Comments on: Is A Deep Freezer Worth It?

By: DanT

DanT — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:23:30 +0000

John (@#47)

I hate to break it to you, but ice can most definitely get below 32 F. If your freezer is set to 20 F, then the ice will eventually get to 20F.

By: john

john — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:21:49 +0000

I have noticed that many of you say to keep jugs of ice in your freezer. As far as I know, ice never gets colder than 32 degrees fahrenheit.
If you freezer is set for 20 degrees, it is always trying to cool the ice past 32 degrees and if you have alot of ice in it, it will work overtime to cool the ice. If you had something in your freezer that say, was 50 degrees all the time, it would eventually melt everthing in the freezer. A small amount of ice cubes is fine as we all need ice now and then.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:46:52 +0000

8 years? I’ve had my deepfreeze for 30 years, and counting….

By: Colette

Colette — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:44:58 +0000

I have a family of five (three kids). I have a stand up 21 Cubic ft model. I couldn’t live without it. For example,when you consider kids lunches for school each day. I go through three loaves of bread a week. Plus lots of home baking ie cookies, muffins, banada breads etc.(better than store bought) for their lunces. I also buy my meat in bulk packs and break it down to freeze it. It’s much cheaper that way.

By: Maria Fatima

Maria Fatima — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:05:26 +0000

i really liked your discussion on deep freezers. i am really in need of one as i have started to buy a lot of produce from my friend who raises her animals on a farm but i am running out of space in my fridge. the problem is that i have no space to keep the deep freezer. seems like keeping it in a garage in the cold winters of maine may not be a great idea?

By: Sal

Sal — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:39:43 +0000

Thanks for the help. My wife and I were tettering on wether to buy a deep freezer on the first of November. Your post has just helped us figure that out. Well put.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:41:20 +0000

I am going to buy a deep freezer this week and I really need your advice. I still don’t know where should I keep the freeezer in the house. Some of my friends said I can keep it in the garage. I am living in Florida, and almost all the year round the garage’s temperature is constantly hot (around 70F in winter or over 100F in summer). I don’t think it is a good idea to keep freezer in the garage. I had a store room under the stairway, should I keep in this room? How’s about all of you?

Another question is how long we can keep the food in the freezer? fruit? meat?. What is your recommendation for a good and energy saving freezer(we have four people in the family).
Thanks!!!

By: Jenna

Jenna — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:57:11 +0000

I thought I would add to this list that the best reason to buy a deep freezer is SALES! Often times you can find all kind of great grocery markdowns on MEAT. I purchased a 10 pound roast recently for 6 bucks, it may have lost its shelf time in their fridge but will last a very long time in the deep freeze. I have also found that at certain times of year you can find frozen goods marked down dramatically due to packaging changes. Sales and markdowns are a great way to keep your freezer full and appreciate the maximum savings of a deep freeze.

What my husband and I do is shop and rotate. When we add to our frezzer we pull older things out and stock in the freezer of our fridge for cooking. We shop our deep freeze once every few weeks to fill up the fridge freezer in the house and replace what we took with new items. Very cost affective method.

By: If I had a Million Dollars (Linkified)

If I had a Million Dollars (Linkified) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:56:35 +0000

[...] it wouldn’t be that hard If I had million dollars – Maybe we could put like a little tiny fridge in there somewhere You know, we could just go up there and hang out – Like open the fridge and [...]

By: cam

cam — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:59:29 +0000

First visit to this site, good question. I’m wondering about this too. I have 3 adult roomates, so there’s 4 of us. We already have 2 fridges, the freezer part in each is usually stuffed full.

I was wondering about buying my mother’s freezer as she doesn’t use it anymore. But it’s old. Probably from 1980. It seems those old ones lasted longer. I expect she’d sell it for 70 bucks or so.

I’ve heard that keeping a freezer full is good for it – opposite of a fridge which operates more efficiently with less in it. Any opinions?

Is there some type of glass/plastic cover that you can put over top (but UNDER the actual Lid) so you can see your food without all of the air comming out?

thx for the advice.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 01:55:18 +0000

Congradulations on your freezer. I am in agreement with those who stated you should be able to get more than 8 years of use from your new freezer. My husband purchased a 21 cf freezer at a farm auction 16 years ago the compressor had a little tick when it was running. My sister ow has it. It is still ticking. We bought my brother-in-laws freezer. which he purchased new 18 years ago. I still think of it as NEW. And my mother & father-i-law has one that I know is 30 years old they had 10 kids I’m sure it was opened and closed alot. It’s still going. We personal have 4 kids. But we have always had a freezer. We live in a rural area. Even when gas was .68 per gallon it was just plain frivolous to drive to town for some think you could have stocked in the freezer to begin with. I really enjoy your newsletter. It is inspiring.

By: James

James — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:29:14 +0000

I think that a deep freeze is worth it for anyone. Smart shopping is the best way to go & you’ll more than pay for the freezer. We shop @ meijers, CVS, & other retailers to only get sales. Buying chicken & others @ half price or more is more than worth it. It also helps out for emergencies that come up. We don’t have to worry about feeding ourselves if something comes up… we have more than a months worth of food for the 4 of us. We’re actually looking into purchasing a stand up deep freezer so we can make cakes for our bakery ahead of time & make it more convenient & eaiser for us to take emergency orders.

