Jewel Freezers
These usually go on sale in February right?
DH drives for Jewel. Freezers will be DELIVERED to the stores on Wed, Thur, and Friday. Got one last year and love it along with all the coupons that came with it:) Good luck everyone.
Because the freezer part of my fridge/freezer in the garage stops working when it gets too cold outside...also, are there shelves or anything in this chest freezer to help keep foods organized so you can find what you're looking for?
My Jewel freezer (it's Igloo brand) has been happily living in the garage for close to two years now. I love having it right outside the kitchen door! :) As posted below, a freezer-only unit will be fine in the garage. It's the fridge/freezers that have issues in the winter.
The freezer has one shelf on the bottom (actually a platform that houses the compressor) and a sliding basket on top that you can also lift out.
And don't forget the scoop!
(I'm still trying to figure out what that thing is for!)
To scrape frost off the sides if/when you defrost it! :) Though mine is almost 2 years' running now with very little frost. I keep it FULL!
Then why didn't they include a scraper!? :)
For the past year my husband & I have joked about the thought of someone filling the whole thing with ice & using the scoop for it. Some wild party!
OK, that reminded me of a party tip I learned from my dad years ago. Need a big cooler for pop / beer for a party? No place for one? Fill your washing machine with ice and dump all the drinks in there.
After the party, take out any remaining cans / bottles, let the ice melt, and run a quick spin cycle to drain the machine.
While it's probably clean enough anyway, I don't think I'd use the ice out of the machine to put IN drinks.
This time of the year, I've also shoveled a bunch of snow into a cooler to chill party drinks. Free without a coupon!
In college we filled the bathtub! I have very VIVID memories of the morning after - groggily hopping into the shower - YIKES!
(And yeah, I wouldn't use the ice IN drink from either place we've mentioned - even though they are technically both self-cleaning areas!)
Now that SEARCH works (yea!!!) look for my previous posts that explain why most combo refrigerator freezers won't work in a cold garage. OK, I saved you the work. Look here:
http://www.jillcataldo.com/node/3631 and http://www.jillcataldo.com/node/5971
Didn't read the old part of this thread. I posted similar tech info near the bottom of this thread.
Most modern freezer only units are OK in the garage. The best advice is to read the instructions that come with them. My new one specifically said it's OK in the garage, but I have it in the basement anyway.
The only combo units I'm aware of that will work in a cold unheated garage cost $1000 or more! And even those won't protect fridge food from freezing if we get another -20 blast like we did last year.
The freezer has a shelf, above where the motor sits, and a sliding basket. Otherwise it's a simple top load cram all you can in there type of freezer.
I've got an upright rather than a chest, but for a chest I'd get some of those Rubbermaid tubs (on sale and with a coupon of course) to group like items so you can take out stuff in groups instead of one item at a time when digging for stuff on the bottom.
No wonder your husband says no! I know we all have the right to buy whatever we choose, but I don't have a freezer yet. I think you should leave room for the people who dont have one. I'm pretty sure Jill would agree with me on this one.
that Jewel will have more on hand..because, once they're gone...they're gone! Didn't they all have just 8-10 of these? i know people were trying to call ahead and "reserve/pay" before the freezers even came in! i just wonder how this is going to "pan out" this year. Especially since Jill has converted about a "million" more shoppers, since the Last Freezer deal!!! i think i'm glad i can sit this one out, and last year's too...
http://www.comed.com/sites/homesavings/pages/appliancerecycling.aspx
I plan to get a new one, $25 from comm ed and save on my elec bill with a newer unit, my old one is like 20 years old. Cant wait for this sale
I was impressed with the freezer but disappointed in the coupons. Most of them were for ice cream and not all of them were for free items. There was a sheet of 1.00 off different juices and the majority of them never made it to B1G1. Maybe this year will be different.
All of mine were for free items as well and most of them did go B1G1. I think that I ended up with about 10 coupons that didn't go B1G1 but then again, I didn't keep up like I should have.
Are you sure? All of mine were absolutely free items...and some were BIG items. 5 lbs. of french fries, 15.00 cake (that was fab at Thanksgiving), pies, veggies. I'm good with getting (more than) 150.00 in free food.
I have two sheets of coupons that came in the freezer deal that were only 1.00 off coupons. If I knew how to scan I would copy them to show you. I never used them so they are intact. I wonder if that was a mistake and I lost out on some really good coupons.
I'm curious too, because while I didn't do the freezer deal in 2009 (I got mine in 2008,) my sister did, and I believe all of her coupons were for FREE items. And, the ad from the freezer deal also advertises the coupons you get will be for FREE products.
I do know in 2008, of the 38 coupons we got, 32 of them went B1G1F throughout the year -- but even if they all don't, it's still an excellent deal. Last year at the same time as Jewel's deal (2009), Sears was selling the same freezer as Jewel for $179 with no food included or involved. It's still the best, most inexpensive way to get yourself a chest freezer if you want one. :)
I bought the freezer deal in 2009 and ALL of my coupons were for free items.
Jill... I think I once read you mentioned that the jewel freezer has a manual or "off" setting that you leave it on all year round...something about it keeping from the ice cream from freezing/crystalizing. I am considering buying a jewel freezer and putting it in the garage. Can you please refresh my memory on how to manage the freezer? Thanks :)
The discussion you're thinking of was an auto-defrost freezer versus a manual defrost. Manual defrost freezers are better for long-term food storage as they don't have the warming cycle a frost-free does.
A frost-free freezer remains frost free by sending warm air around the perimeter of the freezer. This is convenient for us but not so good for food -- it's what causes ice cream to crystalize as it's constantly being warmed and re-cooled.
