Extra Freezer??

[theglidd]

Does anyone have an extra freezer in the house?

I always try to buy in bulk to save money, but our current freezer situation (frig/freezer combo) only allows so much storage.

Do you think investing in another freezer would be worth it in the long run to hold more food and take advantage of more sales?

Anyone run payback numbers on this? It looks like a chest freezer runs about $400 bucks, plus yearly operating costs. Not sure it's worth it.

[clarkm04]

We have an extra freezer.  Easily the best investment we've made for Costco items.  Being just a couple, it's nice to load up on Costco coupon items or make bulk meals and freeze them.

The upright is more of an energy hog than a chest freezer, but my wife preferred one since it's easier to organize items in it.

We bought our used.  A new unit of the make/model we got would be $500, got it used for $150.

You can find a ton of chest freezers used on Craig's List.  I homebrew and have 3 in my house.  One I converted to a bar, the other two for cellaring/homebrewing.  Most chest freezers are surprisingly energy efficient.

 

[mxer54]

I wonder what the numbers are on energy use...I've considered this as well but I dont want my electric bill increasing. 

[hybrid]

Our small, newer, upright freezer has projected energy costs of $50 a year, so call it $4 a month.  Definitely worth it for us.

[sol]

I'm having a hard time justifying the need for more space.  My family of five routinely fits an entire month's worth of freezer meals (dinners) into the freezer of our standard size refrigerator.  And that's in addition to ice cubes and popsicles and frozen vegetables.

Maybe for very large families who cook for more than one month at a time?  Or hunters who bring home 200 pounds of meat at once?

My first suggestion, though, would be to clean out your current freezer and reclaim a bunch of dead space from things you will never eat.  When we do our monthly power-cook, most things get stored in gallon sized ziploc bags that take up almost no space in when stacked flat.  I guess I can see how your freezer would fill up if you were buying a lot of prepackaged frozen goods, but that seems almost as contrary to this site's core message as buying a second freezer.

[iris lily]

Does anyone have an extra freezer in the house?

I always try to buy in bulk to save money, but our current freezer situation (frig/freezer combo) only allows so much storage.

Do you think investing in another freezer would be worth it in the long run to hold more food and take advantage of more sales?

Anyone run payback numbers on this? It looks like a chest freezer runs about $400 bucks, plus yearly operating costs. Not sure it's worth it.

Yes, for a household of two we have in the basement: a chest freezer and a refrigerator. We get sides of pork and beef from DH's family farm. We have huge gardens and freeze lots of vegetables. So for us, it is a necessity.

[nottoolatetostart]

Yes, but ours was like $150 new from Lowes (I think we paid less than that because we had a coupon and used discounted gift cards and they delivered it to our basement). Ours is not very big, so I cannot imagine the energy usage is too high. 

Have you checked out Craigslist?

Bought it for storing breastmilk (I made so much that we ended up donating, which paid for my $300 breast pump and helped out some neonatal babies in the process!) and make ahead meals before we had our first. Now, it holds chickens from our local farmer, produce that we flash froze from the summer, and stuff from Costco we recently purchased. Since I am gearing up for making some more freezer meals with our second baby, it will be holding more. I probably don't use it enough.

Love it. The minimal cost to keep it running definitely pays for itself.

[soccerluvof4]

I have mentally been fighting this argument with myself for months but cant see how we would lose out and am going to find one starting with craigs list or perhaps a scratch and dent sale. With a family of 6 when sams, aldis or Costco has price reductions on frozen goods the 25%-30% price reduction on one item would more than pay for a months electricity. And they seem to last a long time. We run our freezer now lean and mean as well as the refrigerator but i find i miss way to many opportunity's on huge savings because of no space. Not to mention bulking up on pre-made meals. I use to do this years ago and found it was easier and cheaper to make healthy meals in bulk and freeze for lunch etc.....

So i am going to find another item to sell to buy one!

[hybrid]

I'm having a hard time justifying the need for more space.  My family of five routinely fits an entire month's worth of freezer meals (dinners) into the freezer of our standard size refrigerator.  And that's in addition to ice cubes and popsicles and frozen vegetables.

Maybe for very large families who cook for more than one month at a time?  Or hunters who bring home 200 pounds of meat at once?

My first suggestion, though, would be to clean out your current freezer and reclaim a bunch of dead space from things you will never eat.  When we do our monthly power-cook, most things get stored in gallon sized ziploc bags that take up almost no space in when stacked flat.  I guess I can see how your freezer would fill up if you were buying a lot of prepackaged frozen goods, but that seems almost as contrary to this site's core message as buying a second freezer.

