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How to buy the chest or upright freezer for your home
Want to buy a new freezer? In this video guide to buying the best chest or upright freezer, our experts show you what to look for.
Which? video guide to buying the best freezer
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Can’t decide whether you want a chest or upright freezer? Not sure if you need a frost-free model? Watch the Which? video buying guide to hear our experts top tips for buying the best freezer for your needs.
Choosing the right freezer for your home
Chest vs upright freezers
Your first choice in buying a freezer will be to decide whether you want an upright model such as a worktop-height freezer or a chest freezer.
Worktop-height freezers are the more popular type, and take up less floor space. On the other hand, a chest freezer lets you store more stuff. Ultimately, it’s the design of your kitchen and size of your household that is likely to dictate which type of freezer you buy.
Manual defrost vs frost-free freezers
Frost-free freezers make life easier and save you the bother of manually defrosting the freezer.
However, you do need to leave space between items for the air to circulate, so if you tend the pack the freezer, a manual defrost model might be better. Manual defrost freezers also tend to be cheaper to buy.
How reliable is my Hotpoint, Miele or Bosch freezer?
Freezers are built to last, with fewer than one in 20 needing to be repaired in the first six years. We rate chest and upright freezers based on the experiences of thousands of owners.
We reveal the most common problems people have with their freezers, and which of the top-selling freezer brands such as Hotpoint, Bosch and Miele are most reliable.
Making best use of your chest or upright freezer
Use your chest or upright freezer properly and it can be a great help in eating healthily.
A fast-freeze feature can help retain fresh food's nutrients and texture. You can reduce energy use by choosing a more energy-efficient freezer. Allowing freshly cooked foods to cool before freezing them stops the freezer getting too warm and helps retain the food's flavour, colour and texture.
Energy-efficient freezers
Refrigeration products are the biggest domestic users of energy apart from central heating, and some freezers are more efficient than others, so choosing an energy efficient freezer should help.
Just looking at freezer energy labels doesn’t tell the whole story, so Which? calculates a chest or upright freezer's true running costs ourselves.
Which? tests more thoroughly than any other organisation
We take more than 100 million temperature readings - one every eight seconds – to find our Best Buy freezers.
How long do freezers keep their cool in power cuts?
Want to know how long your freezer is likely to keep your food frozen in a power cut? Which? tests freezers by adding gel packs to the freezers and when they reach -18°C, we switch the power off and record how long it takes for the packs to reach -9°C. Some Which? Best Buy freezers will keep your food frozen for more than 24 hours.
