Upright vs Chest Freezer

[LostArra]

Plastic crates keep stuff from falling out of upright shelves. The one on the left allows you to see what's in there.

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[Haggin]

we have both. Big 19+ CF uprights (two of them) and a 10 CF chest. We use the chest for basically ground meat, ground sausage, fish, and birds/waterfowl. The uprights are for steaks, roasts, cheese and vegetables.

In the chest, its sort of dumped in there, but we date the packages by year to make an effort in using first in first out and they are sort of color coded by type. We should use bins, but dont because they get heavy and lifting them out gets awkward.

For uprights, we use the bins noted above and a few milk crates for stuff to keep it organized, and don't have issues of stuff falling out. Steaks and roasts stack, or "bookshelf" pretty well if you take time and package them flat. Our freezers do lock, so we lock them when we leave for an extended period, just in case, and I've added temp alarms to all three as another measure of protection.

Ours are not frost free, so you do need to thaw them once in a while, 12-18 months. Frost builds up more in the uprights due to the shelf construction with the coolant lines in the shelves themselves, and it gets hard to rotate and store new stuff in there. I simply fill coolers and the other freezers with whats in one, prop the door open and turn on a fan to circulate air. Some have drains, so you can catch the water/route to the floor drain if you have one.

 

[CCH]

My wife is big into organization, so we use the bins on the right in LostArra's photo. Ours are tall enough to use pretty much all the space on each shelf and two fill it side to side with no wasted space. They even have labels that sometimes correspond to the contents. Have had no issues with anything falling out and it's pretty easy to find stuff.

 

[5MilesBack]

Plastic crates keep stuff from falling out of upright shelves. The one on the left allows you to see what's in there.

Now imagine that same picture with absolutely no open space whatsoever in the freezer. That's what our upright looks like. I had to ban my wife from using "my" freezers because of that.

 

[Foster]

If you have space, go with the chest freezer. You're not going to fit much in a 5 cf. I just got one and the wife filled it to the brim right away.
I have two chest freezers. The 5 and an old one that must be around a 10 cf. I'm officially out of space for additional freezers so I'm looking to get an upright.

If I could get the damn Schwans guy to stop banging my wife I wouldn't need more freezer space!

Upright is the only way to go IMO

 

[Boarmaster]

I use most all my meat within a year. I been using chest freezers for years but my next will be an upright. After using my cuzins upright while hunting at his place I am sold on them. Im pretty organized with boxes in my chest but the upright is going to work great for my needs without the need for boxes and freezer diving.

 

[FLAK]

Bought a chest freezer back in Feb.,,,no regrets.
Had to put a 33" Aoudad head/horns/cape in it.

 

[92xj]

I like my upright a lot. When packaged correctly and organized, I can have 120lbs of meat per shelf. Thats a lot of meat in one freezer. I also like my chest for whole quarters or large chunks that i plan to eat or process at a later date.
Packaging like the below, for grind, sausage, whatever has two benefits. One, fit and storage in the freezer. Two, it thaws out in 10 minutes in a water bath. No more having to worry about thawing out a log of grind hours before you plan to use it.

 

[Rich M]

Frost free freezer will cause freezer burn.

Use whatever you like best - upright is fine. Chest freezer is fine. I have 2 chest freezers.

 

[Brendan]

Frost free freezer will cause freezer burn.

Wrong. This was already discussed above. Myth left over from many years ago.

 

[rayporter]

although it is a lot easier to organize in an upright it is still not easy.

if i had just one item in a chest freezer i would have it messed up before i shut the lid.

 

[Rich M]

Wrong. This was already discussed above. Myth left over from many years ago.

Hi Brendan!

Your Mileage May Vary. You may have diff experiences and that's fine.

We have 2 refrigerator/freezer combos (frost-free) and 2 chest freezers (non-frost-free). I have nothing against either one, the fridges get used for the refrigerator and short term freeze, chest freezers for long term.

I'm going off personal experience. I hate it when i go into the ice cream and it is all crystalized, or open a pack of frozen green beans and the "rinds" are all white and dried out. We had some fish vac sealed and kept in refrigerator that got freezer burnt in about 4 or 6 months. That only seems to happen in the refrigerators. I'm sure the chest freezers have burned some stuff, just can't remember it right now.

We keep the long term stuff in the chest freezers and have eaten 3 and 4 year old meat without freezer burn (bare freezer paper wrapping - no plastic wrap in there). Working on some 10-month old king mackerel in chest freezer without freezer burn or much fish stink (vac sealed).

It seems to be working for us.


@rayporter - Dead on. Chest freezers are known for just piling stuff in there. We pile stuff in the chest freezers and have to dig if you want something specific. Grew up with an upright to freeze garden produce (that upright freezer is at least 45 years old and still works - sister has it). The veggies were put into square tupperware containers and stacked & organized - very convenient. The only time i remember any frustration was with irregular stuff that wouldn't stack and pack easily.

 

[Brendan]

Hi Brendan!

Your Mileage May Vary. You may have diff experiences and that's fine.

We have 2 refrigerator/freezer combos (frost-free) and 2 chest freezers (non-frost-free). I have nothing against either one, the fridges get used for the refrigerator and short term freeze, chest freezers for long term.

