How to Choose a Freezer for your Home

The average household freezer is a silent slave. It operates year in and year out, requiring nothing more than a constant supply of electricity. But, eventually even the most faithful appliance may need to be replaced. For this reason the following are a few considerations that will allow you to make an informed decision about its purchase.

After the price, most consumers have only a few concerns when purchasing a freezer. They are, size, electricity it will consume, and options needed.

Size of course depends upon your needs. Generally though, most people purchase too large a freezer. They base their judgment upon perceived usages rather than real usage. Their reasoning is: We “might” need a larger one in case there “may be” a special at the grocery store on something. In reality though most freezers end up being operated only half full. Also, remember that all frozen foods should be consumed within six weeks. Foods stored longer than that can become dehydrated no matter how well wrapped. Dehydration of the food will lower both its taste and nutritional value resulting in the vast majority of it being thrown away. As an example, how much ice cream have you thrown away because ice crystals started to form inside the package? That ice forming is dehydration at work. Therefore, when trying to decide how big a freezer to purchase we suggest using what we call the “six week rule”. To use this rule you first approximate how much “frozen” food your family consumes in a six-week period. Remember it's 'frozen foods only', fresh foods don't count. Then envision how much space those items would require if stacked on your kitchen counter. That will give you an idea of the physical size of freezer you require.

Electrical consumption will definitely increase if a freezer is added to your home even though some types are efficient consumers of electricity. An upright type of freezer is less efficient than a chest freezer. This is because every time it's opened the cold air spills out onto the floor. Consequently, it must operate more frequently to keep itself cold. Also, uprights are often frost free, which by their nature consume much more electricity. Alternately chest freezers are more efficient consumers of electricity. The cold air will remain trapped inside the cabinet even though the lid is lifted to access the contents. This results in the chest freezer being able to maintain its temperature with a minimum of electrical consumption. But, chest types are manual and will need to be shut down once a year so it can be defrosted to remove any accumulated ice.

To lower electrical consumption some people only use their freezer seasonally. Turning them off during summer and fall, when fresh, locally grow food is more abundant and restarting them again during  winter and spring. This practice is common with gardeners who use a freezer primarily to store their fall vegetables. Seniors also do this because getting to the grocery store in the winter is more difficult. They use a freezer to reduce the number of trips outside when it's cold and icy.

Options required can be small because most freezers are simply regarded as large storage boxes where frozen foods are kept for later usage. Since most freezers are relegated to the basement they are an appliance that doesn't need to look pretty. Nor do most consumers feel a necessity for them to have many options. Recently though manufacturers have been offering  more options such as frost free, door alarms, digital temperature displays, and quick freeze. All options on a freezer can serve a purpose but must be offset by the corresponding increase in cost.  Plus the more complex a freezer the more possibility of it breaking down.

Food preferences have changed significantly in the last decade. We are eating much less beef and pork than in the past. Concerns over certain foods have resulted in people now eating more fish, poultry, pasta, vegetables, and whole grains. Consequently, the average consumer now stores less than 50 pounds of meats at any time. Twenty years ago freezers sold would average fifteen to twenty cubic feet because storing 200 pounds of meat was not unusual. Therefore, even though household freezers are available in more variations than ever before the most popular size sold today remains the basic 5 cubic feet to 12 cubic ft chest style.

By  Donald Grummett

Copyright © 2005 Donald Grummett. All rights reserved

top of page