I've thought about this point as well, and we have a sizable freezer compartment in our refrigerator, but I tend to jump on sales of meat and bulk items (like cheese, vegteables, etc.) and freeze large quantities of it.  Yes, I'm spending extra money on electricity but definitely getting it back in savings on food.  I think about it like I do the Costco membership - spending $50 to save more than that long term.  I think this is one of those YMMV questions.

What definitely was NOT working for me was using an old 1990ish fridge that came with our home as the secondary freezer / beer fridge.  I don't want to know what the electricity costs on that old beast were.  We sold that and replaced it with the economical upright, I think it was about $100 or $150 new, I don't recall at this point.

[horsepoor]

A small chest freezer will only cost a couple bucks a month to run.  The question of whether it's worth it for not depends on your level of organization and commitment.  It's easy to leave stuff in there to freezer burn, but it is definitely cost effective if you are diligent about wrapping the food properly, and use what you have in there and rotate through everything.

This year we upgraded to a bigger upright to make organization easier.  It's so nice to have the room so that if I find organic chickens on clearance for 50% off, I can pile them all in my cart and take them home and freeze them.  After thanksgiving I bought two fresh turkeys for 39 cents a pound and froze them.  Each one was our protein for the week and more, plus a big batch of turkey stock, for about 1/3 the price that they usually are.

Our old 7 sf chest freezer was $2-3 a month to run, whereas I think the upright is $5 or 6 per month.  Sold the chest freezer on Craigslist for $100, which seemed to be the going price for a modern, non-energy-hogging small freezer. 

[Jack]

Yes, but ours was like $150 new from Lowes (I think we paid less than that because we had a coupon and used discounted gift cards and they delivered it to our basement). Ours is not very big, so I cannot imagine the energy usage is too high. 

This. Chest freezers are not $400 (unless maybe you find some completely huge one commercial grade one or something). Mine is 7 cubic feet and cost less than $150 (maybe closer to $130) new from Sears Outlet.

We keep things like whole turkeys, hams (I got ham for $1/lb + $3 off from Aldi the other day!), etc. in it.

[Cinder]

What definitely was NOT working for me was using an old 1990ish fridge that came with our home as the secondary freezer / beer fridge.  I don't want to know what the electricity costs on that old beast were. 

Disregarding age, an upright fridge/freezer has all of the cold air 'fall out' when you open the door.  A Chest fridge/freezer keeps all of the cold air in when you open the top.  Not to much difference if you don't go into it frequently, but if you are constantly in and out it save a whole bunch on consumption. 

[phred]

If you are going to buy a side of grass fed, free range beef then you definitely need a chest freezer.  Add in some free range chickens, lamb, pork and that chest freezer will fill right up.  You can generally get colder temps with a chest freezer than with the freezer in a frig.
Uprights cost more to run than the chest type, but if you keep the upright full (thermal mass), it won't be that much more

[Another Reader]

These days upright freezers tend to be self-defrosting.  That means they warm up enough to melt the frost/ice and drain the water.  Food does not keep as well as it also can defrost partially and will spoil more quickly.  I have a Kenmore that I would gladly sell because of that.  It's also not cheap to operate, around $15 a month for a 13 cubic foot model.  The old manual defrost that it replaced cost less to operate and kept the food at or below 0 degrees Farenheit consistently.  Next time they go on sale, I'm buying a 7 cubic foot chest freezer that is a manual defrost model.  I think they are around $150 if I recall.  Look for the Kenmore on Craigslist when that happens.

[The Money Monk]

I have one that I got for about 180 bucks. It has an estimated yearly operation cost of only $27 bucks.

I use it a lot to buy meat on sale. If you figure that I buy the meat when it is at least a dollar cheaper than the usual price (usually its even better) than I would only have to buy 30 pounds in a year to get into the black. I eat at least that much meat every month, so it's definitely saving us money.

[The Money Monk]

I have mentally been fighting this argument with myself for months but cant see how we would lose out and am going to find one starting with craigs list or perhaps a scratch and dent sale. With a family of 6 when sams, aldis or Costco has price reductions on frozen goods the 25%-30% price reduction on one item would more than pay for a months electricity. And they seem to last a long time. We run our freezer now lean and mean as well as the refrigerator but i find i miss way to many opportunity's on huge savings because of no space. Not to mention bulking up on pre-made meals. I use to do this years ago and found it was easier and cheaper to make healthy meals in bulk and freeze for lunch etc.....

So i am going to find another item to sell to buy one!

