Who has what and what do you recommend?
This would be used mainly for food storage and SOME bait.
I have read that the Frost Free is convenient, BUT it pulls more power AND it raises the temperature from 0 to 32 degrees each day to prevent ice crystals. The higher temp could cause freezer burn.
**Also, I have read that you want to keep the freezer about 75% full for maximum air circulation/efficiency and not to pack it 100% full. So sounds like you should go a little bigger than you actually need.
Depends on what you want to use it for. If you want short term storage of grocery items like ice cream, hotdogs, etc. and you will open the door almost every day, get an upright with defrost. You don’t have to dig to the bottom to get the frozen burger with an upright. Cons: much of the cold air dumps out when you open the door which draws in warm, moist air. Hence the need for defrost. Items tend to freezer burn much faster with uprights because of the frequent door opening and defrosting.
Chest freezers can go years without defrosting because the door on the top prevents much spillage of cold air and very little moist air is pulled into the freezer when you open the door. The drawback is that whatever you need always crawls to the bottom. Best to use chest freezers for long term storage of items where you rarely open the door - eg. a deer, hog, or the hundreds of pounds of shrimp you caught last year, etc.
Depends on what you want to use it for. If you want short term storage of grocery items like ice cream, hotdogs, etc. and you will open the door almost every day, get an upright with defrost. You don’t have to dig to the bottom to get the frozen burger with an upright. Cons: much of the cold air dumps out when you open the door which draws in warm, moist air. Hence the need for defrost. Items tend to freezer burn much faster with uprights because of the frequent door opening and defrosting.
Chest freezers can go years without defrosting because the door on the top prevents much spillage of cold air and very little moist air is pulled into the freezer when you open the door. The drawback is that whatever you need always crawls to the bottom. Best to use chest freezers for long term storage of items where you rarely open the door - eg. a deer, hog, or the hundreds of pounds of shrimp you caught last year, etc.
spec
1980 Skandia 21 w/ '93 JohnRude 150 gas drinker
^^^
Yep.
frost free will be more prone to give you freezer burn after 4 -8 months…
Heck just one of each! I keep my meat in a chest and all other stuff in the upright. Keep both in the basement and a ref/ freezer combo in the kitchen. keep a small chest type in the barn next to the ice machine and fill it up with ice and bait to keep from running the ice machine 24/7. All has worked well till a tornado took out my power and my gen. is not big enough to run them all! We just thank the Lord it didn’t hurt the house!