Finding the best freezer for your home

Shopping for the best freezer or one for your garage can be overwhelming. What size? Upright or chest? How do you determine what you need? Here's where to start:

Before you buy, do you already have a space set aside for this new appliance?

• Whether it’s a sliver of a spot in your laundry room or a tucked-away corner of your garage, how much space you can allot will largely determine what kind of freezer you end up with.

While uprights (which generally have 7–21 cubic feet of capacity) offer more organizational options, such as shelves and baskets to put things in and a door that also has organizational spots, chest freezers (which have 3.5–25 cubic feet of capacity) usually have a larger depth and can hold more food.

• That said, organization can be tricky since it’s easy to lose track of that roast you bought last month in there.
• The prices range in these units accordingly: a few hundred for a smaller chest or upright freezer to over $1,000 for a freezer with all the fixings.

Also, carefully consider where you’ll put your freezer.

• Cool, dark spaces are best so avoid putting your freezer next to a window or in direct sunlight.
• This warms them up and forces them to work harder to keep items cool.

• How many people are in your household? (Full freezers are easier to keep cold than half full ones so it’s important to consider how much food you’ll need to freeze.)
• What is your budget?
• How long do you plan to freeze foods (a few weeks or a few months)?
• Do you want a frost-free freezer or manual defrost (where you open the freezer and defrost it manually on a regular basis)?
• How important is energy efficiency to you?

Like most appliances, freezers come with or without a set number of features, depending on what interests you. Features to consider include:

• Interior lights:Make it handier to see when hunting for frozen pizza in the deepest corners of the freezer
• Locks:Useful on doors to keep the unit open and shut so your food doesn’t spoil—and especially handy if you’ve got little kids in the house
• Temperature control:As it sounds, this is to adjust the temperature to keep the food inside at the perfect frozen temperature
• Adjustable shelves and baskets:Helpful for organizing food
• Magnetic door seal:To create a truly tight seal

Considering what you need your freezer for, and where you're going to place it, should help figure out the best type of freezer for your home.