Deep freezer

[santoki77]

The NICU has recommended that I start freezing my pumped breastmilk. I only have a "regular" freezer and I know the milk won't last as long as a deep freezer so....any recommendations on where to get a good deep freezer at a good price? TIA

[lalamomma]

We got one at Lowes for under $200 and it holds a nice amount. It isn't huge so doesn't take up tons of space but it has saved us money buying ahead.
We also looked at Sears, but lowes had a sale plus our military discount.

[Widget123]

Ooh I am glad that you posted this! I have been explaining to DH why we need a deep freezer and was looking at them at lowes and home depot over the weekend. They are $200 for 7 cubic feet chest freezer at both places, and I can't imagine getting one bigger than that. We already have 2 regular refrigerator-freezer combos at home, but all of the thawing and refreezing made me have to throw out hundreds of ounces of breast milk a month that had gone bad and I can't even quantify how much I threw out at the end. I would have loved to have donated the excess instead. DH isn't completely sold on buying one yet, but I am going to insist until he does. I'm not throwing out that much milk again.

[Widget123]

Also I'll add that I have looked on Amazon and Walmart.com previously as well and I mostly saw ones that were smaller and more expensive.

[lalamomma]

After a scary experience once we no longer use craigslist in areas we don't know with strangers. I love a good deal but people are crazy. Please use caution when meeting people!

You could also post on Facebook to see if anyone you know has one to sell! My friends always have good luck that way too.
For $168 (what ours was roughly) ours has more than surpassed that in savings! I wish I was going to have it the first 6 months, but we will be without our household goods living in a hopefully furnished rental.

I also buy meat on sale, or ice cream and keep freezer meals in there. The small ones still hold a ton!

[Widget123]

Apr 24, 2015 7:05:57 GMT -5 @badwolf321 said:

If you're ok with used appliances a lot of deep freezers end up in consignment places for appliances. Garage sales. Craigslist (please don't go alone or somewhere private). We bought ours when a fitness center was going out of business for $50.

That sounds like a great idea actually (as long as you are being safe about it).  My only hesitation would be I would want to test it out to make sure it still works well.

[dmoney]

LOVE my deep freezer!! WE got one two years ago as an anniversary gift from my FIL. It is a stand up one so it looks like a fridge in the basement but its really a deep freezer.. IT has come in so handy, we go to a butcher once every 6 months or so and spend about 400-500 on meat, it gets shipped to our house and then we don't have to buy meat for half the year. I also plan on using it for breast milk. IT is such a good investment, even if not for breast milk for food alone! Look at Home depot as well.

[mrsmonogrammed]

We're looking at one from SAMS (or Costco if you have a membership there?) it's like $170 for a 7 CU ft one. I think we're going to get it next month:)

[noeliav]

DH got ours at a Sears outlet for a good price. I don't remember the size or what he paid, so that's helpful.

[tulips114]

We got ours from Sears, but I don't remember how much it was. I wanna say $400-something.

[PurpleIris]

We are planning to get one too, for breastmilk storage and because we have a meat share and don't always want to feel like we have to use stuff right away. I mentioned looking on Craigslist for one and my husband was like, nope, we're getting a new one so there's almost 0% chance of it having been used to store body parts. He's a special guy.

Also, WTF spell check, Craigslist isn't underlined but breastmilk is? Is that really 2 words?

[mnp48]

Like the other PPs, we got a 7 cubic ft from from Home Depot. I forgot how much but it was <$200.00.

[santoki77]

Apr 24, 2015 6:46:43 GMT -5 @hazeldublin said:

santoki77 no input on the freezer but just wanted to say hope your doing well and baby boy is thriving!

Thx @hazeldublin, they think his intestines are immature and possible inflammation so he's been on antibiotics. He was doing well and started small feedings but then had some residuals (undigested breastmilk) so they're withholding feeds again until Monday. They keep reassuring me that they think his system is immature and not NEC or an obstruction but it's still scary. His heart rate and breathing seem ok..just need his eating to catch up.

I'm pumping and got 8.5oz yesterday (total; 6 sessions a day) and I was "encouraged" to start freezing. Regular freezer is, 3-6mo while deep freezer is 1y. Since he's behind and will be in the NICU for hopefully 6w...some of pumped breastmilk will be half-expired if it stays in my regular freezer. Sigh...more things to think about.