Hogdogs is right about the chest freezers being super efficient and much less expensive. I received a FoodSaver a few years ago as a Christmas gift, most expensive gift I ever received, as I soon had to purchase a freezer to keep up with my ever-increasing freezing of leftovers, game, and bulk meat purchases. I couldn't be happier with either one in the long run. If you don't have a vacuum sealer and are buying a freezer, get one.
I researched all this in depth and ended up buying a Frigidaire commercial upright frost-free for about $295.00. I think it's the 14cf model, but I'm too lazy to go see at the moment. You will get more food into a chest freezer, and spend a heap less money, but from experience as a child, everything you want will be on the bottom. Always. No exception. I can vividly remember going into the basement after whatever my mother sent me after and having to do spelunking expeditions into the huge chest freezer, sometimes having to almost climb into that thing to get something off the bottom. Unloading 20 or 30 frozen packs of meat to get to what I want (I'm not a good organizer
) isn't my idea of fun. Then you have to defrost that beast once or twice a year depending on how much you open it. Where does all that meat go while you are defrosting?
Chest freezers are a better deal, but for convenience, go for the upright. When I bought mine about four years ago, no chest freezers offered "frost-free" and few uprights did. I got a deal on a floor model at Lowe's that had a crease from a forklift blade and got about $100.00 bucks off. I had to ask for the discount, but I got it.
Do think about a FoodSaver, I've eaten meat frozen three years before with no freezer burn or any taste or visual indication it wasn't frozen last week.
