Also, chest freezers have less moving parts= less to go wrong. Walk-ins constantly require maintenance. Used to do commercial refrigeration. You made many good, valuable points.
Very good point that I was hoping Pete would cover and plus the wait time to get a commercial technician out to his rural area could possibly result in him loosing the contents. A chest type is pretty much disposable now days so you only have to worry about finding a new one
Informative video. Thank you.. I asked my grandfather why he had a walk-in fridge freezer combo instead of loads of fridges and freezers showed them the video. He said energy wise. Yours is running with less power and will save you some money.. so I asked him why us his system. He told me it takes up less space in the house.. He said the walk-in system that he has is cheaper to repair and replace parts as where most freezer chests today are built to be disposable and just replaced with a whole new model. He also said the lifespan of his freezer is twice that of the freezer chest. His fridge freezer combo is a little different you walk into the refrigerated area and then there’s another door which will take you into the freezer section the cold air that’s been extracted and blowing out from the freezer is exhausted into the refrigerator so the same energy that would normally Used to power a freezer is doing both. Making it more cost-efficient. I asked him because the freezer was modular about losing air like you said in the video but he used caulking on all of the joints. You can either use a silicone or butyl sealant, to make it more airtight. He also tiled the inside of both units, floor ceiling and walls.This way he can pressure wash it and clean it with a drain with a stopper that goes in so air does not escape when it’s not being used think of it like a bathtub.. the floor tiles are nonslip and the tiles really conduct and reflect the cold into the unit. Most of the freezer is used really well for all the different types of meats, fruits, and vegetables that get stored in there. The freezer section however is used a little for some produce milk, cheese, butter, and some fresh vegetables to free up space in the upstairs fridge. The fridge section has an awful lot of drinks stored in there Water sodapop beers wines. Put the majority of the fridge unit is used for processing the meat when we process we also hang the meat to in the fridge we would hide two or three cows in there wait for them to age and then process them. When that’s done five or six lambs processed them, and then five or six pigs, and then process them. We put everything into vacuum seal bags in the refrigerator and put the labels on it. Then we a little cart outside the few chambered vacuum sealer and seal it all up. We went back in and stored it in the freezer.. my grand will go down to the freezer to three times and month fill up a little basket of stuff bring it upstairs and put it in the fridge freezer up there for the week. She calls it her residential Costco you just walk around inside it like you’re at the store. It’s kind of true you go down to that part of the basement and you have to walk in fridge freezer. You also have a very large pantry that has freeze dried foods and canned foods. My grandfather also has two root sellers, dark cool, dry root cellar, and a dark, damp, wet root cellar.. the dark, damp, wet root cellar has a water feature in it to keep the moisture in the air, which is good for some of the foods we store. so in a way it’s like the store almost everything you could want is down there.. I asked my grandfather what it cost to run it so he calculated it out. It comes to current market prices around $320 to $350 depending on the time of the year. So I asked my grandfather, which one he thought was a better system, and he said to me whatever you’re happiest with. It’s like I told you before Russell the best camera in the world is the one you have with you. Love my grandfather, but he never gives you really a straight answer. He always talks to you like he’s Yoda. You have to think about everything he says.
We've looked at going to a walk-in as we run 7 freezers for our farm store. My biggest concern is having all my eggs in one basket, secondary to power use. At least with chest freezers if you loose one you're not out everything.
Another efficiency advantage of chest freezers is that when you open one, you are only breaking the seal on one. You have to open the walk in every time you want something.
Added bonus of chest freezers is you don’t walk in. You walk into a walk in freezer your body temperature heats up the freezer or you need to spend money on thermal clothes. 😊😊🙏🏻🙏🏻
I'd recommend freezer temperature alarms. Easy to tell if something is amiss right away when the alarm is beeping when making your rounds. The ones I use are around $25 and work pretty good, but you can get the ones that connect to your wireless to alert your phone.
@@MrDanisve they can be wi-fi enabled, so (as Timothy mentioned) you'll get an alarm if the freezer fails. Anything that talks to the Internet is going to be a bit more expensive. Certainly beats a quarter sitting on top of a frozen tupperware container of water
@@maggieahrens2817 No he was talking about an sound alarm. That should not be 25 dollars. Not hard to make a device that makes an sound when power stops being drawn from it. He did not mention the price of the wifi ones, only that they exist. But yea, 25 dollars for a wifi one would not be that bad.. Unless my reading comprehension is way out of wack..
Cheap freezer alarm is a half filled jar of frozen water with a coin on top of the ice. If the coin is on the bottom, the freezer failed to work properly.
Audible temperature alarm. Freezer can have the power light on and look normal, and have failed. Opening the freezer needlessly to check a frozen jar of water just introduces humidity which increases the amount of times a guy has to defrost them. But if it works for you, great. I like the $25 battery powered temp alarms as a cheap insurance policy.
Pete another reason walk in Freezers use more electricity is that they are self defrosting. During timed cycles heating coils come on to melt any ice on the coils. Those heating elements use a lot of electricity, which is why the power consumption is almost double that of a chest freezer.
Side note. The cycle is operated by a simple rotating switch that closes the circuit each time it rotates (at least thats how it used to be - haven't dissected one lately.) I was dismayed to come home one day and as I opened my front door I was greeted by the aroma of cooking meat. That little rotating switch had gotten stuck, the heating coils never cut off, and my freezer had turned into an oven. Fortunately, the schematic was on the back, and it just took a moment to find the the fault. I rotated it by hand, the coils cut off, and it continued working fine for a couple more years until I moved. I had just done my shopping and had to toss a ton of meat though. That really sucked.
