with smart-homes: I run our Modem, Router, and Smart Home Hub on a battery backup. Then I use zwave power outage sensors at the outlets for the freezers. Then I get notifications when the power goes out to them.

 

[Utravur]

I have 140 lt Pelican fridge and it's quite enough for an elk and some ducks. the only drawback is that it doesn't have an energy supply. But it keeps the temperature for ten days which is prety sufficient for me. This article was helpfu when I was choosing the cooler Best Coolers for Camping 2018 – Reviews And Top Picks.