Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Ben on September 25, 2020, 12:54:39 PM
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JHC, chest freezers still seem to be as rare as hen's teeth.
Lat week I saw that my Costco finally had two different brands in stock, but I'd never heard of either. I took pictures and researched them at home. Chinese (obviously) and such lousy reviews I couldn't believe an outfit like Costco would even stock them. A large number of reviews showed that one brand had about a 50% chance of looking like somebody beat it with a baseball bat when you took it out of the box. Both brands had high failure rates within a couple of months.
Also, something I was unaware of in chest freezers, but both brands were "non-garage" models, meaning their ambient temperature range was "in the house" temperatures. Warranty void if you take it out of the very narrow temperature range.
This morning, I was at Home Despot and thought I'd just check the appliance section. Low and behold, a GE "garage ready" 5cuft freezer was on display for $250. Really good reviews. Also out of stock. The employee in the appliance section said they've had nine (all they were able to order) on backorder since May. New order dates are constantly being updated, and right now it's end of December.
This shortage is almost unbelievable. Coincidentally, I saw this article in my newsfeed that indicates all kinds of appliances are in short supply:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915240713/shortage-of-new-refrigerators-leaves-appliance-shoppers-out-in-the-cold
I am so pissed at myself for not buying one last December. :mad:
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Look for a used appliance dealer.
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Look for a used appliance dealer.
Yeah, but I don't want anything some redneck zombie stored people parts in...
https://youtu.be/NwBqXBC86JY
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Yeah, but I don't want anything some redneck zombie stored people parts in...
https://youtu.be/NwBqXBC86JY
What, they don't sell bleach in that weird time zone? Makes it just like new. =D
Bob
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Yeah, but I don't want anything some redneck zombie stored people parts in...
https://youtu.be/NwBqXBC86JY
No, those are the ones you get from Craig's list.
The ones you get from a used appliance dealer were usually only used for urine storage.
I had no idea that appliances were in short supply nationally.
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Parts to build and repair them are really had to find for some things. I've lost two jobs this summer due to no parts anywhere in the country.
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What, they don't sell bleach in that weird time zone? Makes it just like new. =D
Bob
I see that even though you're in NV now, you haven't lost that Eastern WA sense of humor. :P :laugh:
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Go with an upright. It isn't as efficient (obviously) but unless you are expecting tikiwiki, all it takes is more energy.
(Of course, uprights might be sold out too. Just throwing it out there.)
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I just talked with Castle Key. One of the guys he knows is the local independent appliance dealer...
He's apparently got a months long wait to get appliances for his customers.
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Go with an upright. It isn't as efficient (obviously) but unless you are expecting tikiwiki, all it takes is more energy.
(Of course, uprights might be sold out too. Just throwing it out there.)
I had thought about upright, maybe might still do it (especially with the current "take what you can get" scenario), but right now I'm liking the idea of the 5cuft chest. I have two refrigerators, so already have the freezer space in them, though the freezers are full. The chest freezer would just be for the longer term cold storage.
I might be missing something, but I only see myself even opening it whenever I want to transfer stuff out of it to the reefer freezers (kinda staging my frozen goods) or else when restocking it. It would also be used for stuff like long term flour storage and similar.
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"5cuft chest"
:O
Boobies! BIG boobies!
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A friend of mine has had an upright on order all year. Still no eta.
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Apparently some appliance factories closed or were impacted by the pandemic. There is a shortage of all appliances. We ordered all new appliances on a Black Friday deal and got great price and was delivered early February so maybe the shortage was already underway? The other good part is we have a like new Samsung fridge to sell. I was going to run it in the basement with the 3 freezers but my wife decided we don’t need it and can also downsize by 1 freezer. I said yay that will bring enough for a new gun. She said no, that will raise enough for new custom shades for the remodeled kitchen.
I guess the 2 of us will have to learn to live with 1 large fridge and only 2 freezers. I think one is a 9cf and the other a 20. As long as I can get my 2 deer and 1/2 beef and assorted other fish and fowl in them.
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Okay, I'll say it:
What caliber for chest freezer?
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Funny this should come up today. We picked up two whole beef this morning and put one of them in our chest freezer, the other one went half to each daughter.
We bought our Kenmore about 8 years ago. The one we had before that was one my dad found when he was helping with estate sales. The deal was, "$50, but you have to get it out of the basement and dispose of everything in it". I have no idea how old it was, but maybe 1970s. We got it, took it home and cleaned it up, and used it for 25 years, including one move. What was in it was a bunch of okra, trout, and some sweet corn. That all went into the compost pile, and the freezer worked fine.
So, a few years ago, I asked my wife "Do you realize we have $2,500 worth of food in a $50 freezer?". So we bought the Kenmore, the largest one they had, and sure enough, the old freezer quit a few months later. The Kenmore has four sliding baskets on top, and plastic dividers in the bottom that can be moved around.
Three years ago, when we moved into the new house, we raised three steers and realized we needed more freezer space (son has a small one, about half the size of ours). We went looking for a new chest freezer, and now all of them have ONE sliding basket, and nothing in the bottom, just a big box. So we bought an upright, Whirlpool, I think. Early this year, we had decided to sell the upright, but shortly after, it quit working. There was a gasket that had come loose on the bottom of the door, so we gave it away to some friends of our kids. They got it working for less than $200, and are tickled to have it.
