Honestly I would get the largest freezer I could find. I don't know if you have a co-op, or where you would be purchasing meat but when buying in bulk it is really nice to have enough room to take advantage of sales and bargains. I have 8 dogs to feed and haven't had to buy meat all month and am still doing fine. I generally stock up a little here and there but things have been tightt this month. It was nice to know I didn't have to worry about feeding the dogs because there was plenty stocked up. Congratulations on switching your beautiful Dane to raw. I have always loved Danes.

 

thank you Liz :smile:

danes are a breed very close to my heart, i absolutely adore them. i have massive dane envy for Natalie and Jon's pack. :redface:

do you have any experience with freezers being successfully kept in very hot or very cold temperatures?

 

thank you Liz :smile:

danes are a breed very close to my heart, i absolutely adore them. i have massive dane envy for Natalie and Jon's pack. :redface:

Haha thanks!!! I need to see pictures of your pack though too! The more Danes the better!

do you have any experience with freezers being successfully kept in very hot or very cold temperatures?

We have a full sized chest freezer and a full sized upright freezer that both live in the garage for "long term" storage year round (we also have another full sized one in the house we use for day to day things). We stack heavy bricks on top of the chest freezer to help the seal stick so it doesn't get super iced over inside (it's worse in hot weather). Both freezers are running strong after years of abuse and outside. I wouldn't worry about having them out in the garage.

The full sized freezers we have hold close to 300-600 pounds each, chest freezers hold more than uprights. But I like the easy access of uprights so I like to have both kinds.

Do you know how much meat you'll be feeding each day?

 

We live in the south and have always kept our freezer in the garage. It routinely got over 100 last summer and we get down to about 15 in the winter sometimes. We actually have a separate circuit breaker in the garage just for the freezer so it doesn't have too much power on one breaker.

However, there are some freezer companies that claim the warrantee is void if you keep the freezer in the garage. It didn't really matter to us since we don't have any other place for it.

 

We had our freezer in the garage and it gets real hot and humid where I am in the summer,it dose have to work harder if its real hot where it is kept thus making energy bills higher and last summer it threw a breaker and by the time I discovered it everything was melted I had to have a cook-a-thon the next day not fun. I have moved it into my laundry since and my electric bill is noticeably lower,if the garage is the only place you can keep it I would make sure you check it daily or like Chowder have a separate circuit breaker for it.

 

I've only had a freezer outside (in a storage shed) for a month or so now but my grandparents keep a freezer outside in their garage. I'm not sure if they've ever had any problems but the temps range from +40 to -50C. They've had it out there for years.

 

a freezer can function in a garage in the winter.
if it's really cold/freezing just sit the food in the freezer
while it's turned off. ajust the temp of the freezer as needed.
i think you should set the freezer on a pallet or build a platform for it.
when the floor gets wet you won't have worry about the freezer.

 

I know loads of people who keep their freezers in garages and barns, and we have really cold winters and pretty hot/humid summers around here. I keep mine in an uninsulated add-on to the house, on carpet.

 

We keep our large upright in the garage. We are in Washington with super cold winters and pretty warm summer. I have never had a problem. Our last freezer was a hand me down about 20 years old.

 

A freezer would work just fine in the garage. A refrigerator not so much so. Refrigerators can have problems cooling air that is 25 degrees "down" to 40 degrees. :smile: Freezers usually cool air down to close to zero degrees so it's not so much a problem.

 

We keep our extra freezer/fridge combo in the garage. In the winters it gets to maybe -5 F and in the summers 100+ F. In the winter we had problems with it shutting off when it got too cold, but it's veeery old.

 

I also recommend you get a scale to weight the food....a digital one that does ounces and lbs.

 

also, does anyone have recommendations for reasonably priced uprights that are going to be large enough? what size or brand would you all recommend?

 

You can get a freezer from Craigslist or Sears has a large upright I think it is 26 cubic feet for 800.00 including tax and delivery. My husband doesn't trust used appliances so we went with new.

 

We kept our freezer in the garage when we lived in Las Vegas, where summer gets to 115 F easily. We didn't have any issues at all.
Now mine are in a cold storage room in my basement. I have two uprights and a chest freezer dedicated for the dogs, but I'm feeding quite the handful of them.
All of mine, save for my chest freezer, have been craigslist finds. As long as they're new-er and auto defrosting, I don't have anything against used freezers for the dogs... and I can't beat the crazy good deals I got.
It's funny. After the first chest freezer, I was so happy to have SO MUCH space! Then we got the first upright, and I was thrilled. I didn't think I'd ever need more storage space. Then we needed a second upright. This time a 20 cu. ft. and I thought that was it, our space issue solved!
Now we're shopping for a fourth one! LOL

 

i have decided that a chest freezer will probably be best. there seem to be an abundance of cheap ones in my area on craigslist so i think i may take the plunge and look into some of those. does anyone know anything about auto-defrosting freezers vs. those that do not auto defrost?