STANDING FREEZER FULL

All three are common enough and useful enough that they gave us a reason to dismiss any freezer that lacked one or more of them. An interior light makes it easier to see inside your freezer. Leveling legs allow you to properly balance the machine on uneven floors. Power-on indicator light, leveling legs or wheels, interior light: A power-on light lets you know at a glance whether the freezer is working, which is useful for preventing spoilage.Less empty space means less air moving around inside, and it’s air that forces the machine to work harder while increasing the risk of freezer burn.

STANDING FREEZER FULL

“The bigger they are the more you fill them up.” Of course you want to be realistic about your needs, not just because bigger freezers cost more, but because a full freezer is an efficient freezer. “Larger is better for the times you need more room like storing ice before a party.” Heather Marold Thomason, a butcher at Primal Supply Meats, told us there’s nothing worse than running out of space. “If you hunt big game, you are likely to need a lot more freezer space when successful,” said rodngun from the hunting forum. Most experts agree it’s wise to overestimate rather than underestimate your needs. It’s also the most popular range of capacities, based on what manufacturers are selling.

Capacity between 14 and 22 cubic feet: We think this is the sweet spot-not too big, not too small.

“I had a hell of a time just finding the dove.” Also, unlike many chest freezers, the vast majority of uprights are frost-free, meaning you’ll never have to manually defrost the inside. “I piled elk on top of ducks and dove in a chest freezer and had to move the elk meat every time I wanted duck or dove,” he said. Greg F, a hunter from California with decades of experience, told us that uprights are ideal for the same reason. Most of the experts we spoke with agreed that uprights are more convenient for retrieving and organizing food, because you don’t have to go digging around for items buried at the bottom of a pile, as you would probably have to with chest freezers.

Uprights offer more space with a smaller physical footprint. The other main type of freezer is a chest freezer, which looks more like a coffin or, well, a chest.

This guide covers upright freezers, which look and operate just like a regular refrigerator with shelves-only at subfreezing temperatures and with a single door.

Standing freezer