The Best Freezer Price Per Cubic Foot

When we built our new house, we moved the hot water heater into the garage so we can use that space in the laundry room for an upright freezer. Now that we have nearly completed the cabinets, I am looking for a freezer.

So how do you choose a freezer? I decided to start by calculating how much each one costs per cubic foot of freezer space. I only used the prices from Lowe’s, Home Depot and Best Buy, because they are the only places nearby.

The very best buy is at Best Buy, a 21 cubic foot Insignia for $799.99. That is just a little over $38 per cubic foot. It can convert to a fridge if you want, which is an interesting concept and explains the things in the photo.

Insignia is a Best Buy brand. Pretty much all their About page says is that their stuff is “dependable, affordable and easy to use.”

The Premium at Home Depot is very close. It only has 13.8 cubic feet of freezer space, but only costs $529. It says it has wheels, which the first one doesn’t mention anywhere.

Premium is made by Precision, which I might have heard of… They’ve been around since 1979 and have been making appliances since 1994. The freezers are made in China and distributed from Miami. (I thought maybe all freezers in the world are made in China, but no. GE makes freezers in America. At least some Whirlpool, Frigidaire, Amana and Maytag freezers are made here, too.)

However, I have never really heard of either of those brands.

Best Buy has a Maytag for just over $600 that holds 15.7 cubic feet of frozen stuff.  Maytag I know. I have never had a Maytag let me down, for what that’s worth. The only thing I remember owning from them is a washer and dryer I got at a police auction sometime in the ’80s. But it was pretty excellent, as I remember.

On the Maytag website, it says this model holds 16 cubic feet, which brings it down to $37.69 per cubic foot. And it is out of stock.

The only large capacity one that you can actually get at Best Buy right now is the Whirlpool WZF79R20DW 19.6 Cu. Ft. Frost-Free Upright Freezer. It costs $854.99, so $43.62 per cubic foot.

It is in stock in Asheville or I could have it delivered within a week.

The freezer is 33.25″ wide and 30″ deep. The alcove it will go in is 39″ wide and 36.5″ deep. So, it will fit with room to spare.

It has shelves on the door and 4 adjustable shelves and a basket inside. There is an alarm if someone leaves the door open, handy. There is LED interior lighting.

It says Defrost Type: Automatic. I googled, automatic defrost is the same thing as self-defrosting. So this is frost free. The chest freezer we have now is not and right now the door is resting on a thick ridge of ice again.

The door is not reversible. But that’s okay, because it is swinging the correct direction for our use.

It is not ENERGY STAR Certified and will cost $63 a year to run.

The GE FUF21DLRWW at Home Depot is ENERGY STAR Certified and will cost $59 a year to run. That is not a whole lot of difference from the $63 a year. The GE is bigger, 21.3 cubic feet, but it costs $1,049, so that comes to $49.25 per cubic foot. The controls on the GE are on the outside, which would make them easier to bump into and accidentally change, but you have to hold the button down for three seconds.

It is 32.88″ wide and 31.375″ deep, so very nearly the same size.

Wait! I noticed something! Do those two freezers look an awful lot alike to you? Does GE make Insignia for Best Buy?

I looked at Insignia again and it is not available right now.

So, lets see what sales come up. I googled and everything seems to agree that the best sales on freezers are late April, May and early June. But, I’m ready.

Here is the full list of the upright freezers, sizes and current prices.