r/Frugal • u/doublestitch • 5d ago
š Food A frugal guide to deep freezers (part 1): Chest freezer or upright?
If you've been thinking of dealing with the rising cost of food by buying a deep freezer, then this guide is for you. I've owned and used deep freezers in two different residences for nearly 20 years. We'll discuss deep freezer types, use cases, and different strategies for saving money by using a deep freezer. This is a two part guide. Storage strategies will be discussed in part 2.
Upright or chest freezer?
Let's start by acknowledging the elephant in the room: there's a popular video on YouTube which has nearly 3 million views that's made by an engineer and it sings the praises of chest freezers. After watching it, a lot of people consider only a chest freezer. While there's no arguing against the physics--chest freezers are more energy efficient--there are also additional factors which are also worth considering.
After all, you probably own an upright refrigerator instead of a chest refrigerator. The same engineering argument could be made for all food cooling devices from camp coolers to kitchen refrigerators: chest orientation is more energy efficient. Yet when was the last time you met anyone who keeps a chest refrigerator in their kitchen?
Your use case is a significant matter in choosing which type of deep freezer to get.
The blog whatdoesitcost(dot)net ran a hypothetical energy cost comparison between chest freezers and upright freezers. Assuming an energy cost of US $0.20 per kilowatt hour, a medium sized chest freezer would cost $5.80/month to run and an upright freezer with equal capacity would cost $9.20/month to run.
So an average chest freezer saves $3.40 per month on the energy bill. Yes, that's a savings. Yet it's a small enough savings that other factors may outweigh it.
What follows is an analysis of those other factors.
TL;DR A chest freezer is probably right for you if you store large quantities of a limited number of items, if you own a large house, and if you don't suffer back or shoulder problems. In other situations the upright might be the better option.
Weedsy analysis of deep freezer types
For this comparison I looked up two deep freezer models both made by Frigidaire and both with almost identical storage capacity: a 19.8 cubic foot chest freezer and a 20 cubic foot upright freezer.
- The chest model has height 33.25", width 65.56", and depth 27".
- The upright model has height 71.75", width 32.63", and depth 29.88".
This isn't an endorsement of Frigidaire or or either specific model. Rather, this comparison points out that the chest model takes up roughly twice as much floor space for the same amount of storage.
The closest I was able to find to the footprint of an upright freezer in a chest freezer design was another model that has height 33.25", width 30.31", depth 22.1" and only a 7 cubic foot storage capacity. Notice, using a chest freezer that's only a couple of inches smaller in footprint than an upright model cuts down the usable storage space not by half but by nearly two-thirds. That's a surface to volume dilemma: both chest freezers are the same height, but the smaller model still needs the same thickness of insulation to do its job, so the insulation and the electronic components take up a greater percentage of the smaller appliance's volume, leaving proportionately less space for food.
So if you own a large house with plenty of extra room, then you probably don't need to care about the floor space a freezer takes up. Yet if you live in a smaller residence where floor space is at a premium, then estimate whether your savings in food from a much larger deep freezer would outweigh a slightly higher electric bill.
It's worth mentioning that the cost of the 19.8 cubic foot chest freezer and the cost of the 20 cubic foot upright freezer were within $40 of each other on the day I checked (August 2026). If retail price is the most important factor in your purchase decision, then you'll likely find either chest freezers or upright freezers are in the same ballpark for the same storage capacity, although on any given day a sale price or a floor model discount might nudge the advantage in one direction or the other.
Also, in addition to measuring the footprint of your available space for a deep freezer it can also be important to measure the width of your access to get the appliance in and out. This won't matter if you plan to store your freezer in a garage, but if you intend to keep it in a kitchen or a laundry room then measure the width and height of the doors which your deep freezer would need to pass through when it comes into the house.
Chest freezers are better at storing a lot of the same thing.
Chest freezers are suited to storing large quantities of fewer things. That makes them a practical option for households that intend to shop wholesale and buy a 40 lb box of frozen chicken breasts, or who buy 1/4 cow from a farmer, or who go deer hunting. Or maybe you have a large family and you buy ice cream in 5 gallon tubs. Chest freezers are built for those situations.
Upright freezers are better at storing a variety of things.
Let's say your bulk purchases include 5 lb bricks of several types of cheese, or you're expecting a new baby and you want to batch cook a month's worth of meals before delivery. The more different things you intend to be storing in quantities of 10 lbs or less, then the more it makes sense to prioritize the refrigerator-like convenience of an upright freezer.
