Please help us find a mini freezer

October 21, 2008 12:05 PM

Mini freezer shopping help.

We want to buy a mini freezer (4-6 cubic feet or so) because our current fridge/freezer is vertical and can't hold frozen pizzas, tubs of ice cream or other useful frozen food. Baby is coming very soon and we figure that we'll need the extra space anyway.

I would really prefer an upright freezer because I sense that a chest freezer will become completely disorganized and won't have shelves for baby food ice cube trays or baggies of breast milk. (Notions to the contrary are welcome!)

I also don't want to spend more than $200-250 (including shipping) on an appliance that we will likely not take with us when we move in 2 years.

We've looked at Costco, Sears, Best Buy, Circuit City, Target and Amazon both online and in-store when we can. Craigslist has had nothing, BTW.

This is sort of what I want, but it is too expensive.

Any recommendations would be great!

BTW, We are USians, Californians, and this freezer will live in our garage.

posted by k8t to Shopping (4 answers total)

I can't exactly help, but I recently bought a 5 cu ft chest freezer for pretty much the same reasons. I'm also in CA and it lives in my garage. I agree that organisation is harder with a chest freezer over an upright, but the chest freezers are cheaper, so that is what I went with. I got this one. The only thing I can suggest in favour of chest freezers is that they are probably slightly more efficient, since the door opens at the top rather than the side. You can organise it using baskets or cardboard boxes, but that's still not as good as an upright.

With a baby on the way I agree this is a good idea. However, I would point out that the baby food ice cube trays and bags of breastmilk will do fine in your regular freezer - that is where I keep such things because they are more easily accessible on an everyday basis. The chest freezer is for more long-term storage items like fruit from my fruit trees, and pre-prepared meals.
posted by Joh at 12:48 PM on October 21, 2008

Whatever you do end up getting, don't bother ordering from Sears unless you do so at a store to take home there and then. Sears' quality of service has gone really downhill since they merged with K-Mart.
posted by parmanparman at 1:18 PM on October 21, 2008

I bought a Haier 3.6 cu ft freezer about 10 years ago, and it's still running fine. That specific model isn't around anymore, but this looks very similar.
posted by spasm at 2:35 PM on October 21, 2008

I found this 5.3 cu ft one online, which just (maybe) squeaks into your price range depending where you buy it from. There is a smaller 3.9 cu ft version which is cheaper, but probably the cost of shipping will take it over your budget requirements still. The double drawer access looks mighty handy though!

The only other idea I can think of, is to see if there are any places near you that resell commercial kitchen appliances. Perhaps there are upright commercial grade freezers that woudl fit your space and budget.
posted by Joh at 3:01 PM on October 21, 2008