Can we chat upright freezers?

I had a small, maybe 5' tall freezer at our last house. Sadly I made the decision to leave it for the new owners. Realistically we wouldn't have a good spot for it in this house even though we have a 4-car tandem garage. My treadmill is in the spot where we would have put it.

But I loved the freezer. It had 3 or 4 shelves and was perfect for our needs. It was great in the winter for freezing lots of soups and gumbos. I always buy in bulk at Costco so we always had frozen meat/chicken, etc. Whatever space wasn't taken up by food, I kept frozen milk jugs of fresh water in case of an earthquake.

Oh, it wasn't frost-free. But it was really simple to defrost on occasion.

ETA: I never freeze meat wrapped at the grocery store. I always use my Food-Saver.

When you ask if they’re good for meat, what exactly do you mean? We have an upright, and the shelf that isn’t full has jugs of frozen water on them to help.

As for organizing, I found the best plastic bins to fit the width and depth of my shelves to make the most of my space. They’re all the same brand, but they aren’t all the same size. iDesign or Interdesign is the name. I’ll go grab a link. I also use this brand throughout the house so if I stop needed a particular on in the freezer it’s easy to repurpose.

This is the small size. We have a couple for fish, one for steaks, one for pork chops, and one for when we premake burgers, pork, meat mixtures. We make 4 meals, eat one, freeze the rest.

I like this one for the wider items. Chicken breasts, prepackaged thighs, ground beef, pork loins & bacon, etc. go in here.

Everything in the above bins is stored upright, dated, oldest in the front. Super, super easy to look in and see what we have, what we need to use soon, and what we need to restock.

Then we have a huge one I can’t find link to. But it’s probably at least 10” high and just as wide. It’s not as deep as the freezer, but I need it for oddly shaped items like shrimp, scallops. If we have an odd thing we don’t usually eat it’ll go in here as well.

Ours is mostly proteins on the normal shelves. Occasionally we’ll buy a frozen pizza or lasagna and throw it in there. In the bottom drawers one is fruits, the other vegetables. Love the shelves on the door. The top is dairy (lots of butter, cream, buttermilk, etc.). The next is all cheeses. And below that is odd items like the pot pies DH likes to buy, or pie crust around Thanksgiving. Or when I buy frozen Luby’s fish for DH   There is often extra room down here. 

To keep it super cold in there once a week we go “shopping” for our meal plan so we don’t have to open it very much. Things like different broths and other flavors (like orange juice in 2 TBSP), ice packs, smoothie packs are stored in the bottom of the French Door fridge in the kitchen. We use them more often and they don’t need to really stay in a deep freeze state.

I love, love, love ours. Its upright with basket/drawers. We hardly eat any boxed frozen things so it's all trays of meat or in bags when we've divided up a large purchase plus meals we've made and frozen the leftovers. It saves us a lot of money and I'd never be without one.

It’s a freezer, like a frig or chest freezer. Photos on line are marketing to entice you with perfection, like for anything.

We have one. Unless already vacuum packed like some chicken pieces from Whole Foods, foods can get freezer burn and don’t taste good if frozen too long unless vacuum sealed. No different than other types of freezers. So I vacuum seal ground turkey, chicken, etc., and even loaves of bread if buying a bunch.

Our freezer came with a couple of baskets which we use for chicken and other odd shaped foods. I had a couple frig bins that are used for small items.

One downside to an upright is that it's easier to inadvertently leave it open.

Because of this, we got in the habit of using the key to lock it every time we go in. Key is kept right on the top of the freezer for easy access.

I love having an upright freezer. Ours is in the garage, right outside the door into the house.

I always wrap raw meat in freezer paper before putting in the upright 'deep' freeze. Seems to keep it from getting freezer burn.

I have both. I use the chest freezer for meat and stuff I’m not going to use right away. The upright is for freezing cookies and for stuff needed more readily available. DS’s chicken is in there, he goes through it so fast I’m not worried about it. I’ve always heard, whether it’s true or not, that a chest freezer, that needs to be manually defrosted is better for story meat because it doesn’t cycle like a frost free one does. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know.

