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I thought about that but went ahead and ordered the larger freezer anyway. Maybe that is a mistake.
Probably not. Overall those sort of appliances are roughly as reliable as an anvil. I'm just paranoid, people tell me. My lab is all run by machines with redundant hot swap everything and those are plugged into redundant UPS units. So that's me.

I'd ignore me if I were you. ;)
 
Probably not. Overall those sort of appliances are roughly as reliable as an anvil. I'm just paranoid, people tell me. My lab is all run by machines with redundant hot swap everything and those are plugged into redundant UPS units. So that's me.

I'd ignore me if I were you. ;)
The CF per $ was one thing I was looking at - the larger freezers cost less per CF of storage.

Another thing was if I got two freezers of the same size, I would either use both of them and they would probably both only last about the same amount of time, or one would sit unused on the of chance that I would/could use it later.

I figure that if the new one lasts 8-10 years at a cost of $100 per year, then I am ok with that. I plan to move and build a new shop with much better insulation to keep the inside temps more moderated. Also, to keep the mice out. I would like to have a commercial walk-in freezer built into the shop if I can, and hope that it would last multiple decades, but maybe that will be too expensive.

This has been a learning experience - I expected the freezer to last a lot longer - I've never had a fridge or freezer fail that quickly before - in fact, I don't recall having a fridge/freezer ever fail on me. My kids said their freezer (same brand - Frigidaire) is still working and it is much older than mine. Not sure what is wrong with mine - it simply will not power on - there is a light that is supposed to come on and it won't come on.
 
I figure that if the new one lasts 8-10 years at a cost of $100 per year, then I am ok with that. I plan to move and build a new shop with much better insulation to keep the inside temps more moderated. Also, to keep the mice out. I would like to have a commercial walk-in freezer built into the shop if I can, and hope that it would last multiple decades, but maybe that will be too expensive.
I have a friend (who has retired) that made a fortune in the commercial refrigeration business, in multiple country's. Walk-in freezers are not cheap. The compressor and plumbing is very expensive, as well as the construction itself.
 
The CF per $ was one thing I was looking at - the larger freezers cost less per CF of storage.
My 21ft upright actually cost more per ft than the little ones from HD, but I suspect the energy cost is not the same, and the floorspace difference between a big upright and chests is substantial. If you're getting into it a lot, the chest has a lot more advantage than if you're not. In my case, the freezer door probably opens on average once every 10 days or so, for maybe 2 minutes at most.

I wanted the floorspace more than keeping that little bit of cold inside. Most of the heat is sucked out of the interior and contents in any case, the specific heat of nitrogen/oxygen is pretty low.
 
My 21ft upright actually cost more per ft than the little ones from HD, but I suspect the energy cost is not the same, and the floorspace difference between a big upright and chests is substantial. If you're getting into it a lot, the chest has a lot more advantage than if you're not. In my case, the freezer door probably opens on average once every 10 days or so, for maybe 2 minutes at most.

I wanted the floorspace more than keeping that little bit of cold inside. Most of the heat is sucked out of the interior and contents in any case, the specific heat of nitrogen/oxygen is pretty low.
My chest freezer is in the shop where there is plenty of room (2K SF). I open it about once a week, or at least once every 2 weeks when I come back from grocery shopping. Ironically, I went grocery shopping Tuesday, but did not pickup that much, and put everything in the house - I thought about some of it going in the freezer but I was lazy and put it all in the house (the shop is about 200' from the house so I usually make a trip to the shop with stuff to be frozen and then to the house with the rest). Not sure when the freezer died, but it was some time this week. I really need to setup some kind of alarm for it - looking into what will work at that distance - I guess I need to get WiFi out to the shop. I don't want anything that depends on cloud servers though.

I am thinking about a freeze drier too. I have the room and the $, but I just don't need yet another project that will just sit there because I am lazy. As it is I have a vacuum packaging thing that I still have not used yet.
 
I have a friend (who has retired) that made a fortune in the commercial refrigeration business, in multiple country's. Walk-in freezers are not cheap. The compressor and plumbing is very expensive, as well as the construction itself.
Yeah - I figured that. I will have to wait and see what my property sells for, what the cost is, and whether it makes sense for me. If I am going to build, that would be the time to do it.

