Need a new Freezer: what's good, what's bad, what's on sale?

[FTG-05]

My wife says we need another freezer. We currently have 11 cu ft chest freezer, but it's ful and she has a hard time using it. So we want to get an upright, make it asdierfor her to use plus take up less garage floor space.

Three choices: Lowe's, HD or a local appliance store. LAS will *probably* have by far the highest prices, but they also will be able to service it, if ever needed. They came out a couple days ago and fixed our dryer for $76 vs. $650 for new or so, I'll take it.

+18 cu ft. Frost Free, what are the good makes and what are the ones to avoid?

Thanks!

 

[s219]

We got a Whirlpool 15.7 cu ft upright from Lowes this summer -- used a 10% coupon (you can find them online with some googling) and knocked it down to $450. Stuck it in the garage and so far we are happy with it. Seems to be built very well. Appliances all suck the same nowadays, and it's anyone's guess how good this will be over the long run. But in terms of size/price/etc, we are happy. They have a bunch of similar Whirlpool/Frigidaire models of various sizes, about $120-150 more for every jump up in size.

 

[TnAndy]

Last several freezers we have bought (we have 7 total, 5 chest, 2 upright) have been Danby brand, has an 18month warranty if you register it online. Their energy star models use quite a bit less power than the typical freezer, which to me is a real factor given you're buying a real long term appliance. The one I like is the 9.6 cuft model with manual defrost...rated at 202kwhrs/year.

ENERGY STAR Certified Residential Freezers | EPA ENERGY STAR

Our two uprights are old, and we only use one of them regular....the other is for when we kill a pig/cow to help spread out the freezing, then move stuff into the others, cut it off and keep as a spare in case one of the others goes out.

Lot of folks don't like chest model, but you can get far better use of space with them. We have smaller models....7-9cuft. As we use them up, empty and shut off. Our theory is if you lose one small one to mechanical failure, it beats losing a single large one. Also, we make a note of the date of purchase with a marker on the freezer.

Part of 'freezer row':

Wife is great at keeping them organized and using stuff out of them....she keeps a running inventory on all of them.

Don't forget a temperature monitor/alarm:

Amazon.com: CDN TA2� Audio Visual Refrigerator Freezer Alarm: Kitchen & Dining

 

[Gary Fowler]

When shopping for freezers, check the insulation thickness. I recently went with a neighbor to Lowes and they had 2 freezers side by side (don't remember the brands offhand) that were the same price but one had about 1" wall thickness on sides while the other was about 2" thick. Granted they may have used different types of insulation but I would more likely think the one with thicker sides would have the most insulation and thus keep the cold in better, or is it keep the hot out?

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm also looking at getting a new freezer and have gone back and forth on brands and if we want an upright or a chest freezer. We also want it to be black, so that limits our choices. Currently our thinking is the same as TnAndy. Buy several smaller ones and unplug one of them when not in use. Sears is another place to consider. I'm not a big fan of them, but they do seem competitive on their pricing.

 

[fidowanttobe]

Large Kenmore manual defrost upright fan. Quiet, problem free, reasonably priced. 6-7 years old. Replaced an older whirlpool frost free that went to the dumps cuz the "frost free" freezer burned everything so quickly it was costing us rather than saving. Manual defrost is no problem for us as we keep it organized therefore the door isn't open very long. Once a year quick defrost with a box fan isn't a biggie.

 

[thepumpguysc]

I looked online and priced mine out THEN bought it/ordered it local, incase I needed service.. They were higher in price but matched the online price along w/ delivery and set-up.. I went with the GE brand because the last one stayed cold for 22 years..

 

[EarPlug]

Chest freezers are usually cheaper, better insulated but do not have frost free options. Uprights are easier to use/organize and can have the auto defrost.

For long term storage the chest is better. Also when you open the lid the cold air stays in. When you open the door to an upright the cold air falls out the bottom.

Chest vs Upright Freezers - Which freezer style Is better?

 

[NorTracNY]

When we needed a larger chest we bought a second one. We thought the same as TnAndy and Eddie. The one surprise was that we have never turned off the one. We just now freeze more items. It is good to know that if one dies we won't lose everything. We will pack as much as possible in our working one.

Thanks for the tip on the alarm! I have one for my subpump, but hadn't looked for a freezer one.

 

[scdeerslayer]

You can't use the space in an upright like you can a chest freezer, but at least you can organize it and see what's in it a lot better. You might be able to get as much in that 18 cu ft upright as you can in your current 11 cu ft chest, but it might take some creative stacking or something to keep stuff from falling off the shelves, but you may also still be wishing for more freezer space.

As far as I'm concerned though, I'll never by choice use a chest freezer again. If I had to, I would use milk crates or something similar to keep things organized. I've seen way too much stuff come out of the bottom of chest freezers that had been in there for years and the owner had no idea was in there.

One thing I like to do with the upright is move the oldest stuff to the door, so you know to use that first. I also added vertical dividers using wire closet shelves to separate different items.