And, manual defrost freezers really don't need defrosting often, at least not that I can tell. Mine is 2 years old and I haven't done it yet (though I keep it so full I don't think frost has much of a chance to form, LOL! :)
FYI, the Jewel freezers are manual defrost.
My old upright manual defrost freezer needed defrosting twice a year, but got defrosted once a year, when there was so much ice buildup that we couldn't fit stuff in any more :-(
Not sure if the uprights collect more frost than the chest units.
Our new upright is slightly larger and frost free.
They said that the sale was in March but couldn't confirm the date. She recommended I ask in my local Jewel as to when the actual date is.
In the past, what day of the week has the freezer deal started? I was planning to get one this year (if Jewel does the deal again), but if it's on a weekday, that might be hard to do.
It's usually been a Saturday-Sunday or Sunday-Monday, if I recall correctly.
I recall being at Jewel during one of the freezer sales on a Monday - at the CS desk and flipping thru the ad. There was also a freezer sitting there. I remember wondering if I should get one - this was before I knew about super-couponing. I passed....won't do that this year.
My husband says "NO" on the freezer this year. We have bought one for the past 2 years.....am I crazy because I think we need one considering they're both FULL??? Help me out here; he may be on to something.
broke down yesterday. Keeping the food frozen for now outside on the porch in a cooler. The food was still pretty cold (cheese and biscuits went into the fridge). This sale couldn't of come at a better time.
how long did your freezer last you?
Fridge/freezer that I had in the garage. The fridge still works but the freezer does not. I was planning on getting the freezer from Jewel in Feb. just because I could use the extra room.
OK, one more time...
A conventional fridge / freezer WILL NOT WORK IN YOUR GARAGE ONCE THE TEMPERATURE DROPS TO NEAR OR BELOW FREEZING.
There's only one compressor that cools the freezer compartment, and the refrigerator cools by convection from the freezer. The thermostat is in the fridge. So on a cold day like today, the fridge is saying "I'm plenty cold, you don't need to run the compressor". Which results in the freezer defrosting, ruining all your frozen food.
A freezer only is USUALLY OK out in a garage.
Take your broken freezer inside to the basement, and it will probably work fine.
The last sentence should read...
Take your broken refrigerator freezer inside to the basement, and it will probably work fine.
Two of my neighbors bought new fridge/freezers and put them in the garage. Found out last winter what does happen as discussed above. So in the summer they put them back in the garage for some cool ones to share around the block and back in the basement in the winter.
My Jewel freezer has been happily living in our garage for close to two years now with no issue - as when it's super cold, it doesn't run as much.
It's a FRIDGE/FREEZER. When it's both they'll get jacked up in the garage. If it's just a FREEZER you may not run into that problem.
Exactly... because it's a freezer only. :)
For freezer only, CHECK THE OWNERS MANUAL. My new one says it's OK in the cold, but some others may not be.
The manual on the Jewel freezers does say it's not recommended for the garage - but again, from real-life knowledge (and the fact that the freezer is essentially free) I had no problem putting it there. If it shortens the life of it by a few years... I will just get another one :) I've known numerous neighbors/friends who've kept freezers in the garage for years upon years.
I just dug around for the dimensions, so I could think about where to put this freezer :)
If anyone else is interested, I plane on allowing a 3foot by 2 foot space for it (3 ft tall). I know the dimensions are slightly smaller than that, but for planning it will do fine... exact dimensions are (30.75"L x 22.5"W x 34.25" deep).
I am thinking of taking down a wine rack to make room for this, since there is no wine in the rack and our wine glasses seem to rattle a lot in that rack anyway.... Now I need shelves for my "pantry" stock up area! hmm hopefully an after Christmas sale will cover that....
Who keeps making more and more wonderful storing areas on my back porch if you're interested. It's an enclosed back porch now. I don't take coupons for that though...sorry.
but I'm not sure I could do built-in shelving.. We rent an apartment for now. I was thinking of getting the same shelving I put in our storage area though - very sturdy pine shelves that didn't cost a whole lot from IKEA. Or, from some place closer by if there is a good sale... guess I could peruse the Ace hardware ads this week.
Of rubbermaid containers they stack up pretty nice and they're on sale just about everywhere now. I probably own about 30 of these because it's what holds all the holiday stuff, winter or summer clothes, clothes Jr has outgrown and crap he doesn't play with anymore. Also another great storage area are those ottoman storage areas, when I had one of those I barely got off the cough, then I started having a hard time getting off the cough so that's when that stopped getting used for storing all the junk food!
Ikea should never be an option, that stuff is just crap and it's over priced!
Has good deals on shelves. The plastic ones that snap together. I have bought a lot of these for my house and my business. They often have them on sale and often with 'rewards' so even cheaper. they probably will have a sale soon - Jan. organizing.....
Has good deals on shelves. The plastic ones that snap together. I have bought a lot of these for my house and my business. They often have them on sale and often with 'rewards' so even cheaper. they probably will have a sale soon - Jan. organizing.....
If u happen to get an $8/80 or anything like that it worked for me last year.......
Along those lines, we have a longtime forum member, DannyBoy, who has the single greatest story about getting his freezer last year. I'll leave this up for a couple days and see if he pops in to re-tell it. If not, I will..! :)
That's why I asked. I had planned on pulling a Danny Boy but now I'm thinking Jewel are going to look like it's black Friday at Walmart when they open at 6 a.m.
And found Dannyboy's old post - WOW - now that's incentive to get there BRIGHT and early for the freezer deal!
I was thinking about this today before I even logged on. Hope I get to tell a similar story this year! :)
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