Best chest freezers for 2022

If a lack of storage space is stopping you from taking advantage of BOGOF offers at the supermarket, a chest freezer will help, because chest freezers are invaluable when it comes to freezing large amounts of food. 

With a chest freezer, you can buy in bulk from the butchers and still have room for large loads of fresh produce.

Read on for more details on the best chest freezers to pass through our test lab. Each one has scored well for freezing speed, temperature stability and energy use. It's been a few years since we tested these featured models, but they're still all available and are yet to be surpassed by any newer freezers.

To see all of the top-scoring freezers we've tested, see Best freezers for 2022.

Best chest freezers

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Not found the chest freezer for you? Browse all of our chest freezer reviews for more alternatives.

How to buy the best chest freezer

Chest freezers are cavernous appliances that can hold a huge amount of food. They’re useful if you tend to buy and freeze a lot of food in bulk or like to freeze a large load of fresh produce in one go. Chest freezers are large, which means you’ll need a lot of space to keep one in your home.

Chest freezer pros:

• You can store a huge amount of food inside
• They’re inexpensive to buy
• Chest freezers are ideal for storing large and bulky items, such as a big joint of meat
• They offer more usable space than regular freezers.

Chest freezer cons:

• They’re big and bulky – and won’t fit into a lot of kitchens or utility rooms
• Storage features are limited – it’s easy to lose smaller or already opened items
• Most models aren’t frost-free, so you have to defrost them when ice builds up
• You may not want a big white box on view in your home.

We’ve tested chest freezers from brands such as Beko, Bosch, Lec, Miele and Zanussi. To see which are the best for keeping food safely frozen around the clock, head to our freezer reviews - and filter results for chest freezers via the panel at the top.

On a budget? Read our guide to the Best cheap freezers and chest freezers for 2022 on the market. 

Best chest freezer features to consider

Chest freezers don’t have many features to deliberate over. The biggest difference between them and other freezer types is that most need to be defrosted manually. Frost-free options are few and far between. Here are the main features to think about:

Storage baskets

These are suspended over the main compartment and are really useful for keeping smaller items where you can find them easily. They’re also ideal for storing open packets of peas and chips upright, preventing them from spilling all over the main chest freezer section.

Counterbalanced lid

This works by keeping the chest freezer lid fixed in an open position once you’ve lifted it, leaving you with both hands free to add food or rummage around to find the item you’re looking for. Without this, you’ll have to prop the lid up with one hand while you reach inside with the other.

High temperature warning

These are either alarms or lights that activate if the temperature in the freezer starts to rise. This should give you plenty of time to investigate the problem and help you avoid having to discard the entire contents of your freezer.

Lock

Being able to lock the lid of your chest freezer is an invaluable safety feature, particularly if young children are around. It can also help prevent the contents of your freezer from being stolen – handy if you keep your chest freezer in your garage.

What size chest freezer should I buy?

Chest freezers come in all sorts of sizes. From small square 54cm wide by 61cm deep models that have a similar footprint to an under-counter freezer, to huge, deep chests which are more than 115cm long.

The size you buy will depend on the amount of space you have to put it in, as well as the amount of food you’ll want to store. Some people want a large chest freezer to hold vast quantities of food. Others prefer a smaller space-saving model to hold the overflow of frozen food that won’t fit into the main kitchen freezer.

How much should I spend on a chest freezer?

The price you pay will depend on the size and brand you buy. In general, the larger the freezer, the higher the price tag (when compared with models from the same brand).

Small chest freezer prices

You can get a small 78cm-or-less Beko, Fridgemaster, John Lewis or Zanussi chest freezer for around £150-£230.

There aren’t a huge number to choose from and most are 50–55cm wide.

Large chest freezer prices

A cheap, large chest freezer that’s around 80cm wide or more will set you back around £200-£300 from brands such as Fridgemaster, Indesit or Lec.

Expect to pay £300-£400 for most John Lewis chests, while Bosch models cost £360-£460. Miele chest freezers cost more than £500.

What's the best chest freezer to keep in a garage?

If you want to keep your chest freezer in the garage, this will affect which model you can buy. This is because most freezers aren’t designed to work in rooms that get colder than 10°C. If you keep your freezer in a garage there’s a risk it might not work properly, and it could invalidate its warranty.

In practice, however, lots of people keep freezers in garages or chilly utility rooms without any problems. You can read more about this in our guide to the best freezers for your garage.

Some manufacturers, such as Beko and Zanussi, guarantee their freezers will work in unheated rooms. Bosch, on the other hand, advises that its freezers aren’t kept in room temperatures that fall below 5°C - a not unimaginable occurrence during a chilly UK winter.

Before you buy a chest freezer, it’s worth checking directly with the manufacturer what range of temperatures it will operate in. We’d also recommend checking whether keeping the model in a garage would invalidate its warranty, to avoid any unpleasant surprises further down the line.

Discover which models fit this bill - check out our in-depth freezer reviews.