IF the data selected is appropriate, and IF the results are interpreted correctly. Excruciatingly correct math can yield an enginerring disaster if you aren't asking tge right questions.
I just thought of another positive point for having the chest freezers. You mentioned all the “wasted space” above the chest freezers. Well, with a piece of plywood on top, look at all the table/workspace you just picked up! And it’s expandable (more sheets of plywood) and time flexible (1 hr, 1 day, 1 week, etc.). Can’t do that with a walk-in. 👍
Thanks - I learned something. Got to be honest though, each time you opened the freezer door I felt some anxiety… my Great Depression survivor grandma would have whacked us both with a spoon for cooling the whole blooming neighborhood like we were Rockefeller’s or something… lol 😂
Wow! Man that was so helpful...God bless folks like you that break things like this down and make research so much easier for the rest of us...Thank you Pete!
Another consideration - given enough insulation, the holding time of a closed chest-freezer (time until a unit cut off from power will rise in temperature enough to be of concern) is long enough to last through an entire day (more, actually). That makes them ideal candidates for circadian power schemes, such as solar energy. All it needs is some electronics to make sure they are powered at intervals during the day to match the power generated (and to avoid the whole lot stampeding on at the same time when power returns), ideally based on temperature. Perfect usage for solar power and less of those expensive battery packs since part of the energy gets used right away when it is available.
I sort of wish someone made one to be smarter, so it'd cool down to maximum right as sunset arrives and it could comfortably coast to morning when it powers on. Typical outlet timer can't do that.
A chest freezer is a must have if you have the room. Less than 50$ a year to operate. We keep a Honda 2000w generator in case the power goes out. And if the freezer ever goes out you can store feed in it in the barn and keep the mice out. I defrost it every winter when it’s cold out. Put everything in totes on the porch outside. I lay some towels in the bottom then put a fan in the freezer blowing the cold air up and out. Works well. Thanks for all the tips Pete!
A week ago our local Walmart lost an entire bank of the closet freezers and were down for the entire day. They had to come up with another area to place all the frozen food in. They do have a giant walk in freezer in the back but with all the curb side business that freezer holds the orders that are waiting to be picked up. I asked the service tech what happen and he responded with AGE these freezers have ran for at least 10 years 24 hours a day and now they break down a lot. So you are correct replacing one little freezer that breaks down would not cost like replacing a walkin freezer would cost. Replacing closet freezers must not be cheap either or Walmart would get new ones instead of having a tech on speed dial! Thanks for sharing Pete.
Thanks Pete! Have been looking at whether it is better for us to go walk-in or keep our chest freezers. Now you've saved me a lot of hassle! I don't have to worry until we get to 20 chest freezers. Which is a while away, so I've got time to plan it and save up for it. 😁
when i was a youngster, my parents bought a grocery store - a field my father had been employed in for many years. naturally, the store had both a walkin cooler and a walkin freezer. now, having moved out to rural America, I've been wanting to get a basement dug so we could relocate our "prepper pantry" underground and then to install both a walkin freezer and cooler. However, since we already have two standalone freezers, three refrigerator/freezer combos and one refrigerator without a freezer, the argument for lower energy consumption and reduced likelihood of product loss - guess I'll just make enough room to house them all and enjoy the benefits of multiple units. Thanks, Pete. Love your channel, and could sit and listen to you read the phone book if you chose to do so!
Fyi, If anyone is considering a walk-in. You can always install 2 condensers and two evaporators. The upfront cost is higher but if sized right one system can maintain the unit below freezing in the event of the other breaking down. We have done this for customers with expensive product like seafood and meat. The chest freezers are the way to go for most smaller operations though.
Wow, I first was introducted to your channel by the algorithm 2 weeks ago. In that 2 weeks I subbed and so did 2000 other folks. Good wholesome channel is the reason.
Hello Pete… I was just starting to plan a processing room and worried about how to build out a walk-in cooler and the cost then seen your Freezer video and WOW… Thanks so much for your explanation and I will be doing the same as you… Due to the cost, electric and the possibility of having to go on generator power during our FL Hurricanes your way of doing things on your freezer storage makes perfect sense both on our farm and being able to transport to other sale locations. THANKS for all your time making a window into your farm life… Keep doing what you do Sir…
Crystal clear, Pete! We. Got. It. A little trip to the fridge to see how cold air moves when you open the door sealed the deal. Thanks so much, Mr. Practical!
I believe redundancy is most beneficial part of using chest freezers. If walk-in freezer goes down you will lose or have to relocate the entire years crop!
I am glad I've decided to do more research and stumble upon this video. I am currently in talks with a Chinese manufacturer to purchase a 10×8×8 walk-in freezer. Now I know what I should do. Thanks very much
Lots of points to ponder. I know of a brand new start up farm that just bought a walk-in but they are mostly growing vegetables and that seemed to make the most sense for that operation.
Warm wall condensers, and wall embedded evaporators are very inefficient. This is why this technology is not used in refrigerators or energy star rated upright freezers. Also, the lack of an evaporator fan deduces the flow of heat into the evap, slowing the cooling response of the system. An example, to freeze something you must transfer the heat to the evaporator. If the product is not in contact with the wall with the evaporator, it must first heat the surrounding stagnate air and use thermal convection to bring the warmer air into contact with the surface housing the evap coils. This added thermal resistance causes reduction in thermal regulating performance, efficiency, and freeze time of the product added. If you are only relying on the freezer to store pre-frozen food the chest freezer will work. It is normally not recommended to use a chest freezer for freezing of ambient temp product since the ability of the system to remove heat is very limited. I use both a forced air convection upright freezer and chest freezer. The chest freezer is only for storage, and the upright is used to rapidly freeze product. Your system works so so reason to change, just some observations. Another interesting observation, opening and closing either an upright or chest freezer doe not affect power consumption. Air has very little thermal mass, and heating and cooling it takes very little energy. What is does affect is adding moisture into the air, that causes more frost buildup in a chest freezer, and more frequent defrost cycles in forced air systems.
