Space required in a chest freezer?

The surface of the chest freezer got hot. About an 8 inch band at the top of each side.
BUT!! I had 2.5 inch insulation strapped around it.
BUT!! The insulation has been there for several years without problems.
BUT!! We had a hell of a heat dome for a month or so, that's broken into high humidity.
Looked up hot surface on freezer on the net, they said to check the dirt on the coils.
BUT!!  It's about 8 inches off the wall, and off the stuff on that side and hard to reach the back vent.
So. I removed the insulation. I took a leaf blower to the back, the underside, every angle I could reach. Blew out stuff I guarantee didn't come from this house, cigarette butts etc. I put an angle tip on the blower and stuck it as close as I could reach to the coils.

It is cooling down.

BUT!!   I have that thing absolutely PACKED. I pack like nobody's business, I repackage to square things, leave no airspace.  I guarantee you a normal person could not get even one pack of hot dogs into it. Everything is frozen nicely solid.

I looked at the net again.  
From this link   Chest Freezer Organization Ideas and Tips at MrAppliance.com  (and look at that picture, the ICE in that freezer! It's a repair place maybe they want you to think that's normal so your freezer dies. Not normal in my book!)

   Avoid overpacking the freezer. Although a full freezer can keep your food cold more efficiently, when you overfill your freezer, it restricts air circulation and strains the compressor. This may cause the appliance to burn out. To avoid needing premature freezer repair service, keep your freezer stocked at around 85 percent of its capacity and make sure there’s space around your frozen items for cold air to flow through.

85% ? Oh lord. That would take work to get it down that low.
And air circulation? See below...

   Avoid blocking the vents. Another common mistake is blocking your freezer’s air vents. When this happens, the temperature fluctuates and can cause your freezer to overwork itself to try to regulate the temperature. The best practice is to leave a few inches clear around the vent to allow proper airflow.  

The fridge freezer has air vents, I try to keep them clear.
There are no vents inside this freezer. It's an old one, the interior is smooth like an ice chest. No vents.
The exterior BACK vent I keep clear, it's got an 8 inch gap to the back wall and 8 inches to the side stuff, and the side stuff is on a pallet, so the floor air moves too.

Do most chest freezers have interior air vents? Is it just way old? I suspect it's from the 1980's or so. If I have no vents, do I need to clear it to 85%?  (Not a pretty thought. That would take a lot of canning)

Any help?

I also realized the extension cord is on is a smaller gauge than I'd like, and the Kill a Watt has been parked on the connection for ages. (It's pretty good on power use!) The cord was put to jump power off the wall of the garage before the boxes were put in there, (tightly, I pack like nobody's business, I really do) and I didn't expect to put a freezer on it. I'm going to see if I have a better cord I can run to a different outlet so I can plug it in there. No way to reach the outlet that smaller cord is on. I know I have heavier gauge cords, but they tend to be longer than needed for this, which would add resistance, which isn't much better than a short small gauge.

Any help would be appreciated, I don't want this thing to die. It's good at what it does, and it's solidly full of food I don't want thawing...

Yes, a pretty good fridge monster growing on that site....

I'm interested in this thread. We never seem to have enough freezer space and also can't seem to find anything. I put some blackboard vinyl on my upright freezer door, to list the contents on, but I was the only one who used it, so it wasn't much use. The chest freezer is much more of a black hole though - more difficult to organise and find things - there are no dividing baskets.

I don't think vents are normal on inside of freezers, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'm not sure about domestic freezers, but I guess the principles are the same. Our shop display freezer instructions also say to keep air space between the walls of the freezer and the contents. I assume it's because the control sensors and cooling coils are in different places. If the sensor was next to the cooling coil, it would think the freezer was fully cold when it wasn't. If the freezer is too full, the cold can only spread to all parts by conduction (I know it's heat flow, but thinking of it as cold flow makes more sense) There needs to be air gaps so the cold can spread by air circulation as well. If there isn't adequate air flow the freezer has to work harder, over-cooling parts of the freezer in order to get the area where the controller sensor is adequately cold.

I've tried to illustrate it in a picture - hope it makes sense!

Be aware many chest freezers the hot part of the coils are buried just under the exterior skin so the outside gets hot.  And if you are directly insulating it you may be blocking its ability to cool.

Nancy: I have cardboard boxes that I cut handles in so I can lift stuff out in sections. I came up with a couple of baskets that fit in it too, they were barbecue things I modified a bit to make them work.

I'm glad that vents aren't normal, I think that site cut and pasted that part the text from a write up on fridge freezers.

C. Letellier: That would explain what I am seeing. But I have to wonder why it's never been an issue before. We have owned the freezer for four years or so, and it's had that insulation on it since a month or so after I got it.

BUT!! If the controllers are not near the cooling coils, it may explain why it being so full might be a problem.
Hmmm....

It could be that the compressor is starting to weaken due to age.

I have heavier gauge cords, but they tend to be longer than needed for this, which would add resistance,  

I'd suggest trying the thicker wire (lower gauge). Even though a longer wire of any given gauge would be more resistance a thicker wire has less resistance than a thinner wire of the same length due to the increased cross sectional area. Copper has a positive temperature coefficient. So as the ambient temperature goes up the resistance does too. Which means less usable voltage reaches the freezer. A thicker wire is almost always better.

C. Letellier wrote:Be aware many chest freezers the hot part of the coils are buried just under the exterior skin so the outside gets hot.  And if you are directly insulating it you may be blocking its ability to cool.

My thought as well.

I agree with Mike: use the heavier extension cord. A freezer generally shouldn't be on an extension cord at all, but it needs 14 ga. wire at least. With a thin cord, the compressor receives low voltage and the motor runs hot (counterintutive but true), reducing its life.