Chest vs. Upright freezer - which to choose?

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Oillover

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Canada, eh?
After decades of experience with chest freezers, I'm thinking of upgrading to an upright.
One of the main benefits of a chest is the lower energy costs as well as purchase cost.
I just hate having to unpack almost everything to access things near the bottom, takes so much time.

Does anyone have experience with an upright they'd like to share?
Any potential downsides I should consider?
How's the life expectancy? The chest freezer being replaced is easily over 15 years of age.
The only reason we're considering an upgrade, is it's size (thanks Costco!)
Also, how does one defrost one of these? Or is that an issue?
 
We have an amana frost free upright which is 10 years old.
I love the fact you don't have move stuff around all the time when searching for something.
Never have to unload and thaw the bloody thing.
Only issue we have had is the defrost drain blocked which led to an ice build up on the bottom.
i recommended an upright !
 
I have an upright I found on the side of the road 20+ years ago.

I recently added a "cabinet door magnet" to ensure it stays latched. IDK if the seal is going bad or what but about 2x a year I'd go down to the basement and find the thing open with frost EVERYWHERE. This of course sucks because then all the food gets dumped in coolers, the thing hurredly defrosted, and all the cardboard boxes of food get soggy and misshaped.

But the thing uses very little power, confirmed by kill-a-watt, and it'll last a day with no power at all. I've eaten two-year-old food out of it. And I do like having everything visible.

The best reason for a chest freezer, IMO, is a hunter needing somewhere to stash all their deer meat. It's all the same stuff, relatively speaking, and it's a surge in demand that can go away as time goes by letting you unplug it and clean it out.
 
We had a small, old Kelvinator chest freezer that I paid $20 for at an auction ages ago. We gave it away and wife said upright freezer or forget it. She was tired of bending over and hunting for buried food. So guess what? We've had an upright freezer for many years now, and she loves it.
 
I'm still rocking a Magic Chef smaller chest freezer I purchased from Home Depot around 2005-2006. It's been in continuous use in our basement. I've never had to defrost it.

IMO, no matter what you've bought within the last 10yrs is a crap shoot in terms of longevity.
 
It's a bit of a compromise.

Upright = more convenient. Easier to get to stuff and to keep organized. Usually auto-defrosting which is really nice.

Chest = less parts and likely to be longer lasting. Uses less electricity. Food lasts longer with less freezer burn due to it not having a fan and also because of not having defrost cycles (i.e... steadier temperatures).
 
Depends on you use. If you are buying a lot of meat then chest. Other stuff upright. There are two kings of upright also. Once has a fan and one has the coils directly in the shelves.

Our 10 year old upright just died this summer and the kids didn't get it closed half the time. Lost a lot of meat. Just went to a 26 cubit foot or something close to that chest and filled it with a whole beef. That will last us around a year. We took our smaller chest freezer and keep bread and other stuff in it.
 
The only downside to an upright is the door coming open. We’ve had it happen 3 times. Once was too much stuff inside being stacked all wonky. When it fell it knocked the door open.

Twice it wasn’t fully shut by a kid who was sent to get something out of it.
 
We had a single chest freezer. Hated it. So we got another chest freezer. Now I love them BOTH.

All meats in one, veggies and all non meats in the other. Sweet cheeks, perfect. They seem to stay more organamized now.
 
Last edited:
Upright , all day every day.
My mother in law had a 10 yr old brisket buried in her chest freezer that was only found because she lost power for over 3 days.
 
We had an old Frigidaire chest that I inherited.
Never liked it. However, we used it until it was taken out by a basement flood at age 28.
It took four grown men to haul that thing out of the basement.
Replaced that with a 21 CF Kenmore upright (rebadged Gibson) in 1995 that I picked up at a Sears outlet for 50% off.
It was still working well when I realized that I was sick and tired of defrosting it.
Special ordered a 17 CF Whirlpool frost free plumbed for an icemaker in 2017. They had to replace the door, gasket, door switch and control panel under warranty. Four years later, some board went bad in it and ended up losing everything in it.
Ended up having it repaired and are still using it.
Upright all the way, but probably should have kept the Kenmore. However, the extra ice is nice.
 
I prefer chest freezers. The top can double as a workbench that’s why I like it. We have one that’s got to be at least 15 years old. We got it from my grandma when she moved from a house to a trailer. Chest freezer all the way for me.
 
Footprint could be a factor. It has not been mentioned.

Big "deffo" on organization needed for a chest. I never thought of the workbench angle.

An upright's door popping open is a stunner. Get a latch!
 
Upright hands down unless you just need to store a lot of meat(hunters)

For anything else the upright wins, only downsides I can think of is some that have been mentioned such as door not getting closed. This is a concern. Me and my wife have instilled the fear of god in our kids about making sure the door is closed.

Two features that you really want are:
frost free and the non fan type.

Mine isn’t frost free(I didn’t know that was a thing when we bought it) it’s a pain in the butt to defrost it.

Mine does have the cooling tubes built into the shelfs so no fan. The fan type are worse for freezer burn.
 
Kira said:
Footprint could be a factor.
Click to expand...
Ultimately if you don't have floor space, no way can you get a chest freezer.

It used to be a chest was just more efficient at holding temp, especially when the door is opened. I am not sure how they compare in kwh for a year, for example. I just know my chest freezers hardly consume any power.

The other thing is location - ambient temp. If indoor or halfway controlled garage or shop, no issues, but if outdoor temps, you'll need a specialized freezer.
 
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