I think most are made by one or two manufacturers. There is not much to go wrong with them as most are basic without a lot of bells and whistles and no fancy electronics.

I don't remember the name of ours but it is ~20 years old and I would guess around 8-9 cf.

Here is a link to chest freezer reviews. I am on my cell phone- so can't use the link feature - but you can copy/paste the link.

http://chest-freezers-review.toptenreviews.com/mobile/

we used to lose power frequently and the chest freezer kept food solid for days. I would try to head home as the power was restored and could check to see if things were solid.

It was also a great opportunity to remove sheets of ice from the freezer walls. Now that they improved our electrical service, I use an ice scraper episodically

My concern in a BR would be what to do with the ice build-up

Overall, chests keep food better than uprights but you do have to deal with management of the food so it isn't a dark abyss.

I use low end milk crates and bins to organize my freezer. It is important that the bins allow air flow so totally solid crates are not good.

You can buy these freezers at HD or Costco, etc - ours is about 5 years old. Chinese stuff - but works OK.

I bought a GE 5 cubic foot chest freezer online from Home Depot for ~$200. Holds a lot more than I thought it would and so happy to have the extra space. Mine's in the garage so I had to look at chest freezers that could handle the garage temps. But if you are keeping it inside and don't have to worry about extreme-ish temps, Sears online had some skinny, small uprights for inside use that had good reviews.

a2, geoffrey, and 24kbear, thanks for the info. Sounds like a go for a freezer of Chinese origin.

I'll check out the review site a2.

This freezer will be for the hog that we will be giving our daughter. We aren't sure what size we need. Our home freezer is huge and holds lots and lots of meat. A2, I know about the loss of foods, lol.I used to draw up a map of the items in the freezer with location of beef and pork, etc. I'd tape it on the wall next to the freezer so it would help with rotation of items. I gave that up years ago and the situation needs extreme tending. But I digress.

We haven't butchered a hog in years. But DH raised 8 recently and they are ready for market. We will give one to DD in Chicago. We will have to take a freezer too, lol. She lives in a 2nd story apartment in the city. An old turn of the century apt.

Thanks again!

DD might just get a half pig. I don't know if the two of them can go through that much meat :)

A 5 cu. ft. chest freezer should handle a hog. A whole hog can be too much for a couple to eat all by themselves in a year, but, OTOH, having more meat can be a reason for socializing with friends and neighbors. Maybe some entertainment value in curing hams and shoulders and/or bacon. (Assuming time and interest.) Roasted pork belly has become trendy, too.

As for makes, there many brands but only three manufacturers currently producing small chest freezers for sale in the U.S. Pretty much all go for close to the same price. The makers are: Frigidaire/Electrolux, Woods (a Whirlpool subsidiary with a factory in Canada), and Haier (the Chinese conglomerate). Anything with a GE brand is by Haier. Beyond that, though, it can be hard to tell who made it.

I discovered that when I helped a friend buy chest freezer last year. Turned out that there were very minor differences between brands and models (one will have a digital touchpad for temp control where another will use a dial ; one will have an LED to show it is running, another won't; some have one or more baskets, some have none; etc.). The prices were all within a few dollars of each other with the cheapest varying from week to week depending on who was having a sale. Those with recognized major brand names (Frigidaire, Amana, GE) tended to be higher priced unless they were on sale, which was often. I don't recall seeing any models with Energy Star tags, which may say something else about how similar they all are. What I recall from Consumer Reports (who did measure and report on energy consumption) was that there was one Frigidaire model that they believed would cost $5 or $10 less per year to run than others in that class. My friend wound up with one of the Haier models (sold at Costco.).

As for getting a freezer off Craig's List, that might not be a bad idea. Just be aware that really old small chest freezers are going to be relatively large and very heavy, making them awkward to move. They also tend to be much noisier than models made within the last couple of decades, something that would be an issue for putting one in a bedroom as you indicated might be done. (In contrast, my friend with the Haier has his in his bedroom while doing some home renovation and never hears it running). Older Small capacity models seem to be pretty rare around here (on the times that I've looked, all of older models listed here were 14 and 28 cu. ft models).

Newer ones (that is, ones made since the turn of the century) are considerably lighter, much quieter and pretty efficient . I had a vintage 2000 five-cubic-foot Fridgiaire in a pantry for a while and barely heard it run. (I have since replaced it with a larger capacity upright in the basement and that model is louder and a lot more noticeable when running). The small Frigidaire was light and roughly square in shape (about 24 x 24, IIRC). It was easily moved on a handtruck. (It is now the basement of the house of friends.)

The newest 5 and 7 cu. ft. chest freezers are more rectangular in shape and seem to be even lighter. IIRC, the 5 cu , is more like 20 inches by 30 inches or 22 by 28 and the 7 cu. foot models are more like 36" wide. Something to bear in mind when planning to move one in to a house or apartment.

I have a 7 cu. foot chest freezer I bought from Sears probably back in the mid to late 90s in a spare bedroom corner. The ice buildup is no problem. I defrost it maybe 3 times a year at most. I scrape the sheets of ice and scoop them into a large Tupperware bowl which I then transport to the kitchen sink.