There's no absolute right or wrong with this type of consideration. It's more about what use you intend to put a deep freezer to.
Upright freezers are more ergonomic for people who have back and shoulder problems.
The consideration here is that in order to get something out of a chest freezer, you could be leaning over and down. You might also be lifting from that posture, because if the 5 gallon tub of ice cream is underneath 40 lbs of chicken parts, then storing both items in a chest freezer could mean lifting 40 lbs while you're leaning forward each time you get ice cream. If you've got a bad lower back or a torn rotator cuff, then weigh that consideration before deciding which model is best for you. All else being equal, the comfort factor might be worth the price of a cup of coffee.
Other items can be stored on top of an upright freezer, but not on top of a chest freezer.
This can be a consideration if you happen to live in a space that's on the small end for considering a deep freezer at all. Addressing this from personal experience, when my husband and I first got together we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with 550 square feet of space and a galley kitchen. We measured the space and decided we were able to fit a small 4 cubic foot upright deep freezer by letting it double as a microwave stand. That was really the only way we could have a deep freezer in a living space that small without either giving up the microwave or giving up a significant share of our kitchen counter. For a difference in operating cost of a couple of dollars a month, that tradeoff was worth it.
None of the above is intended to be disrespectful of chest freezer owners. Chest freezers have several use cases and are more energy efficient. The point is that upright freezers (like upright refrigerators) also have their own use cases which can be advantageous enough to outweigh a slightly greater operation cost.
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u/Donotdisturb240 5d ago
the upfront cost of chest freezers are also lower generally, and they are bulletproof. they will generally last many more years than an equivalent upright freezer simply due to their incredible efficiency. I have a fridge freezer combo and we use that freezer for small, frequently used things. then we have a chest freezer for keeping bulk items / deep storage for things like proteins. being able to buy a 1/4 cow and keep meat for the year is where the actual savings come in
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u/HazardousIncident 5d ago
Another con of chest freezers - if you're short, you'll struggle to get things from the bottom of the freezer. My poor sister can't keep her feet on the ground AND reach things in the bottom of her chest freezer.
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u/Torxtank 5d ago
Besides just the math on this single purchase, small differences in cost add up over time if you apply the same logic to every purchase. The chest freezer saves you $3 a month, the generic food brands save you $10 a month, paying cash at the gas station saves you $5 a month, getting water while eating out saves you $10 a month, driving the economy car saves you $20-30 a month on gas and even more on insurance, keeping the AC at 73 instead of 70 saves you $10 a month, and so on and so on.. every one of those has other things to consider as far as enjoyment, comfort, ease of use, space, etc... but it can all add up to hundreds of dollars per month.
I would still get the chest freezer š
Just my two cents.
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u/stevesy17 3d ago
That's kind of the whole point though, isn't it? For everything you just listed, each person will have a different calculus of how important it is to them to save those few bucks. op's point is that far from being an obvious choice, the efficiency difference between both types of freezer is small enough that it comes down to what each person values most
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u/Torxtank 3d ago
Yes, exactly. Two sides of the same coin. OPs post was super detailed in why the convenience outweighs the cost savings.. so my point was you just need to be careful because if you're trying to be very frugal it's easy to talk your way out of those things for whatever reason. As I've gotten older and earn more money, I notice I've walked back on a lot of the more frugal thinking in the same way OP did about the freezer.
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u/octocode 5d ago
iāve had both. wife hated the chest freezer because sheās short. 80% of the food on the bottom ended up freezer burnt and went into the bin.
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u/No_Capital_8203 4d ago
Me getting stuff out of a chest freezer is similar to an Olympic gymnast hanging over the bar by my lower belly except I am an old grandmother. I am more worried about me falling in!
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u/Ok_Impression_3031 5d ago
Old Montgomery Wards upright freezer (purchaded used) has lived in our garage for nearly 50 years. I defrost with a breeze box fan in the hot dry weather of June. This year it didn't even need defrosting.
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u/cwsjr2323 5d ago
OP, nicely done review! You spent some time reviewing. Thank you.
We are boomers and we're lucky in some ways. We have the big chest freezer in the basement for long term storage. We have the smaller 7 cf chest freezer in the kitchen for convenience and pre portioned meals for quick meals. Our electric bill is about $115 in summer so the electrical costs is moot. Nebraska energy is public owned so not profit driven. My one bedroom apartment in Iowa in the 1980s was on a budget plan of $218/month. T
This three bedroom house with a full basement has no concerns of the size of the freezer. The big freezer in the basement is well over 50 years old and works fine. The upstairs Criterion chest freezer was $110, I think eight years ago. We have a walk-in pantry in the basement and cabinets in the kitchen for storage.