Great information!! In my experience walk in freezers require frequent repairs!! I think you have made a very wise choice in your storage!! Stay safe and thanks for sharing!!! Best Wishes from Kentucky!!!
The nice thing about walk-ins is that you have better material handling. You can palletize and don't need to unload by hand. We use mini pallets with dollies on our farm and it saves labor and your back. Wheel it right into the truck and off you go to market.
The best or one of the best farmers on UA-cam! Loving your stuff since day one of subbing! Especially the "Hi I'm Pete..." Amazing stuff!!! Tell Hilary I said hiii
Hi Pete I don't think you'll see this but if you do thank you I first watched one of your videos and decided I wanting to get a few acres i haven't been able to find anything yet but I got the best I could. A horse I ended up getting my horse sully all because of you inspiring me of the farm ways thank you for bringing this wonderful lifestyle to my eyes
Pete, you did a good comparison! I always was thinking that a walking is the way to go but now the only advantage is space and honestly that is a huge one if you don't have it. Other than space....I don't know if it's worth it! Thanks Pete!
Side note . These boxes can be used off season as warmers . If you are mashing corn in cold weather just a aquarium heater does the job. A in box controller could also make apple storage possible.
My two grandsons and their dad sell farm to table beef. They have some chest freezers and two upright store freezers which have both failed losing them lots of meat. I’m going to tell them about this video and hopefully they will watch and learn. Enjoy all your videos
A walk-in fridge or freezer usually starts making sense once you cross the 8x8 x10 and usually when you get to 8x8x20 . in the military we used refrigerated shipping containers as walk-in fridge or freezer or both in one container. Or take a regular shipping container add insulation and turn that into a walk-in fridge or freezer. It usually started to make sense once you were feeding 100-150 or so soldiers. Depending on how often you got resupplied. I've also seen an interesting design where you walk into the fridge there's an elevator for pallets and a set of stairs and underneath the fridge behind the door is the freezer think of turning an entire basement into a giant chest freezer and having an intermediate zone as a fridge.
Also, when you open a chest freezer, you’re only opening a small percentage of your freezer space to ambient air. With a walk-in, you’re opening ALL of your freezer space to ambient air, so you’re going to lose more energy and thus pay more money opening the door of a walk-in to get the same contents in or out of it.
I appreciate all of your content, however as a up-and-coming farmer just starting out my operation these are the types of informational videos that are of most benefit to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about this particular issue on my own small farm. Thank you for this video.
you also have the flexibility to change the freezer to a fridge with an inexpensive thermostat. I use mine to let the chickens go through the riggermortise cycle before freezing or to hold a harvested hog before butchering. Bought a 7ft freezer last year was $800.00.
Great video thank you I would love to learn more about the what to do on your meat chickens 🐓 I’ll look and see if you have any old videos I just love your rain video your wife has a beautiful spirit your both a lot alike you definitely complement each other have a blessed weekend looking forward to your next market video
Often thought about this. I even wonder the difference in chest versus the stand up freezer and the comparison of how much product that can be stored in the same amount of space.
I like the idea of multiple freezers as well. Nothing like redundancy to protect the product. The likelihood that all freezers quitting at the same time is not a very real concern. The fact that you can only run the ones you really need is the best idea because it saves the electric consumption all year long. Winner, Winner, chicken dinner!
I think another reason for the difference in the cost is that, because chest freezers are separate compartments, so to speak, you only have to open a small area of the overall freezing space (one freezer) to get an item, whereas a walk in freezer you are opening the entire area (the equivalent of ten freezers) just to retrieve that one item. Pete, somehow you made even this topic interesting!
Thanks for doing the math I'm in the process of deciding which I prefer a walk-in or the chest freezers and for me I think it will be the chest freezers
Neglecting how loaded and how long it is open, another pro vs con is the natural density of cold air. A chest freezer won't lose much of it's cold (or more accurately gain heat) when it is opened, where as a walk in will allow hotter air to enter through the upper area of the doorway as cold air escapes through the lower portion... The cold dense air in the walk in will pour out through the door way and suck in warmer less dense air.
Love the convenience up the up right freezers but the chest freezers are better to stay cold. My husband made me wooden dividers for my large chest freezer when we had a young family. It allowed me to keep the food organized very nicely.🇨🇦
Pete needed a large amount of freezers all at once to handle his upcoming butcher visits so he bought them as a group. In a smaller farm situation, when you can scale up more slowly, freezers can be purchased in January for as little as 50% of the full price. Getting one or two freezers per year at $400 or even $600 each would be a huge savings.
Great video Pete. I think you're spot on - based on your numbers and at the point you're at with what you need, the chest freezers are definitely the way to go. In the future, maybe a walk in would be more beneficial. Some really helpful information here!
