I' m about to purchase a freezer, in hopes of filling it with fish, deer, pig, and in a few years, elk. I' m leaning towards the upright model, like the idea of being able to use shelves instead of digging down to the bottom.

What size freezers have you found to be best? Any lessons learned?

depends on your hunting skills lol
when i first started hunting a small freezer was great but now i have two both are uprights. 1 small and 1 very large
I like the upright they dont hold as much but its easier to see what is left
1 elk will fill most (90%) of a smaller freezer if cut up properly

Hi CalNewbie ,
I used to bodysurf and boogie board at HB many moons ago when I lived in Garden Grove . I prefer a chest freezer because the cold air doesn' t spill out every time you open it . That tends to be hard on the compressor and shortens it' s effective lifespan . A standup has the advantage of taking up less floor space , and is easier to organize . If you fill either one on a regular basis let me know so that I can move back there , I still miss the beach too .

Kevin1 - I' m two miles from the beach and have only been there a handful of times in the last few years. No boogie-boarding for me.

I hear you on the likelyhood of filling it on a regular basis. It won' t be just for meat - I' m heading down to La Paz Mexico in a few weeks with high hopes of coming back with a cooler full of Mahi Mahi. Add the possibility of a deer and/or pig each year, thought I should get a freezer.

I' m looking at a 7 cubic foot model, think that' s around the right size. May not be big enough for when I graduate to elk though. Like JJT said - it' ll all depend on my skill.

I have a 7.1 cubic foot upright. It along with a large size freezer section of a normal fridge, will hold 5 deer, a turkey, some squirrels, a couple steelheads and some misc store bought food. I like the upright cause I can see what I have and it doesn' t take up space. 7 is about the minimum I' d go.

I like the chest freezers myself. Bought mine for $40 from my neighbors when they moved out. I' m not sure how many cubic feet it is but it' s roughly 6 feet wide and about 2.5 feet deep. My refrigerator in the house is a side by side so when it gets low I restock it from the chest freezer. I take empty milk jugs, rinse them out and fill them with water and put them in the chest freezer to keep it full when it' s not full of meat. I' ve heard that a full freezer takes less power than an empty one. Not sure if it' s true but that' s how I do it.

Just what ballistictip said. It is true about the milk jugs. And get a big one its better to have too much space than not enough.

I have two uprights, a 19 and 17 foot models. They are both full of something all year long. I should mention that I live on a farm and we butcher a beef about every other year; have a large garden; fish and kill a few deers each year as well. A seven footer seems very small to me.

One thing I have against uprights, is sometimes you have to watch little ones with them. I have a 8 year old that will slam the door shut and the door pops open behind him.

I have danby refrigerator which has 9.9 cubic feet top mount freezer.

Old thread, but a good subject.

I have two upright freezers. The shelves, and door shelves are nice and much nicer than digging through a chest freezer.

I also have a chest freezer that we've used for transporting game. It's worked very well. Can either use ice, plug it in at hotel/campground or run a generator.

usually weight is centered obviously. That was just a temporary tie down to get a few miles to the road so I could butcher while others went to hunt.



-Jake