I am normally ALL about buying used, but just keep an eye on energy consumption. While you may be able to get a used chest freezer for $50, it may use $15 a month or something in electricity. Brand new they aren't even that expensive; I got a floor model with a super minor ding for like 15%  off for around $170, but it is estimated to use only like $2 a month in electricity! so after around 10 months you are saving money over the less efficient used freezer. Something to think about.

[Tami1982]

I bought a new one at Costco for $170 and because electricity is SO cheap in my region it costs less than $20 a year to run it.  Totally worth it to me.  As a Costco purchaser of bulk items I need to space, plus as the recipient of meat from my family of hunters, and not to mention all the veggies and fruit I froze over the summer from my garden.  In addition, it lets you take advantage of really good deals. 

I bought 3 turkeys when they went clearanced over the holidays for something like $0.39 a lb.  Ridiculous!  (I'm new to turkey cooking and I know I should purchase higher quality birds, but didn't want to my first few experiments to waste a high quality bird.  I'll invest once I've got that hang of it.)   I purchase most meat once it has gone 50% off, so I can stock up on that because I know I have the space. 

Plus I go to a local bread outlet about every 3 months or so and can pick up the few carb based items I eat for stupid cheap and store them until I'm ready to eat. 

In addition, I supplement raw bones to my dog and one bag would take up half my fridge freezer!

I think it is totally worth it in the long run.  In addition, the new one that Costco has (same model as I have but upgraded) has some really nice organizational and just daily use features.  (Kinda wish I could have the new one! LOL) 

[Rural]

I've recently replaced our antique Frigidare chest freezer, which died shortly after being moved to the house. A freezer definitely pays off for us in free food, plus the added bonus of being able to get bargains.

The freezer stores venison, gallons of wild berries, nuts (which don't have to freeze but keep better so I freeze them if there's space), etc. Plus homegrown vegetables (herbs I dry instead). I could get by without the freezer by canning the meat and veggies, but the berries would have to be canned in sugar, and I can cook healthier with frozen ones. Plus there's the cost of supplies (jars, lids, sugar, fuel to heat) and frankly, it's a lot more work. I think it would be cheaper and when I retire I may make the shift, after I run the numbers.

Then there are the storebought bargains: hams and turkeys at the holidays, 50 pounds of Vidalia onions every spring, bread from the day-old outlets which are too far away for regular trips, bushels of apples in the fall (missed that this year due to the freezer dying), etc. Basically, the freezer lets me buy a year's worth of food in season and eat at in-season prices all year. I'm fortunate that the old freezer died as a result of being moved; we'd been eating it down in preparation for the move and so I didn't lose a year's worth of food as I might have any other time.

I'll second the recommendation of a chest freezer over an upright, and manual defrost over frost-free. Cheaper to run and the food keeps better.

[DTown]

I got a new-ish chest freezer on Craigslist for $100, just for myself and it has absolutely been worth it.

Then extra space means I can buy meat in bulk directly from ranchers. It is far higher quality than anything you'll find in a supermarket and it's less expensive. I also ordered a few hundred reusable 1 pint plastic containers from a restaurant supply store for $40 or so. I use the containers to freeze chilli, soups, broth, cooked burger patties, vegetables, cooked rice, and various homemade sauces which I cook in 2-3 gallon batches so I always have very healthy meals ready to go that just need to be warmed in the microwave. This saves me tons of time cooking, keeps me eating healthy because everything is made with raw ingredients (no weird additives), and saves me money because I can buy in bulk and I'm not tempted to eat out or order in when I don't want to cook. I actually wish my 12 quart stockpot was even bigger so I could even more easily mass-produce good inexpensive food for myself.

[Jack]

The freezer stores venison, gallons of wild berries, nuts (which don't have to freeze but keep better so I freeze them if there's space), etc. Plus homegrown vegetables (herbs I dry instead). I could get by without the freezer by canning the meat and veggies, but the berries would have to be canned in sugar, and I can cook healthier with frozen ones. Plus there's the cost of supplies (jars, lids, sugar, fuel to heat) and frankly, it's a lot more work. I think it would be cheaper and when I retire I may make the shift, after I run the numbers.

Oh yeah! That's the other reason I bought my chest freezer: I have two pecan trees, and a couple years ago (before I bought the freezer) I was drowning in pecans and couldn't store them long enough to use them all. Store-bought pecans are freaking expensive, you know!

I had forgotten about it because for the last two years we haven't had a good yield (due to the facts that pecans crops alternate between large and small biennially and that last summer was wet enough to ruin the crop).

[sheepstache]

One other consideration, which you may already have thought of, is, how often do you lose power?  And/or can you buy dry ice in your area?

[Guses]

I don't want to know what the electricity costs on that old beast were.  We sold that and replaced it with the economical upright, I think it was about $100 or $150 new, I don't recall at this point.

