Fool-proof (or almost there) protection for food

[Backroads]

We had a fun incident at my house yesterday. Husband is tinkering in the garage and realizes the garage stinks. 

Our deep freezer at some point in the past week had suffered power issue, and we had a bunch of rotten meat. 

It's not the end of the world, the wildest estimate of what we lost in money was maybe $150, and we will have to plan better at the grocery store if we want beef rather than sending a child out to the freezer (we usually buy half a cow from my husband's brother each year, but hadn't this this year, which is why there's wasn't so much lost), but it was kind of a bummer. 

Any tips or recommendations for freezers or preserving food or protecting the power?

[NeuroTypical]

I had an electric deep freeze that must have been 50 years old at least.  It was metal, and the metal was beginning to rust through - that's the only thing that was wrong with it.  (Well, that, and it took enough electricity to power two homes.)

So I got a shiny new cheap upright freezer from Home Depot, that beeps to tell me if the power ever turns off.  It uses a third of the power, for about the same cubic feet of storage.  The delivery folks that picked up the old one were as sad as I was to see it retired.

[Backroads]

14 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

I had an electric deep freeze that must have been 50 years old at least.  It was metal, and the metal was beginning to rust through - that's the only thing that was wrong with it.  (Well, that, and it took enough electricity to power two homes.)

So I got a shiny new cheap upright freezer from Home Depot, that beeps to tell me if the power ever turns off.  It uses a third of the power, for about the same cubic feet of storage.  The delivery folks that picked up the old one were as sad as I was to see it retired.

I actually have no idea how old this deep freezer is! It was in my grandmother's garage for much of my memory, we took it when she downsized. 

But I'm only 37, so surely it can't be around 50 years old. Right? Right?

[Just_A_Guy]

10 minutes ago, Backroads said:

I actually have no idea how old this deep freezer is! It was in my grandmother's garage for much of my memory, we took it when she downsized. 

But I'm only 37, so surely it can't be around 50 years old. Right? Right?

You never know.  My parents have an upright freezer in their garage that was there when they bought their house in the mid-1970s, and it’s still going strong.