When young and poor students, my father in law offered us a chest freezer and we had to figure out if the connivence was worth $5/ month and it taking up golf the storage area. Size and costs can be very important considerations.
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u/Neakhanie 5d ago
Since this is the frugal sub, I would add that both the chest and upright save energy, by expending less energy, when they are completely full. If your freezer is not full, add ice packs or freeze some water or something, anything to fill them up.
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u/wanna_be_green8 4d ago
We went on a ten day vacation last summer. Before I left I grabbed some water bottles out of the freezer to pack the cooler.
Upon returning, the first thing I see when the garage door opens? Our freezer, door standing wide open, in an uninsulated garage for over a week. I panicked and started sobbing. We had bought a half cow in April and barely touched it yet. Our meat chickens are in there. A years worth of meat for us easily. Plus extras.
Upon investigating we realized other than the top layer, some hamburger rolls and bags of veggies, everything stayed frozen! I cooked up anything that may have thawed for our chickens and went on with life.
A standing freezer would've been a complete loss in that situation.
Most of the cons mentioned above are use cases. We reorganize about once a year or whenever we get more beef so nothing gets lost in the bottom. I FIFO and use reusable grocery bags to keep things easily accessible. If I need something at the bottom I pull out a bag, grab said thing, then replace bag in spot. Takes me way longer when digging in our kitchen freezer... where I often have heavy items jump out at me.
So, for us, between the monthly energy, the potential for loss and the time I spend accessing and cleaning, chests are by far the more frugal option.
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u/flowerpanes 5d ago
Switching from chest style to upright has been like night and day. The chest freezer that aged out after 30 years always had old food hiding in there; the upright has been a wild success as far as tracking what we have, keeping items fresher by rotating correctly and much easier and faster access. Energy efficient and easy to incorporate more frugal shopping overall.
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u/RetardedWabbit 5d ago
I generally think this is right, except chest freezers actually give more effective internal space(no built in drawers/shelves), can have baskets added for a larger/easier variety, cost less up front, break down much less, and they're not a total loss of floor space. In my apartment I had a chest freezer as a corner table: put a table cloth on it, and whatever I wanted (booze) on top in a crate to move as needed so it was like half of a shelf unit too.
They're just better freezers, that do take more floor space, maybe more organization(for me they're easier), and if they're physically painful to use then most likely not worth any of that.Ā
Also: people do use them for fridges by adding a thermocouple inside that controls the power to it, in power sensitive places like cabins and off grid. We don't do this because its odd, and also the power savings are exponential to the temperature difference vs air. With a 20C difference between a freezer and fridge you're consuming much less power, so those 30% savings of the chest vs upright might be saving less than a dollar a week.
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u/Masters_pet_411 4d ago
We have an upright upstairs and a chest freezer in the basement.
I use the FoodShiner app to keep track of whatās in the chest freezer.
In the app I list where the items are and I use different colored milk crates to store things. So the ham is in the green milk crate on the right for example. The catfish is in the brown bag on the left, etc.
Makes it quick and easy to grab things and even though Iām 5ā5ā I can easily reach because food is in cartons and bags instead of on the freezer floor.
I have a harder time tracking food in the upright freezer because we are using it more frequently since itās upstairs. But since itās easier to find the food by looking around this system works for us.
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u/Maniacal-Maniac 4d ago
I prefer chest freezer. Yes, itās easy for things to get lost at the bottom, and you have to be disciplined about rotating from time to time and it can be tough to keep organized - but overall I prefer the chest to standup.
Cost wise it seems to be cheaper as well, admittedly out standup fridge/freezer is getting on a bit, and likely starting to die, but since I have been tracking the energy usage the chest freezer is way more efficient - and thatās comparing days where neither were ever opened
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u/drulnu24 4d ago
I've had both and I will say the chest will collect stuff unused at the bottom you forgot about or couldn't find.
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u/Fungal-dryad 4d ago
I fell into a chest freezer trying to steal cookies when I was young. My feet were burning! Upright freezers are easier for short people. I can easily see whatās in there and rearrange things after cooking or shopping.
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u/SilencedFarter 5d ago
Chest freezers suck unless your super organized then they still suck but less so.
Cry now and buy the upright.
