Yea! I have finally convince DH of the economic benefit for us to have a freezer in order to capitalize on the sales that we see.

Now...

What kind do we need? Is there any benefit to upright vs. chest? Just how big of one do you guys really use? And most seem to be manual defrost - how often does this need to be done?

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I actually just bought one Friday night. It is a chest freezer. 7 cu ft and a GE. It was $177 at Sams. It is manual defrost. I priced the auto defrost and they were about double in price. The manual says that most people have to defrost it about twice a year.

I'm so envious! I want one so badly, but we don't have the room (even for a small one!) Lucky you!!!

We have one of each kind. It's easier to find what I need in the upright, but it uses more electricity and it has to be defrosted more often than the chest. It can be really hard to fish through the chest freezer to find things. I'm not especially tall, so that may the reason why. And the chest freezer seems to keep things colder. so wekeep our meats in that and breads, veggies, frozen pizza, convenience foods, etc. in the upright.

We have an up right freezer - however I have heard that a chest freezer uses less electricity.
I love my deep freeze - we buy our meat in bulk that lasts for 6 months at a time - I dont know what I would do without it.

We have a 22 cu. ft upright freezer.

I like the upright because it has a smaller footprint and it's easier to find things in it, but it is supposed to cost more to run. With kids that get things out of the freezer, I feel a bit safer with the upright too. On the con side, there have been times where they haven't closed the door completely and stuff has defrosted!!

With a family of 6, we really love having the freezer for those Costco runs and for stocking up on good deals at the grocers. I really would love to see how much it saves our electric bill without it, but DH insists that we really need it.

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SAHM of 4

July food budget: $500.00
Eating out spent: $85.00
Groceries spent: $248.12
Total spent: $333.12

I have owned both types and personally think the upright and auto defrost are best. The chest style is a pain to find anything in and the manual defrost is just as annoying in my book. I bought mine at Lowes, they had the best price and often have sales (I got the floor model at a discount). Its a Fridgidare with alarm that goes off if it gets too warm for any reason. I love it!

I have had this one or similar for almost 2 years and don't know how I ever lived without it. It can be a pain in the butt to find things in it, I personally would have preferred an upright, but it wasn't in the budget and wouldn't have fit well in our utility room. Much better to have to dig to find what you are looking for than to have no extra freezer at all!

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Since cold air sinks, the upright freezers lose more cold air when you open them - that's why they cost more to run. In the grocery store, you'll notice the upright freezers have doors to keep the cold in, but the chest freezers don't.

One trick I learned with my manual defrost freezer is to spray the walls inside with vegetable oil after defrosting it. It makes the ice slide off the sides more easily.

We had many freezers growing up of both varieties. When I bought my own. Which I found in a local paper for $50, I went for the upright, manual defrost. I LOVE it!! With the chest many things can get lost and I feel like I'm gonna fall in looking for things. and defrosting is a pain.
With the upright everything is neat and organized, I can see all I have. I clean out any frost as I see it which means I never have had to defrost it. I make up my menu for the week and go "shopping" in my freezer once a week and pull out what I need and put it in my fridge freezer. Also I keep it full, the more you have in there the colder it stays using less energy. I just fill container with water and put in there to fill space.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous