Feature to look for

Types:

Chest Freezers – Chest style freezers are horizontal units with a top-opening door. While chest freezers take up more floor space than uprights, they're generally better insulated, better sealed because of the downward pressure of the weight of the door, and retain the cold better when open because the heavier cold air tends to settle into the chest rather than flow out the open front door of an upright style freezer. Experts estimate chest style freezers to be 10% to 25% more efficient than their upright counterparts. On the down side, because they lack shelves, they can be difficult to organize, they take up significantly more floor space, and they must be manually defrosted, increasing the level of user inconvenience.

Upright Freezers:  Uprights take less floor space than chest freezers, but are less energy efficient. Organizing storage is easy, but bulky items may be harder to fit. Upright’s can be manual-defrost and self-defrost (or frost-free). Manual-defrost models are slightly cheaper to buy and run but self-defrost units give you freedom from the time-consuming and messy defrosting process.

Size: Full freezers work better than partly filled units so don't buy more freezer space than you need. A handy reference point is to multiply the number of people in your household by 1.5 to determine the number of cubic feet required. If you know you buy in large quantities, meat in particular, you can adjust upward accordingly.

Manual Defrost or Frost-Free: Manual-defrost models are slightly cheaper to buy and run, but self-defrost (frost-free) units give you freedom from the time-consuming and messy defrosting process. Also consider that when manually defrosting a chest style freezer, it is sometimes necessary to remove all the contents to access the drain.

Interior Light: Finding food in a jam-packed freezer isn't easy, but an interior light is frequently not found on many freezer models. We recommend that you look for a model that includes an interior light.

Exterior Lock and Light: An exterior lock is an important safety feature for homes with children or in a neighborhood with children. An exterior power "on" light is also useful for making sure the freezer's power hasn't gone out.