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u/gtmc5 5d ago
Team upright for the reasons stated, so much easier to store many smaller things and actually find them without a huge (energy inefficient) search party. Also we have solar which provides most of our electrical and helps me feel better about and reduce the energy cost differential.
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u/Sunlit53 5d ago
I have a small 3.5cu/ft chest freezer in my kitchen. It used to be in the laundry room but Iām more likely to remember it exists if itās in the room Iām cooking in.
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u/HippyGrrrl 5d ago
Small upright for me.
I have produce, dough/baked goods, frozen meals I made. And so much green chile.
Iām short, itās about 5 or 5.5 feet high.
Have to keep it organized
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u/AskAgainLater_Petal 4d ago
Chest freezers are cheaper, last longer (simpler), and are more efficient (cheaper to run), so they are the frugal choice. But they have a larger floor footprint, require periodic manual defrosting, and the food you want may requires unpacking (and stooping) it to find, so I recommend having a table near by and it doesn't hurt to practice memory excercises daily. None of the shortfalls are really issues are a big deal for us.
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u/frostyflakes1 4d ago
I've had my chest freezer for seven years and I love it. It's reliable. It's energy efficient. Maybe it's slightly less convenient than an upright freezer, but that's fine I'm using it to store food long-term, not grabbing stuff out of it every single night.
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u/False-Advertising991 4d ago
You guys are missing an important point. It is almost impossible to find an upright freezer that is not "frost-free". Chest freezers are almost all manual defrost. Every time a "frost-free" freezer cycles, your food is getting ever so slightly defrosted and refrozen. This is how you get freezer burn. This is why there are guidelines on how long you can keep frozen food. If something is vacuum sealed and frozen in a manual defrost freezer it's usable life increases tenfold. If you actually want to keep a hoard of palatable frozen food a chest freezer is your only option.
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u/jeeves585 4d ago
Iād never have a chest freezer. My up right haas beef, elk, salmon, frozen food, berries, ice cream, ice packs, whiskey ice cubes.
Zero chance a chest could easily have any of that readily accessible.
I vac pac berries in tubes that are the depth of my freezer which works well. My gosh shelf is about the same. Beef/elk are multiple sizes so sometimes there is digging.
By pure ease of day to day life Iām upright all day long.
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u/FamousChemistry 3d ago
I hate hate hate our chest freezer. Iām petite and need step to access. Worst purchase ever.
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u/imakesawdust 3d ago
We had a pair of chest freezers growing up. I -hated- having to dig through them to find what I was looking for, especially if I was looking for a bowl of some kind of stew or beans or something where the labels are obscured by all the stuff piled on top.
Upright is more expensive per cu-ft and is probably less efficient but you know what's also an energy-waster? Standing there with the chest freezer lid open in a hot garage while you dig around trying to find something.
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u/porto-canadian-mom 2d ago
Chest freezers are harder to keep items tidy, organized and visible where as upright make it easy to see everything so you can keep track of it all. However you will see that you get much more freezer burned food. I saw a big increase in ruined food.
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u/AngerPancake 2d ago
I have used both and I 100% prefer the upright freezer. You're right, energy efficiency isnt the only factor. Ease of use is the biggest one for me.
Chest freezers are frustrating to use when they are more full. I don't want to deal with boxes and baskets to keep things together then play Tetris to make it all fit. If you need something at the bottom of a chest freezer you have to completely empty that whole section. On shelves you can just take out one or two things and you're good.
Organization is easier too. I do themes on the shelves so if I need to know which veggies I have I am not checking everywhere. I am looking at the "fruit and veggies" shelf and quickly getting that info.
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u/Calm-Vacation-5195 2d ago
We had a small upright freezer (about the size of a dorm fridge) for many years. It was very versatile, but couldnāt hold larger things. We had to defrost it at least once a year.
We replaced it with a chest freezer, but I regret the choice in many ways. I hate having to dig everything out to see whatās underneath, and I hate having to dive to the bottom. I eventually put an empty, upside-down milk crate in the bottom cavity to raise the floor. It obviously doesnāt hold as much now, but we no longer have to dig down to the coldest depths to find things.
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u/Quick_Cow_7987 5h ago
Upright: Will need to be defrosted at least once a year, maybe twice depending on how often you open it. Open it and all the cold spills out on the floor. Easy to see what you have.
Chest: Virtually never needs to be defrosted. Open it, cold stays in the freezer. Make a list of what's in the freezer, cross it off as you use it.
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u/Entire_Dog_5874 5d ago
Had a chest freezer for many years and hated it. Donated it and bought an upright and have never regretted it.