Chest freezer vs Upright freezer

Get the biggest upright freezer you can with the most slots for shelves then order some extra shelves to put in it.

Like others have said, forget the chest freezer. Get an upright, frost free and be done with it.

I have a 23 cu. ft. one in the man cave and would be lost without it. I've had this one for at least 10 years and have not had one issue with it in all that time.

Hopefully, I didn't just jinx myself.

A friend who sells appliances told me if you’re putting the freezer inside where it is climate controlled get an upright freezer. If the freezer is going in a garage when it gets hot, chest freezers are better and have more insulation. Just going by what he told me.

I recently upgraded from a chest freezer to a 20 cf upright. The you can't pack as much in the upright but at least you can find everything you have. It's way easier to deal with.

I was logging everything that went in/out of the chest freezer in google sheets to keep track of it. Seemed like every time I needed something I had to remove 100 lbs of deer meat to get to it. I can just open the upright and see what's in there at a glance.

If in a hot garage im more of a chest freezer type. Inside id probably lean to a upright. Reason being in the hot garage when you open the door all the cold air will fall out of it and have a longer recover time. I had one with a bad gasket that wound up running all the food by getting too warm. I now have a chest in the garage because the door will always be closed and it keeps the cold air in side of it but it can be a challenge to keep track of everthing in it.

My experience is with ultracold -80C freezers in a research setting, but it has application to consumer freezers.

Chest freezers are as inconvenient as can be and take up lots of room. Yes, food packages do seem to vanish into the bottom. But, every time you open an upright all the cold air spills out and is replaced by warm air that must be cooled. There is far less spilling of cold air when a chest freezer is opened.

The compressor on a chest should last longer than on an upright.

A good practice if you need longer-term freezer storage is to get a small chest for the garage. Open it as seldom as possible, shifting food as needed into the household upright fridge/freezer combo.

Once upon a time families could rent space in icehouse walk-ins. The same icehouse usually hung meat and chilled local produce. For an extra fee they would keep the space stocked with below-grocer prices.

We have both. Upright in the laundry room and chest in garage. Both have plusses and minuses. We use both every day. Once a year, we empty the chest out and rearrange the stuff.

Always makes us have interesting meals for the next week or two. You would be surprised what tasty stuff you can cook after finding a frozen surprise you had no idea you still had.