I'm going off personal experience. I hate it when i go into the ice cream and it is all crystalized, or open a pack of frozen green beans and the "rinds" are all white and dried out. We had some fish vac sealed and kept in refrigerator that got freezer burnt in about 4 or 6 months. That only seems to happen in the refrigerators. I'm sure the chest freezers have burned some stuff, just can't remember it right now.

We keep the long term stuff in the chest freezers and have eaten 3 and 4 year old meat without freezer burn (bare freezer paper wrapping - no plastic wrap in there). Working on some 10-month old king mackerel in chest freezer without freezer burn or much fish stink (vac sealed).

It seems to be working for us.

Frost free doesn't freezer burn anything - improper packaging does. Current frost free freezers still stay (at the very warmest) near zero degrees. Basically, around 10 degrees warmer than a chest freezer, monitored 24x7 with a temp monitor.

I have used two different frost free uprights over the last 10 years, and have taken wild game out after 5-6 years without a single bit of freezer burn.

Package something incorrectly and you'll have it in a week. I've had that in my chest freezer as I use both.

If you notice a difference at all, it has to do with (other than being packaged incorrectly) the fan that you get in an upright. Air circulation of cold dry air speeds up sublimation when something isn't packaged right. Also, the freezer in a fridge / freezer combo doesn't get as cold (ours doesn't) and gets opened more often so you get higher temps and more air exchange every time you open it.

 

[freddyG]

I have way too many of both, and can tell you that for big stuff, a CF is the way to go. Upright for little packages. Frost free sucks, even if packaged the same(I tested this plenty of times).No frost free freezer will do long term storage like the deep freeze models, because of the nature of the beast. Temperature fluctuations don’t help longevity, no matter what the salesman will tell you.

 

[Rich M]

Frost free doesn't freezer burn anything - improper packaging does. Current frost free freezers still stay (at the very warmest) near zero degrees. Basically, around 10 degrees warmer than a chest freezer, monitored 24x7 with a temp monitor.

I have used two different frost free uprights over the last 10 years, and have taken wild game out after 5-6 years without a single bit of freezer burn.

Package something incorrectly and you'll have it in a week. I've had that in my chest freezer as I use both.

If you notice a difference at all, it has to do with (other than being packaged incorrectly) the fan that you get in an upright. Air circulation of cold dry air speeds up sublimation when something isn't packaged right. Also, the freezer in a fridge / freezer combo doesn't get as cold (ours doesn't) and gets opened more often so you get higher temps and more air exchange every time you open it.

You sound like you’ve done the research.

I just asked my wife if we ever get freezer burn and she said only from the two refrigerators. LOL

 

[Millertime30]

I have an upright freezer and I’ve noticed with ours if packaged right freezer burn won’t happen until maybe after two years. We use multiple clips that we put on to make sure it stays shut and sealed. They have plenty of room if you stack things right, at one point we had a quarter beef, 2 deer, 20 pheasants, walleye, a couple pork shoulders, and vegetables in it. Flat packages like mentioned above work best, the tubes of ground meat from a butcher have caused some serious pain and choice words over the years.

 

[Southernhunters]

Upright no question!

You’ll lose track of what’s at the bottom of a chest freezer. Also, having to pull everything out to find something at the bottom....never again!

Now for storing deer heads/fish/ducks until you can get them to the taxidermist....chest freezer is the better option in my opinion.


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[Zappaman]

Chest for LARGE (10 lb+) meat and upright/kitchen freezer for smaller stuff.

I have a True upright box freezer- has a defrost cycle I can set depending on outside temps/humidity, so everything pretty much stays at -10 year round with the door opened up 4-6 times a week for a few minutes (Costco load-ins). I have it set for two defrost cycles a day- 15 minutes each (in Kansas with 75% average humidity). BUT get GOOD freezer baskets!!! THIS is the key to keep 5 lb roasts from falling out onto your Fred Flintstone toes! And you can SEE through good wire baskets (but not cardboard boxes!)

I FILL the chest freezer after most hunts as I usually quarter down the kill (hams, shoulders) for later butchering down. The chest gets opened a few times a MONTH max. And I am usually getting a larger ham/shoulder to steak out... or grabbing a full pig, brisket, or larger cut to thaw for a larger party/BBQ. But for daily stuff, the upright rocks and a GOOD defrost system (like the True's have) allows the meat to maybe hit 0 degrees for about 5 minutes- twice a day then back to -10 degrees for the other 23 hours and 50 minutes in a day. If your meat is packed right, this isn't an issue for YEARS!

But I definitely recommend EATING ALL your red meat by about August, so you have time to empty and thaw out your deep freezer completely. This keeps it from forming glaciers over years while giving you a check on meat that NEEDS to be eaten sooner than later Definitely go deep freezer if you have to pick one (for cheaper cost especially), but realize you have to keep on top of your stash and in this case use your kitchen freezer as the "small portion" short-term storage freezer.

I say it again... EAT the meat while it's still good to eat! Don't let it get two years old in a cheap freezer AND also-- freeze ALL your meat in WATER so freezer burn is avoided.