A few weeks back I received a little ‘cashback bonus’ check from CostCo. I’d been thinking that I would use it to pick up a second freezer for the basement. Of course, thats a pretty simplistic goal because nothing ever goes easy.
I figured I did not want two freezers on the same circuit. If their compressors both came on at the same time, it seemed like that would be a recipe for popping a fuse. The solution, assuming that I was right and that having two frezers on the same circuit was a problem, is to have each freezer on a different circuit. Well…yeah but.
When I moved into the house, it had an electric stove. I threw that thing away, had a gas line run to the kitchen, and put in a gas stove. So, I have a 220 circuit that is completely unused. Could I not have it made to run a 110 freezer? Short answer: with enough money anything is possible.
I asked several people and they all gave me some variation of ‘drop one leg off the 220 outlet and use that’. Look, maybe I could have done it with enough time on YouTube how-to videos, but then when I was done I’d have to call in a pro to unscrew whatever I screwed up. And when you screw up with electricity you either die or your house goes up in smoke. Why not just save a step and go straight to the pro?
So, gal at work has a husband who is an electrician. I shanghai’d him into coming by and looking at my ancient, ancient panel. He remarked it was older than him. And 75 amp service. He said the normal standard these days is 200 amp. But putting in a new panel would require all sortsa contortions to meet the rather annoying codes in this town.
What we wound up doing was running the 220 down into a new itty bitty subpanel and then running the new outlet offa that panel. Whatever, just get it done.
So, finally got my #2 freezer up and running. My plan is to use it as my ‘everyday’ freezer and use #1 as my ‘storage’ freezer. Y’know, rotate stuff outta freezer #1 into freezer #2 for use…that sorta thing. I like having the extra freezer space..not gonna deny it. I’m actually quite excited about getting to have a much better organized freezer space than what I have now.
So..thats the weekend right there. The wiring took a couple hours, cost me a few hundred bucks, but the real PITA was having to move 60 large ammo cans to the other side of the basement to make room for things. THAT was what really wiped me out.
But, hey, I’ve room for lots more bargain meats now.
Meat in the freezer is better than money in the bank these days.
I’ve decided that many smaller freezers is better than one big one… 7 cu ft is about right. It’s basically 2ft x 3 ft, holds hundreds of dollars of meat, but not thousands, so if you lose one, you don’t lose everything. I’ve got …. several, and in more than one location.
Modern chest freezers don’t draw much power either.
As to rotating, I know you are much more disciplined than I am, but it’s still a stretch to think about actually doing it. I’m much more interested in one freezer for pork, one for beef, one for chicken, and an upright for convenience food… because digging to the bottom to find a pork roast is COLD.
If you’re freezer doesn’t have built in thermometers that you can see without opening it up, adding one is easy and cheap insurance. I glance at mine every time I go into one of them to see that they are all running ok.
And I believe you should have enough empty coolers to put one freezer’s contents into coolers if anything should happen. They don’t have to be new, or the best looking, they are a deep reserve prep. I’ve even picked them up off the curb and stack them in the garage. Of course if you have nice ones you can use them for other things…
With the way things are going, I don’t think it’s possible to have too many freezers.
nick
Nick,
I’m a firm believer in those smaller freezers.
We’ve got one that’s probably 2ft wide x 4ft tall. That thing is friggin’ immortal. Think it’s a Kenmore. Had if for 21 years. It’s made 5 moves (one of those moves it looked like it had been dragged behind the moving truck from Indiana to Georgia).
I like what you said about losing hundreds of $$ worth of food, as opposed to thousands of $$. Our grid is dog sh*t, and power outages are far too common.
Got 3 freezers – 2 chest, one upright. The upright is the “daily working freezer” the chests are “storage.”
Pro Tips: put your freezers – and fridges – on “time out surge protectors” – they offer some surge protection, but the big advantage is if power is lost, as in “brief (1 second) momentary drops” they drop power to the freezer or fridge for 3 minutes to allow compressor pressure to bleed off so the compressors don’t try to restart under pressure load.
A Whole House surge suppressor is a good idea, too. I went with Siemens, installed at the meter box so it’s the first thing incoming power sees. You can get WH suppressors that fit in the distribution panel, too, if you have 2 slots available – they bridge the busses just like a 240 volt breaker does, you may have to move existing breakers around to put the surge suppressor as close to the incoming lines as possible.
And, a failed circuit alarm is a handy device, tells you when that circuit has lost power – screeches like a smoke detector. Might be less valuable if the freezers are in the basement where you might not hear the noise.
Having recently the need to move my main pile, I can attest to the physicality of moving large numbers of full ammo cans. I decided more Gym time was the solution to the aftermath.
are freezers emp proof?
Beats me. Power failure is a bigger threat to freezers than EMP. And, honestly, not enough research ahs been done to determine what will and won’t succumb to EMP. I suspect the threat of EMP may be a bit overblown… will telephone networks and the like fry? Maybe. A digital watch? Doubtful.
An enlightening series of posts on EMP courtesy of The Silicon Greybeard is at
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/p/old-graybeard-looks-at-emp-series.html
He writes extensively about space rocket stuff, a modicum about ham radio, and a bit about guns.
*MY* solution to the many ammo cans+ onrushing geezerhood dilemma, was to transition to 30 cal ammo cans. They are manageable, even full of ammo, by your basic mark 1, mod 0 geezer….like, er, me.
You got some exercise and a great price on the wiring job. My friend is an eletrician and he doesn’t make a house call for less than $500.
Cash makes no enemies.
Federal Reserve (neither federal agency nor a reserve) aren’t cash friendly and many police think possession of cash is a crime
I’m totally off grid and use mainly solar power. I still am able to run two freezers. One is a modern chest freezer and the other is an ancient upright style. The old upright draws more amps, but I figure it’s made way better than the modern ones and will probably outlast all of the new appliances. I did put them on separate circuits and have small lights next to them as indicators if a breaker gets tripped. I use one freezer for wild game and the other for bulk beef. On a side note, I can’t say enough good things about Mannix beef out of Helmville.
http://www.mannixbeef.com/
I’ve raise my own beef and bought beef from a few different ranchers and the beef I got from Mannix has been great.
I think $$ well spent. Yes, a professional is far less prone to making a mistake with Mr. Lightning. And the extra meat storage will come in really handy for providing long term meat storage (as long as electricity is running).
Moving lots of ammo storage – where is Bruce Banner when you really need him ?
we have two freezers, one small for meat and one large for the veggies we grow and the junk food. we can most veggies but it works out good.
its getting harder every year to find room for everything.
Amazon has freezer alarms for around 10-12$. One monitor watches two freezers. You set the range of temperature and set the monitor where you walk past pretty regular to keep an eye on it
While not adequate to hold meats, consider building yourself a root cellar. I have relatives in Ukraine who use them to store potatoes, onions and cabbage heads for a year.