Depending on your energy costs, it can be surprisingly inexpensive.

In my case, I calculated that I spent about 20-30$ PER YEAR in electricity to run my 1970's era chest freezer. Replacing with a more efficient model would put my payback period at 20-30 years... Definitely NOT worth it.

Also, newer freezers and refrigerators are much cheaper made than older ones. Probably won't last as long.

[ketchup]

Got mine on craigslist for 100 bucks.  Currently about 70 pounds of meat lives in there.  Totally worth it for us for bulk meat.  As has been stated, freezers don't use much power at all.  Ours is opened only a few times a week, so it doesn't have to do all that much.  $30/year is the estimate I think for powering it.  And it could probably store about 200lbs of cheap meat if we filled it up.

[jawisco]

As others have said, it depends on your lifestyle and what you use it for, but a chest freezer has worked out very well for us to stock up on sales, put up summer fruits and veggies when they are cheap and plentiful, and buy larger pieces of farm-raised meat.

The point about losing electricity is important - if you have long outages on a regular basis, you can lose a lot of $ in a hurry.

Everyone interested in energy efficiency should own one of these - http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392143677&sr=8-1&keywords=kill+a+watt.  It allows you to actually measure the electricity any device uses. 

I bought a smaller chest freezer off craigslist for $50 and was able to determine that it will use around $30/year in electricity at our current rates.  Awesome investment.  In fact, I am looking for another.

[PantsOnFire]

I have a small freezer that accommodates a whole hog (~175# processed weight), plus about a dozen mason jars of hops, 10 kilos of 00 pizza flour, a couple gallon jugs of ice, and about a dozen freezer packs for use in coolers.  I think the freezer paid for itself after the first hog and a few pounds of hops (there is a HUGE price break on buying hops by the pound.) 

Avoid any freezers with auto-defrost.  That "feature" will shorten the shelf life of your food and will eat up a lot of electricity, and there's really no need for it if you are only going into the freezer once or twice a week.  It takes over a year for any appreciable amount of ice to build up in my freezer.  Every year right before I butcher the hog I take 20 minutes and defrost the freezer the old-fashioned way (unplug it, empty the food into a cooler, set a bucket of hot water in the bottom, close the lid, then mop up the water from the melted ice about 10 minutes later.) 

[Cinder]

I also ordered a few hundred reusable 1 pint plastic containers from a restaurant supply store for $40 or so. I use the containers to freeze chilli, soups, broth, cooked burger patties, vegetables, cooked rice, and various homemade sauces

Where did you get the containers from?  Was there a local store, or did you buy on the internet?  I've been using a combination of ziplock/glad containers and vacuum seal bags, and I was looking for a more cost effective alternative. 

Also, to mention defrost.. I don't even defrost mine.  I have an ice scraper that I just use on the sides, and I catch most of the ice in a cardboard box and just dump it outside.   If you do it every other time you load it up after a big haul, it doesn't build up very fast!

[Rural]

One other consideration, which you may already have thought of, is, how often do you lose power?  And/or can you buy dry ice in your area?

Always a concern and for me, this is the strongest argument for canning. However, things stay frozen well in a chest freezer if you don't open it. I've never lost food to a power outage, only to the dead freezer (which at a guess I'd say was four or five days gone when I discovered it).

We lose power here during ice storms and heavy wind events. The wind events pass quickly and power is back within hours. Ice? Well, so far, so good, but we're expecting what the forecasters say is a 10-20 year storm tonight, so I'll let you know whenever we get power back! Until the move to the house, I had the freezer on an outdoor porch, covered. That meant it stayed cold as long as the weather did, which is remarkably convenient as regards ice storms. Now, though, it's in my nice big kitchen, and I may just end up paying for convenience in venison this year. It may convince me that we should look into a portable backup generator. (Not to be run in a house, I know, but our freezer is close enough to run the cord out a window to the covered porch and set the generator there.) hmm. It would have other uses, too.

[PantsOnFire]

My in-laws told me they lost like $600 worth of refrigerated/frozen food last year because they were without power for 5 days.  It never got above 40° F any of those days!  :facepalm:

Regarding the "take-out" containers, you can buy them here:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/default.aspx?catid=574&parentcatid=691
A few years ago, we started saving them from the rare occasions (once or twice a month) when we order take-out.  They rarely break, so now we have a few dozen of them and we use them for bulk storage of homemade stocks and soups.  I would advise you to stick them in the microwave for a few seconds between removing them from the freezer and pulling off the lid... otherwise the rim of the container tends to crack when you open it.  Other than that, they last several years.