Walk-in freezers typically don't have enough wall, floor, and ceiling insulation, because to add more thickness to walls decreases the usable interior size from the footprint, and most freezers where you can walk in to them are used in restaurants,, so the initial cost must be very low, or you will lose market segment size to a competitor. Also, they leave the freezer door open a lot in restaurants, which make insulation a secondary issue. Walk-ins use fans and a coil type evaporator. This needs to have a heater to defrost the coil several times a day. That alone eats up a lot of power. Now....the chest freezer, if it is an energy start model, has NO defrost. You defrost it every year or two. It takes less than an hour, and you can do it in winter (here in Pa) when it is cold enough to sit the food outside at night during the defrost. It has no evap coil or evap fans. It has a plate-type evaporator which never gets defrosted and never needs cleaning, and will not deteriorate like a copper coil with fins. So yes... it is the chest freezer, by a mile. HVACR professional here.
Hi Pete. One very important point to be considered as well is contamination. You walk all over the farm and you'd have to be scrupulously clean before you went inside the the walk-in freezer lest you carried pathogens stuck to the soles of your boots. That alone warrants the option of chest freezers. Hands down chest freezers are the way to go. Cheers from Oz mate.
We have multiple chest freezers. Part of our thought process is that if a single freezer goes down, we can either shift things around a little or go out and buy a new one for a few hundred dollars. If you have thousands of dollars worth of meat in a single walk in freezer and it goes down, that can be a stressful day. Kind of the old saying about putting all of your eggs in one basket.
An other plus for the chest freezer is it can be turned into a fridge with a simple plug in converter. I have a Johnson Controls one I bought on Amazon. Works great and apparently is more efficient than a upright fridge.
HI there from NZ Pete. Great video. You answered a lot of questions for me. I had come to very similar conclusions. I am going to look into getting a Kilowatt metre. It is hard to get big chest freezers second hand in NZ. They start at about $1000NZD new and go up from there. I think the modular setup has many advantages. Thanks for dealing with this sort of subject matter!
Another consideration on cost, you may spend the same total per ft of space,but with chest freezers, you can purchase enough to accommodate your needs as you grow, so the up front cost is spread out over some time instead of all at once.
Wow! Enjoyed the analysis comparing chest freezers vs. 8' walk-in units. Excellent details Pete! Great presentation...but...seeing all those frozen turkeys(?) & chickens...humm..made me hungry! LoL!😊👍👍
Awesome video! Thank you sir! The point with the generator is very true. We are in a 3 world place and get sometimes 2 days or more without power. As you said with a small generator I can power 10 freezers at the same time if I plug them in not all at once but gradually one at a time. It really works well
This is a great comparison. Another plus for chest freezers is that when you open a chest freezer, very little cold air leaks out since it's heavier than the ambient air and sits in the freezer. Whereas with a vertical freezer or a walk-in, every time you open the door all the cold air falls out and warm air rushes in and the cooling system has to kick on to chill every thing. One possible plus for walk-ins is that since all the contents are together in one spot there is a lot more thermal mass which helps to regulate the temperature once it's brought down to freezing. So small leaks or variations are require less effort to correct than with a chest freezer. I'm guessing that the actual advantage here is marginal at best so it probably is not worth factoring in.
I appreciate the energy usage info. I've done something similar for my household needs - I have three small chest freezers, two in the garage and one in the house. They are currently full of beef, pork, chicken, veggies, butter, milk, cheese, broth, fruit, etc. The house freezer has some of everything, and as I use it up I replenish from the garage freezers - when I empty one it's time to unplug & defrost, then wash up and have ready for the following fall when it will be filled up again. I have wondered if a larger chest freezer would be more efficient per cubic foot than smaller ones. I have one (probably 20 years old when I bought it at a garage sale more than ten years ago) that doesn't seem to be keeping things as cold as it should (frozen, but not down to 0 degrees) I'm debating replacing it with a larger one when the time comes, and permanently unplugging a smaller one to have on hand should one stop working. Your research will help me make a good decision - thank you.
Also, chest freezers have less moving parts= less to go wrong. Walk-ins constantly require maintenance. Used to do commercial refrigeration. You made many good, valuable points.
They cost a small fortune for parts if needed.
Very good point that I was hoping Pete would cover and plus the wait time to get a commercial technician out to his rural area could possibly result in him loosing the contents. A chest type is pretty much disposable now days so you only have to worry about finding a new one
Agree with you Lynn
And you don't transfer any pathogens from animal poop on or dirt your boots as you can with a walk-in freezer.
@@T_Humphries But rather than dispose you can bury them, leaving insulated access to the lid, and use them as a rodent-proof "root cellar".
