Freezers

[Cogito]

I've been thinking about buying a standalone freezer. I currently only have the freezer that is part of the frig, and it really doesn't hold much. I'm looking for some advice. I often buy kitchen gadgets with the best of intentions, only to watch them collect dust or hardly ever be used.

My thinking is that I could stock up on sale items. I prefer frozen over canned fruit and vegies. Also, meat and bread could be more easily stored. The questions are:
Size?
Upright or chest?
Frost free or not?
Is this a good idea or another misguided pipedream?

I hate having to go grocery shopping so anything like this helps in that regard. Does anyone have a good system for labelling and managing the contents of their freezers?

 

[brandini]

Chest is WAY more efficient than upright.
Good idea.
Frost free may save you work but it does raise the temp of the freezer (and food) when defrosting the coils and it'd use a bit more power over time.

 

[brandini]

Oh and about labeling things... a thick ziploc and sharpie work great. Or buy things that are individually wrapped (like the fish fillets you can get in the bag in the freezer section). If you get real into it with leftovers and off-season items one of those vacuum saver things may be worth your while.

 

[hr1940]

I prefer an upright freezer because I can look on each shelf and find what I want without having to dig to the bottom. I buy larger amounts and divide things up and put them in a food saver bags. The food will last much longer in the food saver bags. I have been using a food saver for about 8 years and I feel they are superior to zip lock bags. I use my marker to put on the date and item. I keep flour, coffee, etc. in the freezer plus when I bake cookies, cakes or sweet bread I make some extra to have on hand for unexpected company. If you hate shopping like I do then that is the way to go. Learn how to freeze fresh vegetables so when the farmers market has produce at a good price you can take advantage of it. I also make soups and sauces for 4 meals and freeze the extra. When you make vegetable soup do not put in the potatoes so you can freeze several servings. Cook the potatoes for the soup and add the defrosted soup simmer a few minutes and you have a meal in minutes.

 

[Cogito]

Originally Posted By: hr1940
I have been using a food saver for about 8 years and I feel they are superior to zip lock bags.

By "food saver" do you mean one of those vacuum sealing things?

 

[chad8]

400 pound upright . 10 years. saved thousands on food costs.kept outside in garage. fish ,fruits, vegetables, bread, meats etc....well outweighed energy costs. family of 4.

 

[JHZR2]

Upright is more convenient, but if you organize well, underutilize the space a bit, and keep like items together, chest will pay dividends in efficiency. Upright is obviously a bit more floorspace efficient though too...

Definitely use the vacuum-seal device to keep stuff. It lets you partition stuff and keep a far better seal than other kinds of containers. Also store in glass when possible, preferably with locking lids. When you have to defrost a frozen block of stuff, there is lots of heating of the plastic going on - which yields lots of chemical release.

We got one size up from the smallest kenmore. I think ours is maybe 2 x 3.5 in footprint, overall height probably 3 or so feet. Not sure what the rating was... but it was the best cross of acquisition cost, size and energy use for us.

Be sure to label stuff with dates. it is an organizational task to have one of these...

 

[CivicFan]

I have a question about those freezers. How long do you keep the food in it? My guess is that since these things hold a lot of food, some items will be in there for years. We have a small freezer as part of the fridge and yesterday I discovered 3 year old beef patties in it. I'm sure half the stuff in it is quite old.

 

[Cogito]

I have also found surprise packages that I had forgotten about in my small freezer. If something is not labelled clearly, and is not obvious like juice or ice cream, I tend to just pass over it like it was invisible. I found two nice steaks recently that had been in there for at least 3 years, but were wrapped in white butcher paper with no markings. I think I'm going to set up a little log of the freezer inventory. That way I can just look at the log, see what's in there, and how old it is. I think this will help avoid letting items sit around for too long.

 

[Cogito]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
I have a question about those freezers. How long do you keep the food in it?

I think it depends on the type of item. I don't think foods spoil in freezers, but they dry out and get funky tasting after awhile. If meats and fish are wrapped well, I find 2 years to be about the limit before they seem to go south real quickly. Old beef stew meat is not going to be as noticeable as filet mignon since it gets reconstituted when cooking. I think protection from freezer burn is the main problem, then it will just slowly deteriorate with age.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

We have a chest freezer and I wouldn't want to be without it.

We can stock up on items such as chicken, turkey and pork when they're on sale. Right now I have a couple of turkeys and several turkey breasts that will get smoked over the course of the summer.

We also split a cow once every couple years with some friends. We can get a lot of quality beef for a very low price. Half a cow usually lasts us 18-24 months.

We also make and eat a lot of soup. It's great to be able to make a big batch of soup or stew and freeze it in single serving containers.

We can also freeze a lot of fruits from the garden such as strawberries and raspberries.

 

[hr1940]

My food saver is a vacuum seal unit. It has an attachment that allows you to vacuum seal items in glass jars. I buy quart jars at a thrift store. After filling the clean jar place a new lid on top and vacuum seal.

 

[greenaccord02]

My parents have the upright and it's good. I think if you're going to do stockpiling of similar items for the long term, then the chest is best, but for general use with some amount of rotation an upright would be most convenient. Also, consider back problems. You can get a sore back dealing with a deep chest and large frozen items like hams.

 

[Cogito]

Guys, is this what I want?

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nch/hsh/1611373248.html

 

[greenaccord02]

Originally Posted By: Cogito
Guys, is this what I want?

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nch/hsh/1611373248.html


Yes.

 

[Mr_Incredible]

We have a 14cuft upright that is great to have. When pizzas are on sale you can get as many as you feel like. We do a lot of garden goodies (blanch/freeze/package). Multiple loaves of bread if they're on sale.

We have the vacuum seal thing, too. Get h-burger when it's on sale and divide into 1lb packages. Pork loins the same, except into packs of 4. Two years seems to be the limit on meat surprises. Bacon on sale is great to get many pkgs, but my limit is about 1 year for bacon.

I put beer mugs along the door for company. I have a couple upstairs in the fridge freezer for personal rotational use.

Our family is only two now in the house, but it still lets us take advantage of sales and batch cooking.

 

[JimPghPA]

That craigslist post comes up as expired.

If it is used do not get it if the date of manufacturing is very old. The older they are the more power they use.

Also old units have very high start-up current draw.

 

[JayhawkRoy]

" labelling and managing the contents of their freezers"
We use a Sharpie (permanent ink) and Ziploc freezer bags, basically wrapped and then bagged.

I also have a spreadsheet that accounts by date and type all meat in the freezer. Will expand to convenience foods next. Has eliminated the past due "surprises" we used to have.

Gets updated as we take the meat out of the freezer.

 

[sprintman]

hr1940 nailed it.

 

[Virtuoso]

A year is generally the longest you'll want to keep stuff in the freezer. Really, you can (sometimes) go longer, but bacteria still grow and stuff dries out, etc, etc.

Health department does not want me serving anything to my residents if it's over a year in the freezer, FWIW.

At home we have an ~18cu ft upright Whirlpool that we've had about a year now. Frost free and Energy star..works great. Stays COLD and does not cost much to operate. Plenty of space for making large chunks of ice for camping trips, ect.