All this to say, if you have a choice, find one that is easy to organize, or you will have to be creative with boxes and bags to keep from having to dig through a giant box of frozen food to find what you need. One thing that works well for us are the cloth grocery bags, that way you can pull a whole bag out to get what's under it. I was able to buy a bunch of those through my business, and write them off as advertising.
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I see that even though you're in NV now, you haven't lost that Eastern WA sense of humor. :P :laugh:
Well just to keep it going I thought you be interested to know that although I now live east (115.9839W) of you (116.9432) on the map with the up and down lines I still live an hour later than you. I told you about the panhandle but nooooooo.... >:D =D
Good luck on the freezer hunt.
eta: Road trip! https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/app/d/las-vegas-2-door-commercial-restaurant/7201706285.html
bob
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Well just to keep it going I thought you be interested to know that although I now live east (115.9839W) of you (116.9432) on the map with the up and down lines I still live an hour later than you. I told you about the panhandle but nooooooo.... >:D =D
Now that's just twisting the knife. :laugh:
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....
All this to say, if you have a choice, find one that is easy to organize, or you will have to be creative with boxes and bags to keep from having to dig through a giant box of frozen food to find what you need. One thing that works well for us are the cloth grocery bags, that way you can pull a whole bag out to get what's under it. I was able to buy a bunch of those through my business, and write them off as advertising.
We use a stack of dish pans from the dollar store to organize our big freezer.
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This shortage is almost unbelievable. Coincidentally, I saw this article in my newsfeed that indicates all kinds of appliances are in short supply:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915240713/shortage-of-new-refrigerators-leaves-appliance-shoppers-out-in-the-cold
Just two days ago I was talking to a home builder friend. He mentioned that the price of wood has skyrocketed (around here a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood is going for $40 -- if you can find it) and there's a severe shortage of appliances. So, yes -- the shortage is real.
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Just two days ago I was talking to a home builder friend. He mentioned that the price of wood has skyrocketed (around here a 4x8 sheet of 1/2" plywood is going for $40 -- if you can find it) and there's a severe shortage of appliances. So, yes -- the shortage is real.
I've just experienced the higher wood prices.
It's interesting to see how widespread and varied these shortages are. In June, I ordered some steel porch stair railings from Home Depot with the webpage stating a ten day wait. Just a couple of weeks ago I got an email, not from Home Depot, but from the railing manufacturer, stating that, with apologies, they couldn't fulfill my order "in these unprecedented times" and were canceling it. The rep suggested trying to order again in December.
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I've put off doing some planned work on my house, in part because of lumber prices and in part because my contractor's saying that he just doesn't know when some of the stuff he'll need might be available.
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Some construction projects are suspended because of material unavailability. I talked to a guy that priced a new garage material package at $13k. He started with ground prep and permit and poured the slab and it’s now exactly double at $26k same material list.
You want treated lumber? Good luck.
I paid $35 for one sheet of 1/2 plywood a couple weeks ago.
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Well Home Despot has the GE freezer I want available for delivery now, but for some reason it's one of the few freezers that doesn't have "ship to store" available and they want to charge me $60 for home delivery on a $260 item that I could lift into my truck by myself. I'm trying to decide if my need/want outweighs getting gouged on delivery. They have the same type of freezer but in crappy brands available for ship to store. I already ruled those out though, based on reviews.
I might try calling the surprisingly large furniture store in town on Monday, as they just started to carry GE appliances according to their neon sign. Though they might charge enough over HD's price that it would be a wash.
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I scored a 7 cu ft GE 'garage-ready' freezer in February right before they became unobtanium.
Then headed straight over to Costco and filled the damn thing up.
Paid the delivery fee (no other option) and - looking back at how hard it was to buy meat during the Spring - damn glad I did.
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I got a free upright from my ex, possibly in return for some light chainsaw work I did. I'll let you know how much it really costs in a few years.
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Well, I'm glad I bought this thing when I did, despite no store pickup option. I just got my delivery verification for tomorrow morning, and out of curiosity went to the HD site to see quantities still available. Now backordered until FEB. I must have gotten lucky with a small window of availability.
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So you spent the $60 for delivery. Probably a good idea in the current climate.
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So you spent the $60 for delivery. Probably a good idea in the current climate.
Yup. Kinda hated to do it, just out of principle. As you say though, with the current climate and the potential for people to lose their *expletive deleted*it with the hoarding if the virus blows up again, an acceptable price to pay. :)
I was pleasantly surprised that with the supply and demand issue, that GE/HD kept these at normal pricing. In fact the GE was less than a couple of the super crappy Chinese ones I saw.
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This article on Whirlpool struggling to meet appliance demand just popped on Fox News business...
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/whirlpool-strains-to-meet-appliance-demand
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Y'all know you can can meat, right? :facepalm:
Woody
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"Y'all know you can can meat, right?"
Only if you have a pressure canner.
From what I'm hearing, those aren't exactly available right now, either. And jars, lids, and rings aren't exactly overflowing the shelves, either.