Suitable for Garage or Outhouse
Want to place your chest freezer in a garage, outhouse or an unheated room? Then shop very carefully as this could invalidate the guarantee, as the ambient temperature might fall below the manufacturer’s recommendation of 10°C.
I know this may sound crazy, but just check in the specifications that the manufacturer has said it’s ok to put their chest freezer model into an unheated space, otherwise as stated above, if something does go wrong you may find that you have invalidated the guarantee.
Most of the top manufacturers like Beko, Hotpoint, Indesit, Zanussi and even Currys own brands – Essentials, Logik and Kenwood stipulate that you can place their chest freezers in ambient temperatures as low as -15°C.
Defrosting
Having to manually defrost a chest freezer is a chore no one ever wants to do, but I’m afraid it is a necessity if you want your chest freezer to keep running smoothly and efficiently. If you let too much ice build-up it can start to restrict the capacity and the compressor will also have to start working harder to cool your food through all the excess ice.
To make defrosting as easy as possible, try to look for a chest freezer that has a drainage hose at the front, this will stop you having to move it around when you do need to defrost it.
Counterbalanced Lid
A counterbalanced lid on a chest freezer means that the lid will stay upright in many positions without you having to worry about it slamming down on top of your head whilst filling it up with food. Especially useful when you have completed a large shopping trip and don’t have any hands free to keep the lid open.
High Temperature Warning
This is normally in the guise of a light at the front of the chest freezer, it will light up to warn you that the temperature has risen to unsafe levels. This warning could be vital to ensure your food doesn’t spoil and to reduce food wastage.
Freezer Meltdown Time
If your chest freezer does break down, this is the amount of time (in hours) how long your food will keep safely stored. Good to have this as long as possible to prevent the possibility of having to throw away too much food.
Lockable Lid
In my opinion you shouldn’t really need a lock on your chest freezer, unless you’re really worried about someone stealing your ice-cream or chicken nuggets. I’ve not heard of many people breaking into houses to steal a bag of frozen sweetcorn. A lock could also be hazardous if you have unruly children, one of them might find it funny to throw their brother/sister in and lock them up!
Handy Baskets
We all know that a chest freezer can be an absolute cavern with food getting lost right at the bottom, especially smaller packets. Having some baskets at the top is very handy as you can place your most commonly used items and smaller packets in here.
Energy
A+ is currently the minimum standard and all chest freezers have to be at least A+ energy rating. The best energy rating is A+++, but how much do you actually save, buying an A++ or A+++ model rather than the standard A+?
Normally an A++ or A+++ will be more expensive to buy, so it is worth looking at the energy consumption figures of each model and working out the costs per year. For example, if you are paying £100 more for an A++ model, how much energy will you save per year?
You will sometimes get extra features in a higher energy rated model, so it’s worth looking closely at the specifications as well.
Chest Freezer Brands
I’ve reviewed and picked out the key features on the following brands of chest freezers:
Consumer Reviews
Remember to also check out some independent review sites to see how they are rating the different chest freezer models. Two of the best sites for this are below, but you will have to be a member of Which? to read their reviews. Some retailers also have their own review system so be sure to check these before you buy.
1. Reevoo
2. Which?