Proud owner of new chest freezer

[DaveD]

With my ever-expanding adventures in outdoor cooking, we have rapidly run out of freezer space even though we have two smaller fridges in the kitchen & laundry area. (We make lots of leftoverable stuff.) Planning out a cook had gotten to be a choreographed process with other meal decisions having to be made in parallel to free up freezer space at the relevant time... doable, but a bit of a chore.

So I got me a simple 7 cubic foot chestie and a Temp Stick sensor. Weirdly, I have never felt more excited about getting so basic an appliance in my life. But now I'll have all the flexibility, yippee! Got down to below 0 F in less than three hours once I turned it on. Time to fill that baby with meat!

[Jerod Broussard]

Love a chest freezer, was wondering why my back hasn't been that great, no chest freezer in almost 3 years, ain't gettin' the exercise.

[tbob4]

I finally bought one about a year and a half ago. It hasn’t saved any space in the house because it keeps getting refilled.

[STEbbq]

Invaluable for storing huge briskets!

[Sid P]

What’s something like that go for? I definitely need one.

[STEbbq]

$200 at Lowes for me

[BBQPhil]

$129 at Costco

[DaveD]

What’s something like that go for? I definitely need one.

This one was $399 from Amazon, and their 5 cu. ft. model ($299) came out as Editor's Choice in Popular Mechanics. They indicated the 7 cu. ft. model is every bit as good. Pretty reputable recommendation I reckon Plus, because we live near a major Amazon distro center, I got it overnight with free shipping. Did not suck.

Dimensions: 32" wide, 33" tall, 22.5" back to front.

[Michael_in_TX]

That is really affordable for the freedom it gives. I'm also reaching the limit of my indoor freezer....and juggling meal planning with freezer volume is annoying. Plus, I'd like to buy and freeze more meat on sale (i.e. normal price, lol).

[Michael_in_TX]

So, so tempting. Midea is the brand of my home office window AC unit. It's been solid.

[DaveD]

That's the one! It's behaving exactly as it should thus far, holding a few degrees below 0F.

[rickgregory]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/insigni...?skuId=6385046 too

[Michael_in_TX]

And, if you opt for the 7.0 cu ft version instead of the 7 cu ft version, you get $10 off! (What....is going on.....)

[HawkerXP]

So in my fading memory...........are these chest freezers self defrosting? I know the one I grew up with wasn't.

[Bbqmikeg]

They call it a chest freezer because when they fail and you lose all your meat you feel like you’re having a heart attack. It happened to me a couple of weeks ago. ThermoWorks sells a $19 (RT801) freezer alarm that will warn you and save your pork butt. When the grieving subsides I’ll probably get another freezer.

[DaveD]

One feature of the Midea we got is that the lid will stay up, the hinge is designed with "stops" at about 75 & 90 degrees. That's definitely worth something...!

[DaveD]

The Temp Stick sensor sits in the freezer, and if I were to leave the lid open, it would send me an email and a text once the T breaches 5F, so I shouldn't have that particular problem...!

[tbob4]

That is a really nice feature!!!

[DaveD]

To be clear, the Temp Stick is its own device, not part of the freezer. It can be used anywhere you need T and relative humidity monitoring. VERY nice gadget.

[DavidNorcross]

Welcome to the adventure. I also started with one. Now have 2 chest freezers, an upright and an extra fridge

[DaveD]

Hey, one last update here. I got some shelves installed on the wall above the chest freezer and can now store all my cooking accessories & supplies in one spot instead of everything being down in the basement. One less set of stairs to have to go up and down X number of times on cook day...! These are Fleximount shelves, and they definitely live up to their claim of being easy for one person to install. Nice design and everything literally clicked into place. In these dark days, getting this done has had a surprisingly beneficial effect on the ol' mindset.

Brackets onto the studs:


Assembled:


Load 'em up:


Bonus: frees up all this space along the wall of the garage, making it much easier for my lovely wife to get in and out of the passenger side. Brownie points for sure.

[Huskee]

So YOU'RE buying up all the toilet paper!

[DaveD]

In my defense, that was the normal level of stock on hand before the pandemic! I inherited from my father (among many, many other things) the "stay stocked up" mindset (my folks were born in 1919 & 1922 and grew up during the Great Depression). We always have backup of everything. (And half of that stack is paper towels... )

[tbob4]

Huskee - you made me laugh. When the hoarding started, I waited in line like everyone else at COSTCO and finally received my issue. My wife does NOT like storing things. A couple of weeks ago we were in COSTCO and they had the Charmin in. Despite still having a 1/2 pack at home, she bought more "just in case". Because of it, I was allowed to buy another pork belly "just because the price of bacon is going up" What a win!