New Chest Freezer (2024)

Our 40 year old Kenmore gave us a scare this week, which got me researching for it's replacement if she goes belly up.

In the current crop, any better than the others or all the same?

Good luck.

Just about every place down here is sold out of chest freezers and no idea when more will be available.

Our local Rural King has piles of them in now. On the small side, 7 cubic feet. $184

https://www.ruralking.com/baltic-7-0-cubic-foot-chest-freezer-66426

I'm less concerned about availability for now than I am which brand is most reliable. I doubt what I find today will still be chugging along 40 years from now, but would like to get the one that gives me the best chance of that.

My first thought would be Whirlpool or Frigidaire.......but they may not be any better than the stuff I've never heard of. Garage Ready????

This^^^. I stoped at the store thinking the panic buying should be over and they should be starting to get restocked. I was wrong. They had one 7 cf chest and one 21cf upright. They had no idea if or when more would be in.

We have 2 uprights a 13.5 and 21 cf + the one on the fridge.

I need a chest for trapping the uprights are ok for skinned but not good for in the round.

Any new freezer should save you dramatically on electricity consumption. At least that's what they tell me. I bought the 21 cf up right last year at a scrach and dent place. It's not frost free but that's why I bought it. After finding some things thawing in the small freezer that after some investigation came to the conclusion it was the defrost cycle not the freezer going out. So when I saw they had one that was not frost free I bought it.

I have a whirlpool I purchased new in 2001
a GE that my grandma and grandpa purchased in 1982
and a Frigidare that is at least 20 years old I picked up from a guy down the road when his daughter moved out and he was down sizing

I think most of them are internally very similar not sure if they got worse in the last 19 years

my old neighbor was in hvac and did restaurant refrigeration , he told me several times gasket maintenance is very important

that the places he was fixing on the big Double 48 commercial refrigerators and freezers almost all had the same problems at the root

gasket maintenance and in the double 48 type they have a catch pan in the bottom and a drain tube , no cleaning led to a plugged drain and a plug drain resulted in sludge in the pan with that and the gasket maintenance they also were not doing. the best compressor around can't keep up with the air loss.

washing the gaskets makes them seal better , washing the gaskets makes them not get sticky and pull badly , a little Armorall helps to keep the seals good . My neighbor was convinced that if at a restaurant the nightly cleaning involved wiping the door seals with a dishrag and weekly on the refrigerator cleaning the pan at the bottom and putting a bucket of hot water through the drain. they would almost never need him. when the restaurant would fail inspection because the refrigerators weren't holding <40 he would get called in and spend an hour cleaning the pan , replacing the pan some times , replacing door seals and unplugging the drains and when he would leave it was cooling below 40 again.