Best Freezers of 2023

Buying a standalone freezer is a calculation. Do you want an upright or a chest freezer? Where will you put it and how much space do you have? To help you find the best model for your needs, Consumer Reports recently refined our freezer ratings to make it easier for you to compare them. We now group freezers by size and capacity (small, medium, and large) as well as by configuration (chest vs. upright). That way you’re not comparing the performance of a chest freezer as big as a couch to one the size of a dishwasher. 

“The overall result of the reorganization is ratings that are a good comparison of models in a way that consumers shop—by size,” says Maria Rerecich, who oversees product testing at Consumer Reports.

Data from our tests is folded into an Overall Score for each model and appears in our freezer ratings charts. Our freezer buying guide offers additional information on the pros and cons of each type, the features you’ll want to look for, and tips for helping your freezer operate efficiently.

We test freezers under both normal and adverse conditions. That’s because if there’s ever a power outage, you want a model that keeps your food frozen for as long as possible.

We start by evaluating how well each freezer maintains food at a constant temperature on a day-to-day basis. To do this, we pack each one with boxes of frozen spinach and measure the internal temperature of the cavity in 15 different places over the course of six weeks.

If you’re planning to put your freezer in a basement or another out-of-the-way place, consider a chest model. Chest freezers don’t come with a self-defrosting feature, which means you’ll have to take the food out periodically to defrost it manually. Also be aware that the deepest of these deep freezers can be difficult to organize.

Think about an upright model if you’re putting the freezer in your kitchen. Some are available in different finishes that you can match to your kitchen suite. (Chest freezers usually come in basic white.) Some upright freezers also come with a self-defrost feature, so you don’t have to take everything out to defrost it. In our tests, the self-defrosting models perform better than manual-defrost models. Keep in mind that uprights usually cost more to run than chest freezers.