Small upright freezer recommendations?

[Quattro Pete]

Looking for a small (not full size) upright freezer only (not fridge) recommendations. Wife wants one since our main fridge doesn't have a lot of freezer space. Something energy-star compliant would be nice.

Any suggestions?

 

[JHZR2]

The only thing Ill say is consider a chest. More energy efficient by a good amount as I recall when I was shopping for one a few years back. I get it that an upright is more convenient, but with a good arranging strategy (we freeze most everything in those vacuum bags, so all is labeled and we stack stuff well), it is no big deal. Ill bet that a bigger one with food of similar types all in baskets that could be lifted out would be really great.

I went with a small kenmore chest, it was the best on energy that I found. It works, what more can I say?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Yeah, the convenience factor is why she doesn't want a chest. I guess we'll poke around some local appliance stores just to see first what they're like...

 

[MNgopher]

We went round and round on the upright versus chest style in our house too. My wife won and we ended up with the upright. She is short, so getting into the chest style bottom was the issue for her. For me, the energy use was the thing, but it is what it is.

We shopped based on the features we had to have (in our case was in a certian size range, had a sliding basket on the bottom shelf, and was a manual defrost unit), and then narrowed down the models that way. It ended up being a short list - two to be exact. Nobody had what we wanted in stock and we ordered it online, which was then delivered by a local appliance store at no cost. Worked out just fine, and we like the unit we got (it is a GE if that matters...)

 

[Quattro Pete]

Thanks. Do you know which GE model it is?

 

[Al]

Probably little difference between chest and upright. The mass from some cold air coming out in comparison to the mass of the contents is minuscule.

For comparative purposes, our full sise upright side by side takes 1.5 KW per 24 hours.

 

[65cuda]

We have a full size upright, but the people that we've known that have had chest type always found that things would get lost at the bottom and you would end up with veggies or meat that was 2 or 3 years old. Plus they take a lot more floor space. My wife, her sister and Mom were all on the short side so getting into a chest type one was a problem. Since most people don't get into the freezer everyday I doubt that there is much real savings between an upright and chest in energy savings.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Al
Probably little difference between chest and upright. The mass from some cold air coming out in comparison to the mass of the contents is minuscule.

For comparative purposes, our full sise upright side by side takes 1.5 KW per 24 hours.


The difference according to the energy guide sticker was pretty substantial (percentage-wise). I think it's because sealing systems are poor and an upright has a big, long seal along the bottom, where the mass of coldest air lies.

 

[doitmyself]

Quattro Pete

I'm in the market for a new freezer and I think we will get the upright this time due to the problems already noted about chest freezers (buried food going bad/wife hates manual defrosting).

Poking around the Sears and Best Buy sites and comparing Energy Ratings, I got the general impression that Whirlpool tends to have much better ratings (comparing uprights). Looking at 16-17 cu. ft. units, seems like the chest freezers are about $33-$38/year to run. Whirlpool has uprights in the $44/yr. range. Some other brands were pushing $60+/year in uprights. This was my first quick look, so verify for yourself.

When googling upright freezer reviews, I was surprised that one source claims nearly all freezers in the U.S. are made by 3 companies: Fridgedaire, Whirlpool, and Chinese based Haier (maker of GE). So, savings can be made on a house brand that is identical to a name brand.

Good luck. I think that with some research you can end up with an upright that is less than $10/year more to operate than the chest.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Thanks. We're actually looking for something half the size of what you mentioned.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

The difference according to the energy guide sticker was pretty substantial (percentage-wise). I think it's because sealing systems are poor and an upright has a big, long seal along the bottom, where the mass of coldest air lies.

Yea..probably true

Originally Posted By: doitmyself

When googling upright freezer reviews, I was surprised that one source claims nearly all freezers in the U.S. are made by 3 companies: Fridgedaire, Whirlpool, and Chinese based Haier (maker of GE). So, savings can be made on a house brand that is identical to a name brand.

We are happy with our Whirlpool

 

[MNgopher]

I can dig out the model number, but we bought our GE prior to 2005 (think it was 2004 or so). I'm guessing the model numbers have changed by now, even in something as mundane as a manual defrost upright freezer! Looking at GE's wesite, it is very close to the GE FUM14SVRWW. Ours has 4 shelves in it instead of three, but the remainder looks the same.

Saw the note about GE units being a Chinese made Haier - I know that our model was not - I beleive it was made by Frigidare just up the road in St. Cloud, MN. That may have changed though...

 

[Quattro Pete]

Ended up getting a 6.9 cu ft Igloo from BestBuy. Definitely low end stuff, but so far seems to be OK. Hard to beat for the price ($200). Not Energy Star, but at $37/yr estimated operating costs, I'm not worried. It'd probably be $25-30/yr had it been Energy Star compliant, but the ES-rated ones were a lot more expensive, so it would have taken 10+ years to recover the price difference through reduced energy consumption.

 

[GearJammer]

Whatever brand you choose I would highly recommend spending the few extra bucks to get a self defrosting model. We move a pile of Frigidaire uprights out the door on a daily basis and very few of them come back. I personally would not buy anything Haier makes.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: GearJammer
Whatever brand you choose I would highly recommend spending the few extra bucks to get a self defrosting model. W

Did you catch that he bought it?