[EastTexPrepper]

If I were to choose one or the other, New Air would be the one. A buddy has one and I am quite envious.

[MartHale7]

Unless you have a good backup plan for power I would be canning the meat not putting into a freezer myself. With the fuel shortages and the train strike, power outages are more likely. Just a thought.

[DeepSouthBamaGRITS]

ABSOLUTELY, 100% SPOT ON!!! See my comment below!! You live & learn the hard way. I do have a couple of good solar generators (and gas generators…if gas is available & affordable) but I will not ever rely on the modern-day conveniences of freezers in these uncertain times in which we are living!!

[PWDOhioRaptureReady]

Absolutely right! You can, can meat in chunks or ground.

[DeepSouthBamaGRITS]

I would be thinking long & hard about purchasing a freezer to store meats & other foods. Last spring we were cleaning & reorganizing the utility room and my 2 chest freezers that were FULL of meat somehow got partially unplugged. They were still plugged into the outlet but had pulled out enough to lose power connection. I lost the entire contents of those 2 freezers and was horrified as that was my STOCKPILE of meats for hard times coming. (The meat was double wrapped in plastic wrap then vacuum sealed to keep from freezer burning). I had just spent hours deer hunting, processing & making over 300 lbs of deer burger, sausages & cube steak 2 months prior! Plus the 3 wild hogs I had processed. I QUICKLY learned the hard way that you can’t depend on freezers that can either go out from mechanical issues, human error or the coming power outages predicted.

I then went on a canning frenzy and canned everything in the 3 remaining chest freezers and sold them. (Store bought meats & garden veggies, fruits I had harvested to make soups, stews, jams/jellies when I could find time). At today’s prices of meats (& other groceries) depending on a freezer is NOT in your best interest. All I had left from the 3 remaining freezers are now SAFE & shelf stable in my pantry.

Learn to pressure can, if you don’t know how and buy those meat specials & get them canned. That will be your SAFEST choice, in my opinion since I’ve BEEN THERE, DONE THAT losing 100’s of pounds of meat that has cost me twice the price and more to replace.

[BiggKidd]

You make a good point and even more so for those who rely on the power grid. Personally I will keep my freezer and continue to use it. BUT I walk by it and make sure it’s running several times a day on account of it’s location. There’s over a years worth of beef and a bit of pork in there now, not much else though.
We are lucky, well maybe not lucky but I bought animals several years ago and we are getting close to the point to where we won’t need to buy meat from stores much longer. In another year ALL our food COULD be obtained from the property if it had too. We could get by just fine until then with what’s on hand.

[DeepSouthBamaGRITS]

I have a small upright freezer I use as it is sometimes impossible to buy bulk meat specials and get it all canned AND keep the homestead running along with other chores. But I do get things canned as I have time and won’t be scrambling around trying to mass can if/when the grid fails for whatever reason.

I am also striving to be able to live off the land as much as humanly possible with my farm animals & gardens/fruit orchards. There are just some things I can’t reproduce but I am diligently researching alternative measures or substitutes in this area.

[Scrapmetal]

Thanks everyone.I have a bunch of freeze dried food also cause if I lose electricity and run out of gas and no sun for my solar generator theTexas heat will kill my canning.I saw a Majic Chef at Home Depot 249.99 garage ready it’s 7 cubic foot.I can’t find anything close I can pick up today but that.all the sales I was looking at might not be in sale in 1.5 weeks isnwhen I can get other brands.Im on the same grid as the water dept and 2 years ago when Texas lost power I had power and had 3 families staying with is till the power came back on.

[Squeeze]

electric utilities have been sporadic in supply for at least a few years. Backorder or not in stock will take quite a while. If they have it in stock is about the only option. I have replaced 2 chest freezers in the last 2 years, and settling for what is in stock was about the only play. I have a backup tri power generator, or canning supplies to can frozen stock if it comes to that.

[Scrapmetal]

Everything is made in Commie China thanks to cooked @#$%^*&

[PWDOhioRaptureReady]

We have two freezers, a 17 cf upright and a medium size chest. But knowing they can stop working if natural gas gets shut off, I have removed a lot of our meat and have canned it. We also bought what looks like a cooler that people take on camping trips and it can be run as a freezer or a refrigerator and our portable solar can run it. Our solar can actually run our refrigerator and freezer but we are in Ohio and can’t count on sunny days to recharge daily.

[DeepSouthBamaGRITS]

I have two of those refrigerator/freezers that run off a solar generator system. One I plan to use as a fridge and one as a freezer if/when we ever lose power with a grid-down scenario. I might could run my fridge or my small upright freezer but I wouldn’t be able to run much of anything else if I did. Here in coastal AL in the hot/humid summers we have I have got to have air movement and run a dehumidifier to help ease the thick hot air. With the dehumidifier, it will also produce water (pulled from the room) that I will purify with my Alexa Pur Pro water filtration system to be able to drink. I’m on a deep water well and until I can pull the pipe to replace it with a manual deep water well hand pump or we lose power from a tropical system/hurricane, I will have to have water to drink & cook with.

[Scrapmetal]

I bout a small freezer and put a bunch of turkeys and ham in it from Thanksgiving sales.I need to buy 2 more solar generators .I couldn’t afford the black friday deals,I hope closer to Christmas they go back down on the pricesIm waiting on my brother to come up with half of a freeze dryer so we can freeze dry our food cause where we live there are no cellars,too much rock

[thall73]

I have a 5 cu.foot freezer and a small upright . I buy meat as I can and when I have enough I pressure can it. In a SHTF I have jars ready to can the freezer contents. I also have a two burner propane camp stove to use my pressure pressure canners on because I couldn’t use my glass top stove for that. I have a lot of chicken, beef, pork, ground beef and sausage canned. My alternate ways to cook ith no power is that camp stove, a coleman stove and a small wood stove. I bought my Arctic King chest freezer at Walmart about 5 years ago and it hasn’t skipped a beat. I think the 7 cf one now is about $229 or 239. I decided to put the money toward a solar generator instead