What to choose for the house: chest freezer or cupboard

Walking through the supermarkets every day you can see a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables in attractive packaging. Ah, how I want to try all of them, especially when “out of season”! But they are expensive and not affordable for everyone, especially in large quantities.

In order not to overpay for a kilogram of berries, you can buy a freezer chest or freezer-cabinet to your house. Expensive? But such a purchase will justify itself. With a large freezer, you can buy a couple buckets of fruit or vegetables by season, meat at wholesale prices, go fishing, and then enjoy fresh produce at any time of the year.

Freezer chest or cabinet: model features, advantages and disadvantages

Until recently, many met freezer chests only in supermarkets and street trays with ice cream. But, now in stores there are many models of those and other devices for home use. To make the right choice, you should decide on the features of both models.

Freezer chest

Freezing chests for home are very similar to refrigerators with ice cream, dumplings or fish in the store. These are large single-chamber containers with horizontal loading of products. In the middle of the chamber, they have several drawers of different sizes, which are mounted on top and are designed for medium-sized products. Below is a large container where you can put half a carcass or several buckets of fruit in bulk.

Freezer chest for home

For home use, chest freezers are made with an opaque lid, since it is not necessary to examine the products inside all the time.

Advantages of chests for freezing:

• horizontal loading. This type of product bookmark saves the cold inside the device. After all, cold air, according to the laws of physics, remains below, while warm air rises. Thus, moisture does not accumulate inside, which prevents the rapid formation of frost, damage to the structure of frozen foods and the need for frequent defrosting.
• high volume camera. With the same external dimensions, chest freezers have a significantly larger product capacity than freezers - cabinets in which part of the capacity is spent on systems: No Frost and equipment for freezing.
• high thermal insulation. A tight-fitting lid under its own weight ensures good cold maintenance even in cases of wear of gum.
• energy saving. Due to the presence of a single chamber with high thermal insulation, chest freezers do not need a strong compressor. Models with energy saving class A +, A +++ are now available.
• low price. Freezing chests are an order of magnitude cheaper than vertical freezers.

Disadvantages:

• occupy a lot of usable area in the house;
• designed for long-term storage of products, and not opening several times a day;
• inconvenient storage organization. On top you can divide the products into boxes, but in the lower part everything is located in bulk. To find the desired package, you need to set the upper boxes and search through everything from the bottom.

Freezers

Cabinets for freezing look like ordinary refrigerators familiar to everyone. Inside them are shelves with small drawers that extend forward. This way of bookmarking products is called vertical.

Cabinet for freezing

Benefits:

• occupy less floor space in the house. Freezers, cabinets, depending on the size, can be mounted in the kitchen wall, they can be put on the balcony, niche of the corridor, etc.
• convenient to download products. Thanks to the many drawers, products can be packaged into categories, highlighting for each individual shelf.
• designed for frequent opening and everyday use of a large family.
• the presence of two compressors. Many camera cabinets have two built-in compressors. With a large influx of fresh products, they work together. After reducing food in the winter, one compressor and part of the chamber can be turned off, thereby saving energy.

Disadvantages:

• vertical loading contributes to the accumulation of moisture and the rapid appearance of frost;
• lower profitability in comparison with chest freezers;
• dependence on the tightness of the door. The more the gum lags behind, the more frost is obtained and the energy consumption increases;
• high price.

What to choose for the house: freezer or chest?

To make a choice, you should consider some useful characteristics of one and the other model, and also answer the question: how important are they in each particular case.

Capacity

For a family of two, freezers per 100 liters are suitable. In such cases, it is better to choose cabinet freezers that are mounted on the kitchen wall. For three residents it will be required - 150 liters. For large families, 300 liters is enough. 500 liter freezers are very large, they are not recommended to be placed at home. When “out of season” they will be empty and spend a lot of extra energy, not to mention the occupied space.

Important! The nominal volume of the freezer is the entire volume of the chamber, and the useful volume indicates exactly the place that can be occupied by the products.

Offline cold storage

A very useful feature for country freezers, where frequent power outages are possible.

Super freeze

It is necessary to quickly freeze a large number of products without damaging the internal structure. It is used for long-term storage, since the thawing of such stocks is a long process.

Power consumption

A number of classes A, A +, A ++, A +++ indicate an increase in the efficiency of devices. Classes B and C use a lot of electricity, it is not recommended to put them at home.

Control system

Management system happens:

• manual, where the temperature and other modes are switched by manual regulators;
• electromechanical - allows you to more accurately set the temperature conditions;
• electronic - characterized by the presence of an electronic display on which the entire operating mode of the device is displayed.

Electronic board with a conclusion of an operating mode

Defrosting method

Manual defrosting involves periodic shutdown of the freezer (once a year) and the discharge of thawed water into a container.

With automatic defrosting, freezers are equipped with additional devices and No Frost programs, which allow devices to discharge moisture in the operating mode, but reduce the usable volume.

Freezing temperature

The best option is -18-24⁰C - marking ***. Freezers with one * or two ** will be able to freeze foods to -12⁰WITH.

Power

Power indicates the amount of food that the appliance can freeze per unit of time without damaging and thawing the rest of the food. Good power is considered to be 4 - 5 kg for devices for 80 - 100 liters, 10 - 11 kg - for 150 l freezers., Up to 16 kg. for 200l. objects.

Overview of the best freezer chests and freezers-cabinets

Good time-tested manufacturers of freezing equipment are Liebherr, LG, AEG, Bosch, Kaiser, Ardo, Vestfrost. It is undesirable to buy Chinese models Delfa, Saturn, DEX. Among the budget good cameras can distinguish Atlant or Nord.

VESTFROST VD 285 FNA W

Home freezer-cabinet VESTFROST VD 285 FNA W

Characteristics:

• usable volume - 265l;
• compact dimensions 185 * 59.5 * 63.3;
• No Frost system;
• energy saving class A +;
• works quietly;
• equipped with a display with the conclusion to it of the current mode of operation of the device.

Great for home use in a large family. Among the shortcomings, users note only fragile shelves and a high price of 928-30 thousand rubles.)

SNAIGE F-100.1101AA

SNAIGE F-100.1101AA

Compact model with vertical loading, can be built into kitchen furniture.

Benefits:

• inexpensive model;
• compact sizes 85 * 56 * 60;
• silent operation;
• Net volume 85l .: 4 compartments, 3 drawers, quick freezing compartment

Customer reviews indicate the absence of significant shortcomings at this price (12-13 thousand rubles). The model copes with its functions perfectly, works reliably and for a long time.

Freezer chest Gorenje FH331IW

Benefits:

• volume 307l .;
• electronic control;
• energy saving class A +;
• autonomous cold preservation function up to 36 hours;
• power of freezing 19kg;
• LED display.

Among the shortcomings, users highlight manual defrosting method. But, for such a price (about 18-19 thousand rubles) a very functional and reliable model.

Freezer chest Gorenje FH331IW