Best Freezers With Smart Storage Features
These well-designed chest and upright freezers make it easy to find your food—and perform well in CR's tests
By Mary H.J. Farrell
When it comes to major appliances, freezers are about as no-frills as you can get; basically they’re big empty boxes. And the bigger they are, the harder they are to organize. That’s especially true for chest freezers, where your food can get lost in the deep recesses. But even some upright freezers are short on organizational help.
More of today’s models are designed to make it easier to find what you’re looking for, including tiered storage bins in chest freezers and adjustable drawers and shelves in upright freezers. We compared the built-in storage features on some of the largest of our top-performing freezers—those with 10 cubic feet of storage or more—and highlight them below.
Before you shop, decide how much freezer capacity you need and what you’ll be storing. Are you a big warehouse shopper? Do you have a bounty of vegetables from your garden? Maybe you like to cook in batches. Does your family fish or buy large cuts of meat? Or maybe all you need is a place to stack boxes of chicken nuggets and frozen pizza.
“You’ll also want to consider the type of freezer,” says Joseph Pacella, the test engineer who oversees our freezer tests. “Chest freezers usually offer more usable storage space than upright models, but upright models come in self-defrosting configurations, which eliminate the hassle of periodically emptying the freezer to let it defrost.”
If the storage options of the freezer you’re considering aren’t to your liking, manufacturers often sell extra shelves or bins separately. Or you can buy bins designed for refrigerators and freezers at retailers that specialize in home organization.
In addition to testing freezers for how well they hit and hold the recommended temperature of 0 degrees F, our engineers measure usable storage capacity, which doesn’t always match what manufacturers claim. Check each model’s features and specs section in our freezer ratings for the details.
For more information, read our freezer buying guide, and for even more options, CR members can check out our full freezer ratings and recommendations.
Chest Freezers
Chest freezers can be more than 30 inches deep, making it difficult to reach the bottom, never mind find what’s there. To tame the chaos, look for models with as many bins and dividers as possible.
GE FCM22DLWW
CR’s take: At a little over 6 feet in length, the GE FCM22DLWW is a big freezer. And with a usable capacity of 21.5 cubic feet, it holds far more than any of our other recommended chest freezers. To help you separate your meat from your ice cream, this freezer has five sliding storage baskets in two tiers and four removable dividers for the bottom. In our tests, performance for temperature control and uniformity was superb, meaning the freezer hits its set temperature of 0° F and maintains it with a minimum of warm and cool spots. It has bright LED lighting inside, which, given its size, is helpful for finding what you’re looking for.
GE FCM11PHWW
CR’s take: The 51-inch GE FCM11PHWW freezer is the smallest of the GEs featured here and has about half the usable capacity of the largest model—10.6 cubic feet. It comes with three slide-out wire baskets to keep your food in order. It performs just as well as the other GEs reviewed here. Temperature control and uniformity are top-notch, and this model is quieter than the other two.
GE FCM16DLWW
CR’s take: The GE FCM16DLWW has about three-quarters as much storage as the larger GE FCM22DLWW above but is just as impressive. It’s 66 inches long and has a usable capacity of 15.6 cubic feet. This freezer comes with four tiered bins plus interior LED lights. It aces our temperature control and uniformity tests and runs efficiently. A nice extra is the temperature alarm, which goes off if the temperature rises above the recommended temp of 0° F.
Frigidaire FFFC13M4TW
CR’s take: The Frigidaire FFFC13M4TW matches the GE freezers test-for-test on temperature control and uniformity, meaning it keeps your food safely frozen. It’s 50 inches long and has a usable capacity of 12.6 cubic feet. But while storage is certainly sufficient, this freezer comes with only one sliding basket, so you might want to buy your own bins to improve the organization. LED lights illuminate the contents.
Frigidaire FFFC20M4TW
CR’s take: With almost 20 cubic feet of usable storage space, the Frigidaire FFFC20M4TW can store copious amounts of food. It comes with space dividers and bins that slide to help you organize all that space. And you can buy more if you’re finicky about having everything just so. This freezer earns a Very Good score for both thermostat control and temperature uniformity and runs very efficiently, meaning all that extra space won’t cost you a lot.
Upright Freezers
Designed more like a refrigerator, upright freezers are easier to organize than chest freezers. They’re equipped with shelves, and with the contents stacked at eye level or below it’s easier to take inventory.
GE FUF17DLRWW
CR’s take: The GE FUF17DLRWW cruises through our temperature control and uniformity tests with flying colors, guaranteeing that your food stays frozen. Its footprint is about the same as a top-freezer fridge and it comes equipped with two fixed and two adjustable shelves, three slide-out baskets, and four shelves in the door. This self-defrosting model has a quick-freeze feature that comes in handy when you’re stocking it with new items from the grocery store.
GE FUF14DLRWW
CR’s take: The self-defrosting GE FUF14DLRWW earns a Best Buy designation, meaning it offers top performance at a good value. With a usable capacity of 11 cubic feet, it sports two fixed and two adjustable shelves, two slide-out baskets, and four shelves in the door. It aces the temperature control and uniformity tests. This model gets an average score for noise, but there are noisier models. At this price, the quick-freeze feature is a nice bonus.
GE FUF17SMRWW
CR’s take: The GE FUF17SMRWW is an energy miser and earns an Excellent score on our energy-efficiency test. So adding extra freezer space won’t cost you a lot in that regard. In our tests, it hit the set point with ease, kept the interior temperature steady even when the temperature of the room changed, and there were no discernible hot or cold spots. It held its own during the power outage test. This freezer is about the size of a medium refrigerator, and you can store a lot in its more than 14 cubic feet of usable space. It has four shelves in the main compartment and four in the door.
Maytag MZF34X18FW
CR’s take: The Maytag MZF34X18FW is a great choice if you like to survey everything in your freezer at a glance. It has almost 13 cubic feet of usable capacity and shelves galore: six in the door and four in the main compartment, with the addition of a pullout bin on the bottom that’s large enough to hold a turkey. But how does it perform? Energy efficiency is top-notch, and it earned Very Good ratings for both thermostat control and temperature uniformity, so it’s a keeper for keeping your frozen food safe.
Whirlpool WZF79R20DW
CR’s take: Even though the Whirlpool WZF79R20DW has more than 15 cubic feet of usable space, it would be difficult to lose anything inside. The main compartment has four adjustable shelves and two slide-out bins. Need more storage? The door features four enclosed bins and a wide shelf. Temperature uniformity is superb, earning an Excellent rating, and thermostat control is just below that mark but still impressive. This model is energy-efficient, and annual running costs are about $107, typical for a larger freezer.
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