Informative video. Thank you.. I asked my grandfather why he had a walk-in fridge freezer combo instead of loads of fridges and freezers showed them the video. He said energy wise. Yours is running with less power and will save you some money.. so I asked him why us his system. He told me it takes up less space in the house.. He said the walk-in system that he has is cheaper to repair and replace parts as where most freezer chests today are built to be disposable and just replaced with a whole new model. He also said the lifespan of his freezer is twice that of the freezer chest. His fridge freezer combo is a little different you walk into the refrigerated area and then there’s another door which will take you into the freezer section the cold air that’s been extracted and blowing out from the freezer is exhausted into the refrigerator so the same energy that would normally Used to power a freezer is doing both. Making it more cost-efficient. I asked him because the freezer was modular about losing air like you said in the video but he used caulking on all of the joints. You can either use a silicone or butyl sealant, to make it more airtight. He also tiled the inside of both units, floor ceiling and walls.This way he can pressure wash it and clean it with a drain with a stopper that goes in so air does not escape when it’s not being used think of it like a bathtub.. the floor tiles are nonslip and the tiles really conduct and reflect the cold into the unit. Most of the freezer is used really well for all the different types of meats, fruits, and vegetables that get stored in there. The freezer section however is used a little for some produce milk, cheese, butter, and some fresh vegetables to free up space in the upstairs fridge. The fridge section has an awful lot of drinks stored in there Water sodapop beers wines. Put the majority of the fridge unit is used for processing the meat when we process we also hang the meat to in the fridge we would hide two or three cows in there wait for them to age and then process them. When that’s done five or six lambs processed them, and then five or six pigs, and then process them. We put everything into vacuum seal bags in the refrigerator and put the labels on it. Then we a little cart outside the few chambered vacuum sealer and seal it all up. We went back in and stored it in the freezer.. my grand will go down to the freezer to three times and month fill up a little basket of stuff bring it upstairs and put it in the fridge freezer up there for the week. She calls it her residential Costco you just walk around inside it like you’re at the store. It’s kind of true you go down to that part of the basement and you have to walk in fridge freezer. You also have a very large pantry that has freeze dried foods and canned foods. My grandfather also has two root sellers, dark cool, dry root cellar, and a dark, damp, wet root cellar.. the dark, damp, wet root cellar has a water feature in it to keep the moisture in the air, which is good for some of the foods we store. so in a way it’s like the store almost everything you could want is down there.. I asked my grandfather what it cost to run it so he calculated it out. It comes to current market prices around $320 to $350 depending on the time of the year. So I asked my grandfather, which one he thought was a better system, and he said to me whatever you’re happiest with. It’s like I told you before Russell the best camera in the world is the one you have with you. Love my grandfather, but he never gives you really a straight answer. He always talks to you like he’s Yoda. You have to think about everything he says.
What can you tell me about the R-value and other layers of insulation and structure?
We've looked at going to a walk-in as we run 7 freezers for our farm store. My biggest concern is having all my eggs in one basket, secondary to power use. At least with chest freezers if you loose one you're not out everything.
Another efficiency advantage of chest freezers is that when you open one, you are only breaking the seal on one. You have to open the walk in every time you want something.
Added bonus of chest freezers is you don’t walk in. You walk into a walk in freezer your body temperature heats up the freezer or you need to spend money on thermal clothes. 😊😊🙏🏻🙏🏻
I'd recommend freezer temperature alarms. Easy to tell if something is amiss right away when the alarm is beeping when making your rounds. The ones I use are around $25 and work pretty good, but you can get the ones that connect to your wireless to alert your phone.
25 bucks, do those alarms include an army or something? :P Thats expensive considering i just bought a 3pk of timers for 5 dollars few days ago
@@MrDanisve they can be wi-fi enabled, so (as Timothy mentioned) you'll get an alarm if the freezer fails.
Anything that talks to the Internet is going to be a bit more expensive.
Certainly beats a quarter sitting on top of a frozen tupperware container of water
@@maggieahrens2817 No he was talking about an sound alarm. That should not be 25 dollars. Not hard to make a device that makes an sound when power stops being drawn from it.
He did not mention the price of the wifi ones, only that they exist. But yea, 25 dollars for a wifi one would not be that bad..
Unless my reading comprehension is way out of wack..
Cheap freezer alarm is a half filled jar of frozen water with a coin on top of the ice.
If the coin is on the bottom, the freezer failed to work properly.
Audible temperature alarm. Freezer can have the power light on and look normal, and have failed.
Opening the freezer needlessly to check a frozen jar of water just introduces humidity which increases the amount of times a guy has to defrost them. But if it works for you, great. I like the $25 battery powered temp alarms as a cheap insurance policy.
Great video, I agree the risk reduction of multiple units vs loosing an entire walk in is the way to go
Pete another reason walk in Freezers use more electricity is that they are self defrosting. During timed cycles heating coils come on to melt any ice on the coils. Those heating elements use a lot of electricity, which is why the power consumption is almost double that of a chest freezer.
Interesting!
Side note.
The cycle is operated by a simple rotating switch that closes the circuit each time it rotates (at least thats how it used to be - haven't dissected one lately.)
I was dismayed to come home one day and as I opened my front door I was greeted by the aroma of cooking meat.
That little rotating switch had gotten stuck, the heating coils never cut off, and my freezer had turned into an oven.
Fortunately, the schematic was on the back, and it just took a moment to find the the fault.
I rotated it by hand, the coils cut off, and it continued working fine for a couple more years until I moved.
I had just done my shopping and had to toss a ton of meat though.
That really sucked.
Pete, watching your videos, I've found you to be a walking encyclopedia of knowledge on so many different items. You make us southpaws proud.
I LOVE MATH!! It never lies!
IF the data selected is appropriate, and IF the results are interpreted correctly.
Excruciatingly correct math can yield an enginerring disaster if you aren't asking tge right questions.
I just thought of another positive point for having the chest freezers. You mentioned all the “wasted space” above the chest freezers. Well, with a piece of plywood on top, look at all the table/workspace you just picked up! And it’s expandable (more sheets of plywood) and time flexible (1 hr, 1 day, 1 week, etc.). Can’t do that with a walk-in. 👍
Thanks - I learned something. Got to be honest though, each time you opened the freezer door I felt some anxiety… my Great Depression survivor grandma would have whacked us both with a spoon for cooling the whole blooming neighborhood like we were Rockefeller’s or something… lol 😂
Wow! Man that was so helpful...God bless folks like you that break things like this down and make research so much easier for the rest of us...Thank you Pete!
Another consideration - given enough insulation, the holding time of a closed chest-freezer (time until a unit cut off from power will rise in temperature enough to be of concern) is long enough to last through an entire day (more, actually). That makes them ideal candidates for circadian power schemes, such as solar energy. All it needs is some electronics to make sure they are powered at intervals during the day to match the power generated (and to avoid the whole lot stampeding on at the same time when power returns), ideally based on temperature. Perfect usage for solar power and less of those expensive battery packs since part of the energy gets used right away when it is available.
