Pretty much all freezers today are fairly energy efficient, especially compared to those from many years past. I wouldn't let Energy Star accredidation of the lack thereof dictate my decision for me though. I'd look for overall cubic feet, amount of shelf space, organizer assists, and overall size and footprint. Those will mean more to your everyday use than $5 worth of electricity a year will mean.

Chest freezers are more energy efficient that upright freezers, but they are a LOT more difficult to organize and access. They're also manual defrost, which is actually better for long term food storage than a frost free type, and damages your food less than a frost free, but it is an additional semi annual hassle to deal with that the frost free won't have. 15 cubic feet isn't a "small" freezer, though. It's pretty near the upper size limit of a chest freezer. YOu can get uprights up to around 21 cubic feet in either manual or auto defrost. The auto defrost use more energy.

If it were me, and of course its not ;), then I'd be looking for a large GE upright in a manual defrost. Many are still Energy Star rated and I like their organizaton system and their footprint is much smaller than the equivalent chest would need. I just find a chest freezer cumbersome to use for your average grocery shopper. Now, if you're freezing game whole and keeping it frozen for an extended period, you're in a different needs category!

If you can't tell, I LOVE my upright freezer and access it almost every day. It's not so hard to defrost every 6-9 months. I use a lot of towels and a hair dryer and it goes really quickly.

piaa,

Just this week someone discussed the same topic.
In the appliance forum.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg1212561830130.html

There are as many different habits possible as there are people.
I'll bet that you would use a freezer for storage.
A chest freezer is mostly storage.
If you go get freezer items every day, you may want easier access.
Being in the Caribbean probably means you don't buy those things.

Whatever you get will be fine.
hth

Here is a link that might be useful: Dedicated refrigerator + freezer in the garage

Piaa, I have had both a chest freezer and an upright. My current freezer is an upright freezer.

My chest freezer (manual defrost) kept frozen foods solidly frozen and rarely did I defrost an item that had freezer burn. My upright freezer (auto defrost) also keeps food solidly frozen but I frequently defrost an item that has freezer burn.

Live_wire_oak is right, it is much easier to organize and locate food in an upright freezer than in a chest type. I always felt that I spent a lot of time moving the wire baskets around to get to the basket that held what I needed.

My upright has been stored in our unheated garage for 21 years - in summer heat and winter temperatures that can drop below 0 degrees fahrenheit. Prior to that it was stored in an unheated wooden storage area in the southern heat and humidity. The freezer has never had a problem or needed a service call in the 33 years we have owned it.

Whatever freezer you select will be fine. Get the freezer that has the best footprint for your storage area and fits your needs.

Thank you so much everyone. Yes, our "spare" freezer will only be used for storage making our trips to St Thomas (for our bulk items) fewer and more productive :) Off to research more of them now,

Happy 2011 everyone

Piaa

Make sure you put a light that is used daily on the same circuit as the freezer.

Going out to a freezer to find the power off and the contents thawed is NOT any fun.

A freezer in a basement or garage needs something to indicate if the power is out.

Thanks for the idea of making sure we have a light used daily on the same circuit :)

I do have to make a correction - we are looking for a 5 to 7 cu ft not 14 to 15 cu ft - have no idea where those numbers came from (lol)

Piaa

piaa,

I recently bought a 5 cu. ft. chest freezer from Home Depot - my daughter's fridge is dying, and until it's repaired, the home insurance co. offered her some money to purchase something to hold her food (long LG story).

It's been wonderful to have for the holidays and holds lots of stuff. Since it's not enormous, it doesn't seem too bad to search for items. Although it does come with one storage tray, I would, however, like to acquire some sort of box to organize more of the skinny FoodSaver packages. Any ideas as to what I can use?

Helene

Here is a link that might be useful: GE chest freezer

on the Ikea site, I get 64 matches for "food saver" http://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=food+saver

I've seen plastic "food saver" thingies in big grocery stores. Cube shaped, rectangular, big, small, smaller, and even bigger.

Some are designed to breathe a little bit, some are designed to be as airtight as possible. I don't know all the options and I don't know what the differences are for.

Hi davidro 1,

I'm not looking so much for air-tight storage, as the packets have already been packed in FoodSaver bags, but rather, just to collect and contain all those packages. I generally repack chicken cutlets in portion size packs - they tend to be somewhat flat, but they don't stack well.

I know some hard plastics don't hold up well in the freezer - they get brittle and snap easily. The wire baskets I generally see wouldn't retain those packages - the wires are too widely spaced. I was just wondering what others use to contain small packets of stuff in the freezer.

Helene

blubird, I have always had a chest freezer and have experimented over the years w/ different ways to sep. and store like items. Currently I'm using a couple fabric storage cubes and 3 different self-standing fabric re-usable grocery bags. Both the cubes and the bags have handles that make it quick to pull out of the freezer if I have to look for something in particular and don't want to leave the top open. It's easy to see what I'm low on, or what needs to get used up. The cubes and bags fit perfectly together on the floor of the freezer.

Each cube or bag has one type of item: all fruits in one, veggies in another, breads in another, xmas cookies in yet another. Meats are held in 1 large plastic milk crate that I don't pull out - but it is on the shelf at the side and is very easy to reach and look through.

So far, I'm really loving this method!

Syllabus, what a great idea - I never would have thought to use fabric bags in the freezer. I have several of those so... OK... in goes the Food Saver bags!

Helene

OK, do you mean these (see link) if so they seem like a great idea and if not huuummm these might be a great idea (lol)

Piaa

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001UU0M8O/cushomandrem-20/

Here is a link that might be useful: Fabric Cube Storage?