Has anyone else resorted to putting a chest freezer in a strange place?

[FedUpOfBrexit]

Thinking about getting a chest freezer as my fridge freezer only holds minimal amount but I have nowhere other than front room or my bedroom (but this is getting messy with boxes of stuff piled up)to put it.

Just wondering if anyone else has done this and how you hide it from visitors as it will look weird a chest freezer in the front room?

[frenchonion]

You could buy some cheap wood panelling or laminate and 'box' it in, add a table cloth over the top and it'll look like a table!

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

I've got mine in a weird corner in the hallway. No attempt to cover it!

[bellinisurge]

I've decided against an extra freezer. I've invested however in a pressure canner and, once I got the hang of it, have found this to be an alternative for storing meat and vegetables without a freezer. I also dehydrate fruit and vegetables. I think some MN preppers want to open a sweepstake on whether I survive the meat I have dehydrated I am also considered by MN preppers as something of an Eddie (Friends' character) for my dehydration admiration
I don't recommend pressure canning or dehydrating as a course of action for everyone because I think it is more a general prepper thing and certainly not a necessary tool for Brexit. I obviously have a freezer and it has the usual stuff in it.
However, the above ramble is to let you know that there are alternatives to the freezer. They require investment of time and(at least initially) money which is not really appropriate for those not so interested in general prepping.
In any event, please think twice generally about spending more money than you are comfortable with on anything (including a second freezer).

[DoodleLab]

My SIL had a chest freezer in her living area (open plan lounge/diner) beneath the back window. She lived in a smallish semi, so no room in the kitchen for one. Didn't seem out of place in that context.

Just a note that if you are going to put one in an out building eg garage/shed, you check the operating range temperature for the appliance. Due to the coolant, some cannot work below around c 12C.

[StuntEgg]

Ha! We have had this exactly conversation today, and I'm currently seriously considering putting it on top of my wardrobe (just a tabletop-sized one). Like you, I'm already climbing over boxes in there already, but there really is nowhere else. Watching to see if anyone comes up with an ingenious plan!

[Dyrne]

Bit late to the party, but lots of home brewers convert chest freezers into fridges to store kegs in and turn into bars.

If you look on Pinterest for ‘chest freezer bars’ you’ll see some amazing things they’ve done with panelling to get some stunning designs.

Obviously you’ll have it easier as you don’t need to do any converting or drilling holes for taps etc, but it will give an idea of what you can do that doesn’t just end up with a random big white thing looking out of place!

(Or you can have a DP like mine who gets half way through the conversion then can’t be bothered to finish, so you still end up with a massive white monstrosity with tubing everywhere... but hey ho!)

[Dontgiveamonkeys1350]

I’m in two minds. Looking it up fridges and freezers are one of the most expensive things to run in the house apparently. So not sure wether to have one or not.

[Dontgiveamonkeys1350]

An extra one I mean. Above the fridge freezer that I have

[Snugglepumpkin]

I currently have a chest freezer in my hall while it waits for me to move stuff so I can put it where it is meant to be. I just covered it with a throw people don't really notice or seem to think it's a large console table but it's not a gigantic one.

I currently have 3 on grid freezers running in my house (2 chest freezers & 1 fridge freezer but it's a big American double door one all of which are A with varying amounts of plus signs after them rated)
My elec running costs are less than 120w/approx 2p per hour for those (drops to 83w/approx. 1p per hour at least half the time but depends on the freezers as sometimes they have to use more elec to maintain steady temp when weather is warmer) as well as things that are always on such as the gas boiler, phones (2 cordless landline ones so plugged in all the time plus a mobile plugged in), wired in smoke alarms, there's always something else like a tablet or a rechargeable backup battery/lantern etc... plugged in charging, laptop, router, 3 tvs on standby & various now tv boxes & amazon fire sticks, dvd players etc.. on all of them, a couple of digital radios/alarms just showing the time plus 2 lights on in the house right now... according to my meter - I just went & checked it.
I could probably halve that if I remembered to turn all the tv etc.. bits off.

Always worth checking the "how much power it uses" info & thinking about where you put it.
When I moved into my house years back, the only place to put the fridge/freezer was right next to all the hot pipes which ran down inside the wall to all the ground floor radiators just beside the kitchen rad with the wall behind it having a rad on the other side.
It used a lot more electricity there because it was heated on 3 sides all winter when the heating was on or if you used hot water in the kitchen.
I moved it & the usage dropped to about half what it had been.

I do also have a dehydrator & a canner so I have plenty of other types of food stored - I'm not just relying on freezers.

Currently it's all about the dehydrated shitake mushrooms here.

Should point out I'm not a Brexit prepper specifically, I've been a prepper for years & always will be so I keep more on hand than a Brexit prepper would be looking at.

[bellinisurge]

@Snugglepumpkin , my dehydration task for the weekend is a bag of frozen veg, handily chopped for dehydration purposes, that fits the contents into a glass jar and out of my freezer. I have done one before and it worked out brilliantly.
In other dehydration news , the other night we needed celery for a risotto recipe and realised at the last minute we didn't have any fresh. I put about a dessert spoonful of dried into a cup of water for about an hour to reconstitute . Hey presto! Worked a treat in the recipe .

[Snugglepumpkin]

@bellinisurge - there's always something else to dehydrate :-)