By: N'Awlins Kat

N'Awlins Kat — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:00:53 +0000

I love my deep freeze (not sure of the c/f, but we refer to it as the “Jeffery Dahmer special.” I really like cooking in bulk, and I’m allergic to shopping, so I go as infrequently as possible. I’ll buy 15 or 20 pounds of ground chuck when it goes on sale, then stand and fry it all, drain it well, and package it into ziplock bags or rubbermaid containers. Some of it I freeze plain to be dumped into things like spaghetti sauce (made 5 quarts at a time in my slow cooker), and some I season with a homemade Mexican spice mix (mixed up in a quart canning jar). We also love fruit smoothies in the morning, made with bananas, cherries, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries (or some combo thereof), so I freeze the fruit in bite-size chunks that my blender can handle and use those instead of ice. Freezing them is easy; banana chunks I dip in lemon juice, other fruits are just washed, sliced (strawberries) and laid out on plastic-wrap covered cookie sheets and frozen. After freezing, they can be dumped into freezer bags or rubbermaid containers, and I can pull out a handful, as many berries as I need w/o them being in a solid lump. Recently, chicken breasts went on sale for .79 a pound; I bought 20 pounds, skinned and boned them, and froze them the same way. I have two bags of breast tenders, and about 7 more bags of 3 breasts each, frozen individually, and I pull out what I need, defrost in the microwave and go from there. At any given time, there’s usually a couple of hams, a couple of turkeys, a whole ribeye when it goes on sale, and maybe a standing rib roast that I get when it goes on sale for 1/3 the usual cost, so always something in there for a celebratory dinner, and of course, the leftovers are frozen to be made into something else.

Couldn’t do that w/o the deep freeze. It’s also big enough to freeze pasta, rice, and other grains for a few days after coming home from the store to kill any little crawlers that may have come home, before they can multiply in my pantry. (Ewwwww). It’s nice being able to throw together a meal in a few minutes, and much cheaper than buying convenience foods.

That said, my freezer is over 10 years old, and stored in the garage, and we live in SE Louisiana…it gets HOT. I do store ice in my freezer to keep it cold during power outages (of which we have many these days), and I also have a gasoline generator just in case (thanks, Katrina!). After the hurricane, our power was out for 3 weeks, and even though one of our neighbors tried to keep the freezer running with his generator and extension cords (we left town), at $40 a day in gasoline to power the generator, and a limited supply of gasoline, he finally gave up and cleaned out our freezer a week after the storm. By that time, tho, he and his family had done some FINE eating with the gas grills (we left our keys and instructions to help themselves since they were staying). I lost about $700 worth of food in the freezer….pretty heartbreaking, though the state issued just about everyone affected food stamps for a couple of months to replace lost things. That was a huge help, if embarassing to have to use.

Even with the added cost of the freezer (paid about $300 10 years ago) and the higher electricity costs, though, I figure it’s paid for itself annually in the lowered shopping bills, saved gasoline, and in not buying prepared foods, etc. Also, everyone running short knows to come to our house first; there’s always extra food available! Wouldn’t be without my freezer for anything, but I do admit to coveting an upright freezer; less efficient, but way easier to get to things.

By: Trent

Trent — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:42:47 +0000

Garvey, a freezer does indeed cost that much. You’re only looking at the electricity cost, which is only a piece of the pie. You also need to prorate out the cost of the freezer. If you spent $450 on a freezer and expect it to run 8 years, that’s another $4.69 a month.

By: Garvey

Garvey — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:42:43 +0000

There is no way a freezer costs $10-15/month in electricity to run. It’s more like $3-4.

I am surprised no one mentioned gasoline costs. Saved trips = saved gas costs.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:58:51 +0000

If you really want efficiency, get a chest freezer and replace the thermostat in it with one that’ll let you run it in the refrigerator temperature range. I know a few people who run on solar / wind / hydro power and they’ve all done this with very nice results.

By: alice

alice — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:39:30 +0000

I’m wondering if you factored in the extra electricity cost. We received a chest freezer free but figured the kilowattt hours would come to an extra $10-15/month in electric bills. So I’ve been reluctant to plug it in until we make a really big commitment, like buying a 1/4 cow.

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:09:18 +0000

What are the best models in the upright, frost-free area? Is the GE 20.3 one listed at Home Depot (and elsewhere) a good deal? Sams Club has it for about $570 plus a $25 delivery charge. (Plus a chunk of sales tax, unfortunately.)

Brad

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:51:24 +0000

Freezers are an ideal tool for being a smart shopper. Case in point: In our community (a big city on the West Coast), the price for boneless chicken breasts is $1.99/lb. on sale and as much as $4.99/lb. when not, for the same thing. The same applies to various cuts of meat, whole chickens, turkey at Thanksgiving (we always buy an extra on sale for parties in the spring and summer). There is no good reason to pay a premium price for what you need that day when with a bit of organization, forethought and freezer, you can economize on better quality foods and stock up when they’re priced favorably.

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:49:55 +0000

Rob, not all of us live quite so short term. :)

I would rather have plenty of space, even if it is filled with what some here would call “junk”. I also like variety and I never know what I am going to feel like eating. Freezer space allows more flexibility there.

Finally, you can’t easily do the “once a month cooking” think mentioned in Trent’s Super Suppers entry without some freezer space. :)

Brad