OTOH, it would maybe make more sense to have a special room that is really well insulated, kept cool and have a largish freezer/fridge setup like my grandparents went with in their house - large double door upright freezer, and a large double door fridge, built into the wall in their large pantry room off the kitchen. Not sure what it was like behind there, but it seemed to work for them and it was nice to have.
 
it would maybe make more sense to have a special room that is really well insulated, kept cool and have a largish freezer/fridge setup like my grandparents went with in their house -
Actually there was a time when many homesteads and homes had a thing called a "Root Cellar." It was a nice hole in the ground or in a hillside and food was once kept in there for months.
 
Actually there was a time when many homesteads and homes had a thing called a "Root Cellar." It was a nice hole in the ground or in a hillside and food was once kept in there for months.
Yes, I thought about making one of those here - there are several places where that could be done. I intend to do something along those lines when I buy new land. I was thinking that the shop would be built into the side of a hill, earth bermed, with the back side of the shop into the hill and several rooms totally underground, such as a root cellar, a freezer room and a secure storage room for guns and ammo.

On the farm we had some rooms below the old nut dryer that were where we stored potatoes and such in bins. The floor was only a few feet below ground, but it was enough to be colder than outside.
 
Cats first. Dogs are actually useful, even little foo-foos have ears and can bark
Well cats need fish or some other meat to survive. Dogs not so much but there are things dogs cannot eat either like chocolate and other things. My work colleague has a cat and feed it a can of tuna. But his cat kills mice and rabbits and leaves it have uneaten so has to clean up the mess.
 
Well cats need fish or some other meat to survive. Dogs not so much but there are things dogs cannot eat either like chocolate and other things. My work colleague has a cat and feed it a can of tuna. But his cat kills mice and rabbits and leaves it have uneaten so has to clean up the mess.
Dogs kill mice and usually are not lazy about it. Gophers/moles/rats too.

Neighbor's dog used to come over and kill all of those in my yard, but also dug holes.
 
Root Cellering, by Mike Bubel, is the classic on the topic. Everything from how to build to how to handle specific vegetables. In building root cellars, ventilation is critical. Without proper controllable ventilation everything molds. Some veggies need dry storage and some moist.

Root cellars tend to be less important in the maritime NW than in areas with colder winters because we can over-winter so many vegetable crops in the field or garden given the right varieties. Carrots, beets, kale, and many other brassicas over-winter well outdoors in Willamette valley. To find the right varieties you usually need to buy from regional mail-order seed companies, not national seed companies or packets in big box stores. Big box stores usually sell whatever is cheapest to produce seed of that also sells well nationally, the same varieties wherever the store is.

I found I could over winter potatoes well in Corvallis in an attached garage by putting them in paper bags, the largest size, filled about 1/3 full, the tops of the bags rolled down but not sealed. The bags could be stacked up on shelves. That arrangement provides exactly the right amount of air exchange. (Let potatoes dry after digging and remove any diseased spuds before storing.) This style of storage also helps limit the damage when a potato in one bag rots. Garage needs to stay above freezing. Each bag of spuds would be brought indoors and put in a dark cubbard a few days before use. This is necessary because such cold stored spuds convert some starch to sugar, which tastes strange. Given a few days at indoor room temperature, the spuds convert the sugars back to starch. I could keep the right varieties through March.
 
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If you are interested in larger amounts of freezer space consider getting a used temperature controlled shipping container. They have the advantage that you can take them with you if you move. In addition, being moveable instead of part of a permanent structure, they don't affect your property taxes.
 
If you are interested in larger amounts of freezer space consider getting a used temperature controlled shipping container. They have the advantage that you can take them with you if you move. In addition, being moveable instead of part of a permanent structure, they don't affect your property taxes.
My next property will be permanent, but still not a bad idea
 
In the short term, invest in Dry Ice till a replacement is found...

Dry ice on top, -110 degrees, it will help keep it frozen placed on top...

It will save the food long enough to get a replacement...
 



standard tv appl : refine search by stock only. Largest is 12.8 sq ft so OP would need two.

Im wondering exactly caused the failure and if it can be repaired. Coming from a marine engineering background, theres very little I won't try to repair.
#martimeengineering for the win
 

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