I sort of wish someone made one to be smarter, so it'd cool down to maximum right as sunset arrives and it could comfortably coast to morning when it powers on. Typical outlet timer can't do that.
A chest freezer is a must have if you have the room. Less than 50$ a year to operate. We keep a Honda 2000w generator in case the power goes out. And if the freezer ever goes out you can store feed in it in the barn and keep the mice out. I defrost it every winter when it’s cold out. Put everything in totes on the porch outside. I lay some towels in the bottom then put a fan in the freezer blowing the cold air up and out. Works well. Thanks for all the tips Pete!
This video was very helpful. Logic and math will always tell you the truth. I like this.👍
We have a chest freezer from the 1960's and it still running. Works great. It's older than me and I'm 53. lol
I like your practical explanations and the way you don't mind contradicting trends and fads. Thank you for all of your videos. They are great!
A week ago our local Walmart lost an entire bank of the closet freezers and were down for the entire day. They had to come up with another area to place all the frozen food in. They do have a giant walk in freezer in the back but with all the curb side business that freezer holds the orders that are waiting to be picked up. I asked the service tech what happen and he responded with AGE these freezers have ran for at least 10 years 24 hours a day and now they break down a lot. So you are correct replacing one little freezer that breaks down would not cost like replacing a walkin freezer would cost. Replacing closet freezers must not be cheap either or Walmart would get new ones instead of having a tech on speed dial! Thanks for sharing Pete.
Thanks Pete! Have been looking at whether it is better for us to go walk-in or keep our chest freezers. Now you've saved me a lot of hassle! I don't have to worry until we get to 20 chest freezers. Which is a while away, so I've got time to plan it and save up for it. 😁
Hello Peter. Your videos are always useful. Teaching us about a world that we are not living. Very much appreciated. Be well.
when i was a youngster, my parents bought a grocery store - a field my father had been employed in for many years. naturally, the store had both a walkin cooler and a walkin freezer. now, having moved out to rural America, I've been wanting to get a basement dug so we could relocate our "prepper pantry" underground and then to install both a walkin freezer and cooler. However, since we already have two standalone freezers, three refrigerator/freezer combos and one refrigerator without a freezer, the argument for lower energy consumption and reduced likelihood of product loss - guess I'll just make enough room to house them all and enjoy the benefits of multiple units. Thanks, Pete. Love your channel, and could sit and listen to you read the phone book if you chose to do so!
Fyi, If anyone is considering a walk-in. You can always install 2 condensers and two evaporators. The upfront cost is higher but if sized right one system can maintain the unit below freezing in the event of the other breaking down. We have done this for customers with expensive product like seafood and meat. The chest freezers are the way to go for most smaller operations though.
Wow, I first was introducted to your channel by the algorithm 2 weeks ago. In that 2 weeks I subbed and so did 2000 other folks. Good wholesome channel is the reason.
Hello Pete… I was just starting to plan a processing room and worried about how to build out a walk-in cooler and the cost then seen your Freezer video and WOW… Thanks so much for your explanation and I will be doing the same as you… Due to the cost, electric and the possibility of having to go on generator power during our FL Hurricanes your way of doing things on your freezer storage makes perfect sense both on our farm and being able to transport to other sale locations. THANKS for all your time making a window into your farm life… Keep doing what you do Sir…
Thank you for your reseach! Now, I go for a cheat freezer!
Clear logical thinking. Excellent.
Crystal clear, Pete! We. Got. It. A little trip to the fridge to see how cold air moves when you open the door sealed the deal. Thanks so much, Mr. Practical!
I believe redundancy is most beneficial part of using chest freezers. If walk-in freezer goes down you will lose or have to relocate the entire years crop!
I am glad I've decided to do more research and stumble upon this video. I am currently in talks with a Chinese manufacturer to purchase a 10×8×8 walk-in freezer. Now I know what I should do. Thanks very much
I feel like a nice chest freezer is something everyone should have.
Pete. you would also have to have some kind of shelving/racks in a walk in!
Lots of points to ponder. I know of a brand new start up farm that just bought a walk-in but they are mostly growing vegetables and that seemed to make the most sense for that operation.
This was a very enjoyable " educational video"! And again common sense and basic logic thinking prove that “Big” isn’t always “better”! Nice!
Warm wall condensers, and wall embedded evaporators are very inefficient. This is why this technology is not used in refrigerators or energy star rated upright freezers. Also, the lack of an evaporator fan deduces the flow of heat into the evap, slowing the cooling response of the system. An example, to freeze something you must transfer the heat to the evaporator. If the product is not in contact with the wall with the evaporator, it must first heat the surrounding stagnate air and use thermal convection to bring the warmer air into contact with the surface housing the evap coils. This added thermal resistance causes reduction in thermal regulating performance, efficiency, and freeze time of the product added.
If you are only relying on the freezer to store pre-frozen food the chest freezer will work. It is normally not recommended to use a chest freezer for freezing of ambient temp product since the ability of the system to remove heat is very limited. I use both a forced air convection upright freezer and chest freezer. The chest freezer is only for storage, and the upright is used to rapidly freeze product. Your system works so so reason to change, just some observations.
Another interesting observation, opening and closing either an upright or chest freezer doe not affect power consumption. Air has very little thermal mass, and heating and cooling it takes very little energy. What is does affect is adding moisture into the air, that causes more frost buildup in a chest freezer, and more frequent defrost cycles in forced air systems.
