Refurbished Chest Freezers

A chest freezer wins on cost per litre and on holding temperature through a power interruption, because the cold air stays in the box when the lid is lifted. It loses on access: the stock at the bottom is the stock you forget about, and rotating product properly in a deep box takes discipline and baskets.

An upright freezer wins on finding things, since everything is on a shelf at eye level, and on where it can go, because it stacks its litres up a wall rather than out across the floor. If the frozen product is one or two lines bought in bulk, take the chest. If it is a dozen lines picked from through a service, take the upright. Plenty of kitchens end up with one of each.

Somewhere with air around it and a floor that can take the weight loaded. The condenser on most chest freezers is in the wall of the cabinet or behind a grille at one end, so a box shoved into an alcove on three sides has nowhere to put its heat. The product page states the clearance the maker asks for.

Avoid the back of a hot kitchen, direct sun through a window, and anywhere the lid cannot open fully — a lid that fouls a shelf above makes the freezer unusable at the far end. A store room or a cool back area is ideal. If the unit is going outside a conditioned space, check the product page states it is rated for that; not all are.

Lift the lid and let it go halfway. On a counterbalanced lid it should hold there rather than slamming, and a lid that drops is a tired spring or hinge. Then run a hand along the seal all the way round and look for a flattened or torn section, usually at the front corners where people lean.

Check the lid sits down evenly with no gap at one end, because a twisted box or a dropped hinge will frost up along that gap continuously. Ask us what was replaced rather than checked on the unit you are looking at, and get a photo of the seal if you are buying unseen.

Many do. Plenty of chest freezers are static-cooled with no automatic defrost cycle, so frost builds on the inside walls and has to be cleared manually on a schedule. The product page says whether a unit defrosts itself, and it is worth checking, because manual defrosting means planning where the stock goes while it happens.

Frost is not just housekeeping. A layer of ice on the walls insulates the cabinet from its own refrigeration, so the unit runs longer for the same result. Keep the lid shut, load product already frozen rather than fresh, and clear frost before it gets thick rather than after.

Only if it was built as one. A plain chest freezer is a storage box with a solid lid — a customer cannot see into it and leaning over it is not a pleasant way to shop. Units built for display have glass or curved glass lids, interior lighting and a layout that suits browsing, and they are a different product: display freezers and ice cream displays are where to look.

If the frozen product is being sold to a customer rather than stored for a kitchen, buy the display unit and keep the chest freezer out the back for the back-up stock. Trying to make a storage box do a retail job usually costs more in lost sales than the right cabinet costs.

Plan the path, because these are wide, heavy and have nothing useful to grip. Measure the narrowest point on the route and remember that a chest freezer cannot be turned on its side to get round a corner without consequences. Doorways, a step at the entry and a lift car are the usual problems.

Keep the unit upright in transit where you can, and if it has travelled on a lean, stand it level and leave it a few hours before switching it on so the compressor oil can drain back. Then run it empty with the lid shut for a day before you load it, and load product already frozen rather than fresh.