So my 30 year old Whirlpool fridge freezer in the garage finally conked out on me. I have a chest freezer in the garage so transferred everything over to it but it is so loaded up it is having a hard time keeping up as well. I am keeping the garage doors open and a fan on the chest freezer to see if that helps. Was up early this morning and went to Home Depot at 6 a.m. to shop for a new side by side fridge/freezer. Hope to swap out the 15 year old in the kitchen, move it to the garage and trash the old one.Put the new Samsung in the kitchen. I know it takes at least 12 hours to get to proper temp, so I guess my question is should I find some dry ice for both the chest freezer and for the food in the original fridge in the house? Or would you go with block ice? Hate to lose $500 of meat and regular stuff. New fridge is to arrive on Tuesday. Ideas?

I'd just plug the new one in and load it up with frozen stuff. It didnt take our new fridge frezer or chest freezer near that long to get cold.

Nailed it.

Arrive on Tuesday the 4th of August ? WTH

WACO Lowes has Freezers in stock.
https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=freezers&inStock=1&rollUpVariants=0

Thanks guys, problem is my chest freezer is having problems keeping things frozen (the one in the garage). I need to keep that stuff frozen through Tuesday.
The food in the fridge in the kitchen I would think would be fine sitting out for an hour or so while new fridge gets to temp. I am probably overthinking this - most worried about all the meat in the chest freezer i guess.

I checked both Lowe's and HD this morning - only one fridge/freezer combo was available. All of them except the one I liked was back ordered until September! Thankful that it will get here on Tuesday! I guess i will go with dry ice for all the meat in the chest freezer for now.

I dont think a partial thaw/refreze is going to hurt anything. All of our game meat is cut up and froze in gallon bags then thawed and processed and refroze. While some of it is seasoned with cure, majority of it is ground and refroze plane no issues in decades.

If the chest freezer can’t keep up and it’s full...it’s going out too. It should be easier for it to keep a full freezer cold than a near empty one (assuming there is room for air to circulate). If I was you I think I’d replace it too if it’s old.

Good luck, fooling with this stuff when it is 100 outside isn’t ideal.

Do not open the chest freezer to check on the internal temp very often. Drape sleeping bags/blankets over it but leave air flow space for the motor. last power outage I had I did not open the freezer during it other than to transfer stuff from the fridge freezer to the chest freezer. 2 days later when we got power the stuff in the chest freezer was still frozen.

Yep. I had Omaha steaks that took 3 days and they were fine.

Gary, have a big cook outt. I will come help you eat some deer and pig meat out of the freezer.

Problem solved.

Winner, winner, venison, and pork dinner.

You can buy dry ice at Winnco, if you have one near you.

sidebar:
Never owned one but I've heard bad things about Samsung fridges.

This part doesnt make much sense. The more full your freezer, the less it has to work. A half empty freezer is harder to keep at temp than a packed full one.

wondering if the stuff thawed that was in the garage fridge/freezer before putting it in the chest freezer??? curious why the chest freezer is having a hard time by just adding more stuff if the stuff was already frozen and/or cold???

If it's already full, how are you going to get enough ice in there to make a difference? If I read the OP correctly.

The meat in the fridge/freezer had just started to thaw, so I put it all in the chest freezer which was half full, which is why it is having a hard time. Buddy of mine is bringing over 2 frozen pig shoulders tonight. In the meantime I got a few bags of ice wrapped in a trash bag. BTW the chest freezer is only 2 years old and has been working great

Your steaks are always better than mine my friend.

Halfadozen, sounds like your doing best ya can. Half frozen food will hold more heat than chest can remove quickly. Dry ice or frozen pig shoulders will help, may loose the shoulders, though. You can put blankets on lid. But do not cover sides. The condenser is in exterior walls. If you have a reflective windshild sun screen, put that down first, then a blanket or quited moving blanket on the lid.

If it were me, I would take out half the hard frozen food, then put the partially thawed in and finally the remaining hard frozen back on top.

Our Samsung fridge has been perfect but that being said you couldn't give me another Samsung washing machine.

You got that right. Ours sounds like a Freightliner idling in the laundry room. Had it looked at several times.

My Samsung washer is kinda loud but and the dryer works right. The refrigerator is another story. Keeps cold great but that back panel freezing up situation has my wife cleaning ice out every 2 weeks and the dang thing makes noises at odd times.

Buy a used beer fridge today and save yourself time and money.