Great information!! In my experience walk in freezers require frequent repairs!! I think you have made a very wise choice in your storage!! Stay safe and thanks for sharing!!! Best Wishes from Kentucky!!!
The nice thing about walk-ins is that you have better material handling. You can palletize and don't need to unload by hand. We use mini pallets with dollies on our farm and it saves labor and your back. Wheel it right into the truck and off you go to market.
I just love this channel
The best or one of the best farmers on UA-cam! Loving your stuff since day one of subbing! Especially the "Hi I'm Pete..." Amazing stuff!!! Tell Hilary I said hiii
From a phsicall perspecrive I say Chest freezers! When it come to convenience and maximum space usage, walk in freezer
Hi Pete I don't think you'll see this but if you do thank you I first watched one of your videos and decided I wanting to get a few acres i haven't been able to find anything yet but I got the best I could. A horse I ended up getting my horse sully all because of you inspiring me of the farm ways thank you for bringing this wonderful lifestyle to my eyes
Pete, you did a good comparison! I always was thinking that a walking is the way to go but now the only advantage is space and honestly that is a huge one if you don't have it. Other than space....I don't know if it's worth it! Thanks Pete!
Side note . These boxes can be used off season as warmers . If you are mashing corn in cold weather just a aquarium heater does the job. A in box controller could also make apple storage possible.
You make a strong case.
We prefer a upright freezer.
In your position I would likely do exactly what you do.
Thanks Pete.
My two grandsons and their dad sell farm to table beef. They have some chest freezers and two upright store freezers which have both failed losing them lots of meat. I’m going to tell them about this video and hopefully they will watch and learn. Enjoy all your videos
A walk-in fridge or freezer usually starts making sense once you cross the 8x8 x10 and usually when you get to 8x8x20 .
in the military we used refrigerated shipping containers as walk-in fridge or freezer or both in one container. Or take a regular shipping container add insulation and turn that into a walk-in fridge or freezer.
It usually started to make sense once you were feeding 100-150 or so soldiers. Depending on how often you got resupplied.
I've also seen an interesting design where you walk into the fridge there's an elevator for pallets and a set of stairs and underneath the fridge behind the door is the freezer think of turning an entire basement into a giant chest freezer and having an intermediate zone as a fridge.
I'm a retired union carpenter built a few walk with ins and would not get one chest freezer are the way to go have a great day Pete
🐼 Big Bear Hugs from a 68 yr old grandma in Kirby, Texas, USA 🐼 ❤️ 🎀 ❤️ 🎀 ❤️ 🎀
I like the way you explain your data and research. Great job
Also, when you open a chest freezer, you’re only opening a small percentage of your freezer space to ambient air. With a walk-in, you’re opening ALL of your freezer space to ambient air, so you’re going to lose more energy and thus pay more money opening the door of a walk-in to get the same contents in or out of it.
Another mater of fact down to earth and well thought out video.
Thanks mate
I appreciate all of your content, however as a up-and-coming farmer just starting out my operation these are the types of informational videos that are of most benefit to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about this particular issue on my own small farm. Thank you for this video.
I wish you well - we need more up & coming farmers!
This was such a well thought out video and opened my eyes to so many pros and cons.
Great explanation. If garage area becomes a problem you can run them in a carport off of the barn or garage.
you also have the flexibility to change the freezer to a fridge with an inexpensive thermostat. I use mine to let the chickens go through the riggermortise cycle before freezing or to hold a harvested hog before butchering. Bought a 7ft freezer last year was $800.00.
Great video thank you I would love to learn more about the what to do on your meat chickens 🐓 I’ll look and see if you have any old videos I just love your rain video your wife has a beautiful spirit your both a lot alike you definitely complement each other have a blessed weekend looking forward to your next market video
All makes perfect cents. truely
Hello Pete and Hillary. Have a good day.
And it would be difficult to sit on a walk-in and give a farming lecture. Thanks, it was fascinating.
LoL 🤣😆
My thoughts too!
Great information here Pete, thanks for sharing! Have a nice week!
I don't have a lot of interest in freezers, Pete, but you made this very very interesting. Thank you
You know this video was actually exactly what I was looking for thank you very much sir, hope you are well, take care
Often thought about this. I even wonder the difference in chest versus the stand up freezer and the comparison of how much product that can be stored in the same amount of space.
I like the idea of multiple freezers as well. Nothing like redundancy to protect the product. The likelihood that all freezers quitting at the same time is not a very real concern. The fact that you can only run the ones you really need is the best idea because it saves the electric consumption all year long. Winner, Winner, chicken dinner!
This beats Buffalo any day!! This was actually really helpful for me. Thanks so much for putting this video together!
It’s amazing how good they are, they go along with the whole modularity / scalability concept.
I noticed that awesome bicycle in the background!! Appreciate all you do Pete and fam!!
I think another reason for the difference in the cost is that, because chest freezers are separate compartments, so to speak, you only have to open a small area of the overall freezing space (one freezer) to get an item, whereas a walk in freezer you are opening the entire area (the equivalent of ten freezers) just to retrieve that one item. Pete, somehow you made even this topic interesting!
Thanks for doing the math I'm in the process of deciding which I prefer a walk-in or the chest freezers and for me I think it will be the chest freezers
Neglecting how loaded and how long it is open, another pro vs con is the natural density of cold air. A chest freezer won't lose much of it's cold (or more accurately gain heat) when it is opened, where as a walk in will allow hotter air to enter through the upper area of the doorway as cold air escapes through the lower portion... The cold dense air in the walk in will pour out through the door way and suck in warmer less dense air.