I never store meat in the container it comes in. I use my food saver and before that I’d wrap in plastic, then foil, then put into a freezer bag.

A freezer is a freezer. If you vacuum seal many foods are fine for a year or two - and some say longer. If you don’t vacuum seal, you do what you’ve always done. Just get as much air out as possible. It’s the temperature that matters, not the style. 

Our freezer’s legs were adjusted so there’s the barest bit of tilt backwards - not noticeable it if you look at it - so it closes by itself. But there’s also an alarm, which like blue tulip said, is a good feature. 

Plastic wrap, foil, freezer bag and also a food saver bag? Are you doing all that to protect from freezer burn, and if so, have you tried with just the food saver bag or plastic (bag or wrap) plus the food saver bag? 

I use a plastic bag or wrap and then a vacuum seal (generic) bag, or sometimes just the vacuum seal bag and have never had freezer burn. 

I’d heard that about chest freezers, but everything is frozen solid in our upright and that’s good enough for me. Ours is in our rec room and we go into it 2-3 times a week, very briefly.

DO NOT BUY A FROST FREE DEEP FREEZE!!!

It is important that you do not get a frost free type freezer for long term storage. Frost Free means that the unit will regularly heat up to defrost, then drop the temp again to freeze. This will quickly cause any stored food to 'freezer burn'.
My regular refrigerator/freezer is frost free - and I wouldn't want it any other way. But if you plan on keeping things frozen for a longer period of time (over a couple weeks) - NEVER get a FROST FREE freezer. SO important!

Newer deep freezers don't frost up as bad as older ones did. Better seals help that a lot. I have had my (chest type) freezer for at least 20 years. I have never really 'defrosted' it. I do pop out a few areas of thicker frost every year or so. I just use a dull table knife and get behind the blob of frost and pop it off.

I don't open my freezer every day, so that helps too.

I keep my chest type freezer organized with Grocery totes. I get the ones that are stiffer sided (they fold up for storage when not in use). I can organize by putting hamburger in one, roasts in one, pork in one, chicken in one - etc. THen I can just lift them out to easily access throughout the freezer. So this is a great way to organize if you have a chest type. I also have metal baskets that are on each side on the top (those came with the freezer).

An upright would be nice, but you defiantly need to keep it organized, so things don't slide out. I feel like you get less storage, but it is easier to see things. I have a convertible type upright. It can be a refrigerator or a deep freeze, with the flick of a switch. I almost always use it as a second fridge, unless we have an emergency butcher and all my other storage is full. I use the same grocery totes to organize the upright freezer.





That's a GOOD thing - you never want a Frost Free as your deep freezer!
This is true-and if you have a 'landslide' it can push the door open. You can Lock the door, or get a velcro strap that sticks on each side of the door. They have a snap closure - so your door is secure. They are made to keep toddlers out of the fridge.

Something else I suggest for ALL deep freezers is a LOCKING PLUG - We had our electrician install this for our deep freeze. You have to plug it in and twist it to lock. Nothing else can be plugged in to it. This prevents someone from unplugging the deep freeze to use that out let for something else, and then forgetting to plug it in... or having the freezer just accidentally get unplugged. Worth the extra little investment!

I grew up with a chest freezer and lived in fear of falling in as a child. 

When DH and I bought a freezer, I wouldn't even look at the chest style. He struggled with the idea of an upright only because he didn't believe it would work as well. It took only a month to convert him.

We used it mostly for meat, seafood and bread. Back in the day, I'd buy 8 loaves of bread at a time at the bakery outlet. Grocery store meats were easy to organize and stack.

Another bonus for the upright freezer is my DH has never met a surface that he doesn't cover with his stuff. I could care less about things stacked on the upright freezer. I'd be constantly rehoming items we both agree he'd stacked on a chest freezer.

I think you will find that most people with frost free upright freezers are extremely happy with them. And I’d guess most people don’t want uprights you have to defrost, so there aren’t many manufactured. We’ve had no freezer burn or problems with food recently used that’s been stored since the beginning of 2020. People have different opinions, don’t get worried when some opinions are stated very strongly.