I prefer the chest freezer. Cheaper to operate (and buy), plus it fit in the space under my stairs where an upright wouldn't.

If you come up with a good organizing system, it is not hard to find things! I keep things in milk crates and other small baskets and I never have to take more than one thing out to find something.

Another good organizational tip is to keep a little log of what is in the freezer so you don't have to dig for something that isn't there! This is probably a bit overkill for most people, but I swear by it. (The red milk crate has a pork loin, pork chops, hamburger patties and chicken breasts in it; the blue one has frozen fruits and veggies.)

I love my chest freezers! I have a second one set to 35 degrees that I use as a beer fridge...

I second the "chest freezer organizers" comment.

I've used plastic bins in mine. It works well.

We plan on buying an upright one soon. A friend of ours purchased a chest-style freezer, mainly for storing the meat from deer hunting, and regrets it. He advised us to go upright, because it's easy to lose things in the chest freezer.

If a chest freezer works out better for you, just maintain some sort of organization and you should be fine.

We inherited a 1970s chest freezer large enough to hold a couple of cows when we bought our house. I found that the organization wasn't an issue as long as I kept like items together- meat in one drawer, fruits and veggies in another, etc. Labeling items before I put them away helped too. It was only the unlabeled items that slipped through the cracks.

Unfortunately the freezer cost us $40 a month in electric so we had to get rid of it. I'm planning on buying a smaller, energy efficient chest freezer to take its place in the near future.

I love my upright freezer. I inherited it from my parents (so lord only knows how old it is). I plan on replacing it soon as I am sure it eats a lot of energy and todays models are designed far better. I considered a chest freezer particularly because of the energy savings, but 1. I know I'll never be able to keep it organized and 2. I just keep envisioning myself falling in/not being able to reach the bottom (I am fairly short). So upright it is for me!

I confess I'm not one to keep up on good organizing systems so I'm happy with my upright.

Chest freezers are more efficient primarily because you don't lose all the cold air when you open them, I think. So if you're not opening it very often, the energy savings would be minimal so maybe you could remove that from your calculations. You should be able to get energy usage information on the models you're concidering to decide if they really are more efficient or if it's actually just re-cooling the lost air.

Keep in mind that chest freezers aren't made with automatic defrost as an option. You have to manually defrost them once a year by emptying out the freezer.

I don't have either type; I have a second refrigerator in the basement. The small freezer in that gives me enough extra freezer room for when I need it, and I am really glad I have the refrigerator as well. With the five of us, we need the extra refrigerator space.

According to the research I've done, a good upright freezer is only marginally less efficient than a chest freezer. Seals and insulation are good enough now that it doesn't matter much. Assuming you don't get into it often, the loss to "the cold falling out" is minimal, especially if you keep it full so it's keeping food cold rather than air. That's one of the most important things you can do to boost efficiency, avoid chilling air.

Having owned both chest and upright freezers, I definitely prefer the upright. I bought a 20cu ft one to replace a 7 cu ft chest freezer recently, hence the research. It fits my space better, and I don't have the time / energy to keep a chest freezer organized enough to keep from losing things.

Really, with quality modern appliances, just use whichever fits you space and habits best, everything else is close enough that it really is a wash (if you ask me, anyway).

I have a small chest freezer that I inherited. It holds a lot, but much food is wasted due to being lost in the abyss. I would definitely go upright next time.

I'm on my second upright freezer, the first one was my grandmother's and when it died I bought another upright. I'm vertically challenged and always had a tough time reaching things in the bottom of my mom's chest freezer without having to take my feet off the ground.

I agree w/most of these posts - ask yourself this: "Am I an organized person?". If you are (honestly), then you will be able to use the chest freezer well. I have one, and it's a nightmare to find anything (because I didn't ask myself that same question... and I'm not. Definitely not organized.)

Upright all the way! 'Cause you can put stuff on top of it.

I say go with the chest freezer. You've already got the freezer on your refrigerator for quick access. I use my chest freezer for more long-term freezing, which it excels at.

Consumer's Reports reviewed these last month and, if I remember correctly, had some not-so-good things to say about the temperature controls on the uprights...definitely worth a look-see!

I think that the temp of the door shelves was considerably higher than the temp of the body of the uprights?

I love my upright freezer, I would also say go with a frost free - it keeps the moisture in your food longer. Plus, with a chest freezer, I feel like most stuff gets pushed to the bottom...

Switched from a chest to an upright. We would lose stuff forever, plus our chest freezer was adjacent to the laundry area and always had stuff piled on top of it. Husband refused to go retrieve things just because he would have to move everything to open it. The difference in the energy cost was more than worth it for domestic tranquility.

That being said, as everyone pointed out, if you are organized (and tidier than us), you should have no problems with a chest freezer.

ok I see people in two group here, but why not combine both?
I am korean, so I am used to kimchi refrigerators.
http://www.lovethatkimchi.com/kimchi_refrigerator.html
This is hot it looks like. It looks like chest freezer and some models have drawers on the front, and also opening on top. so it is a lot easier and better. only thing is it's really expensive but I am planning on buying one soon.
oh and although it's named as kimchi refregerator but you can set the temperature how ever you want it.
You can even set it differently so one side of it is colder than the other. They provide with the perfect temperature for vegitables not to totally freeze but keep it really fresh.

nyorange: thanks, now I want a kimchi fridge :)

I grew up having to retrieve things from my parents' packed-to-the-brim-chest-freezer, and upon purchasing my own freezer a few years back, bought the upright freezer with glee. No more sore back from almost climbing inside to find something at the bottom and no more cold fingers from moving things around to pick up something under that giant turkey. So much easier...

follow leepert's advice and check out consumer reports - i just bought one this summer and went with the chest freezer.

i LOVE mine! i made a lot of make ahead meals, and keep a clipboard with a "freezer inventory" of when things go in and come out.

We just bought an upright freezer last week, actually. So far, it's great! We looked at chest freezers but decided against them for two main reasons: 1) Space--the chest freezer would have needed MUCH more space, and since we have to keep it in our small basement it would have taken away a large chunk of floor. 2) Convenience--I'm particularly biased right now because I'm pregnant, but even if I wasn't I realized I literally could not even reach the bottom of the chest freezer. I would have had no way to get items on the bottom without climbing in! Plus, we were looking at the smaller freezers, and they didn't come with lots of storage drawers and stuff that would make organization easier. We would have had to improvise things from elsewhere, which seemed inconvenient and expensive.

So I'm really happy with our smaller upright. It's easy to access, and we paid an extra $50 for the auto defrost. Absolutely worth the money.

I have one of each and I like the upright one MUCH better.
It's a pain to find things in the chest freezer and easy to organize the upright freezer.
Anyone have any organizing ideas for a chest freezer?
Baskets or shelves or something?

Well, how concerned with space are you in the storage room?

Also, if you don't like using your parent's chest freezer, then perhaps you shouldn't go with that option. I would ask how your mom adjusted from the upright to the chest. I'm sure she was just as used to the upright as you are. If she had a hard time adjusting, then perhaps you shouldn't go with it. But if it was easy to get used to, then that might be a good option.