Love the convenience up the up right freezers but the chest freezers are better to stay cold. My husband made me wooden dividers for my large chest freezer when we had a young family. It allowed me to keep the food organized very nicely.🇨🇦
Very articulate explanation, thank you. I would have expected the walk-in would have been more efficient.
This topic is the one I've been wishing for
Pete needed a large amount of freezers all at once to handle his upcoming butcher visits so he bought them as a group. In a smaller farm situation, when you can scale up more slowly, freezers can be purchased in January for as little as 50% of the full price. Getting one or two freezers per year at $400 or even $600 each would be a huge savings.
I bought them one at a time, over 5 years.
Farmer and cost accountant! nice explanation of whether to proceed with capital investments! :)
Great video Pete. I think you're spot on - based on your numbers and at the point you're at with what you need, the chest freezers are definitely the way to go. In the future, maybe a walk in would be more beneficial. Some really helpful information here!
That was a great video. Full of answers to questions I had on this topic and questions I didn't have yet.
Excellent video Pete, thanks so much!
Walk-in freezers typically don't have enough wall, floor, and ceiling insulation, because to add more thickness to walls decreases the usable interior size from the footprint, and most freezers where you can walk in to them are used in restaurants,, so the initial cost must be very low, or you will lose market segment size to a competitor. Also, they leave the freezer door open a lot in restaurants, which make insulation a secondary issue.
Walk-ins use fans and a coil type evaporator. This needs to have a heater to defrost the coil several times a day. That alone eats up a lot of power.
Now....the chest freezer, if it is an energy start model, has NO defrost. You defrost it every year or two. It takes less than an hour, and you can do it in winter (here in Pa) when it is cold enough to sit the food outside at night during the defrost. It has no evap coil or evap fans. It has a plate-type evaporator which never gets defrosted and never needs cleaning, and will not deteriorate like a copper coil with fins.
So yes... it is the chest freezer, by a mile. HVACR professional here.
Hi Pete. One very important point to be considered as well is contamination. You walk all over the farm and you'd have to be scrupulously clean before you went inside the the walk-in freezer lest you carried pathogens stuck to the soles of your boots. That alone warrants the option of chest freezers. Hands down chest freezers are the way to go. Cheers from Oz mate.
We have multiple chest freezers. Part of our thought process is that if a single freezer goes down, we can either shift things around a little or go out and buy a new one for a few hundred dollars. If you have thousands of dollars worth of meat in a single walk in freezer and it goes down, that can be a stressful day. Kind of the old saying about putting all of your eggs in one basket.
An other plus for the chest freezer is it can be turned into a fridge with a simple plug in converter. I have a Johnson Controls one I bought on Amazon. Works great and apparently is more efficient than a upright fridge.
Thanks again for sharing good information. Walk-in freezer not much storage
HI there from NZ Pete. Great video. You answered a lot of questions for me. I had come to very similar conclusions. I am going to look into getting a Kilowatt metre. It is hard to get big chest freezers second hand in NZ. They start at about $1000NZD new and go up from there. I think the modular setup has many advantages. Thanks for dealing with this sort of subject matter!
Another consideration on cost, you may spend the same total per ft of space,but with chest freezers, you can purchase enough to accommodate your needs as you grow, so the up front cost is spread out over some time instead of all at once.
Excellent video. I've wanted to buy a chest freezer and now I'm sold. Thank you for your research. 👍
Small is beautiful!
Wow! Enjoyed the analysis comparing chest freezers vs. 8' walk-in units. Excellent details Pete! Great presentation...but...seeing all those frozen turkeys(?) & chickens...humm..made me hungry! LoL!😊👍👍
Very well explained, there is no doubt that you put a lot of thought in to what you do.
Makes sense to me!
Awesome video! Thank you sir! The point with the generator is very true. We are in a 3 world place and get sometimes 2 days or more without power. As you said with a small generator I can power 10 freezers at the same time if I plug them in not all at once but gradually one at a time. It really works well
Totally geeked out on this episode, thank you Pete.
Great exposition Pete. Ty.
This is a great comparison. Another plus for chest freezers is that when you open a chest freezer, very little cold air leaks out since it's heavier than the ambient air and sits in the freezer. Whereas with a vertical freezer or a walk-in, every time you open the door all the cold air falls out and warm air rushes in and the cooling system has to kick on to chill every thing.
One possible plus for walk-ins is that since all the contents are together in one spot there is a lot more thermal mass which helps to regulate the temperature once it's brought down to freezing. So small leaks or variations are require less effort to correct than with a chest freezer. I'm guessing that the actual advantage here is marginal at best so it probably is not worth factoring in.
Thanks Pete. Awesome content. Keep em coming please
I appreciate the energy usage info. I've done something similar for my household needs - I have three small chest freezers, two in the garage and one in the house. They are currently full of beef, pork, chicken, veggies, butter, milk, cheese, broth, fruit, etc. The house freezer has some of everything, and as I use it up I replenish from the garage freezers - when I empty one it's time to unplug & defrost, then wash up and have ready for the following fall when it will be filled up again. I have wondered if a larger chest freezer would be more efficient per cubic foot than smaller ones. I have one (probably 20 years old when I bought it at a garage sale more than ten years ago) that doesn't seem to be keeping things as cold as it should (frozen, but not down to 0 degrees) I'm debating replacing it with a larger one when the time comes, and permanently unplugging a smaller one to have on hand should one stop working. Your research will help me make a good decision - thank you.
Who can argue with math AND logic!
Half the country?
Excellent video and great information, thanks for putting it all together. Jim
Not sure they’re meant to sit on. Thanks for another great video.
Awesome comparison video! Pretty much answered all of my questions.