Chest Freezers; What they tell us about designing for X

OK, comment-pinning time!
I want to address the whole full-vs-empty fridge aside because I appear to have understood this differently than many people and it illustrates a problem in the video. Lots of people are saying things along the lines of "I thought the point of a full fridge was to minimize the amount of air inside so opening it causes less heat loss." Similar to the whole thermal mass reasoning (which is where I was coming from), this doesn't really matter in the long run. Which of course runs counter to the idea that chest freezers are helped by the fact they have a lid and not a door. So let's talk about that.
The thermal mass of air is tiny compared to any solid or liquid substance. So even if you exchange the entire volume of air in the fridge or freezer when you open it, once it's shut the new air will rapidly cool thanks to the cold walls, shelves, and of course food. That's why the freezer door gets sucked in. This does introduce some quantity of heat, yes, and in theory if you had more stuff in the fridge less heat would be introduced. But honestly I think this quantity of heat is mostly negligible, and I regret not making that clear in the script. I think that the heat introduced from opening the doors a few times is minimal compared to an entire day's worth of natural heat intrusion.
Chest freezers do get some help from the fact that they're sort of "never opened" but I think that more important than even that is simply their massive amounts of insulation compared to a refrigerator. I actually talked more in depth about this in a follow-up video, which you can find here; clip-share.net/video/CRBWPbqvqvw/video.html
(edited to add;) Having thought through it some more, I imagine the greatest benefit of having the lid on the top is that the cold air isn't being held back by a thin door seal as it is in an upright freezer. I really should get a thermal camera!

This channel is basically "in depth facts about mundane things I thought I didn't care about but actually do because it's surprisingly interesting". I'm glad I have this channel while in lockdown.

A good organization trick for chest freezers is to use reusable fabric shopping bags of varying colors to organize your food into the bags. Keep a key to what is in each bag taped to the top of the freezer.

When I started watching this video, I never imagined I'd see footage of someone using a leaf blower to blast warm air into a chest freezer. This channel never ceases to amaze me.

By this logic, ovens should also be chests, but mounted on the ceiling

This video was, without exaggeration, the final straw in buying a chest freezer myself, and I've been most happy with it since.

Chest Freezer Tip: Use milk crates to organize items in your freezer. Makes it a lot easier to find what you are looking for, plus it's simple to get to items at the bottom of the freezer.

It's funny because in France, a "french door" fridge is called an "american fridge".

One of the things I found to help with “things stacked on top of things” is having a smaller variety of items in the chest freezer and more variety in the upright fridge/freezer. I find that if I have 5 or 10 of each item, I’m not digging for them as often.

Between my house's dishwasher that only takes those packets and our fancy-ass, French-door + pullout freezer, this channel is exposing all the inefficiency in my kitchen that i'd never before questioned. Thanks, Tech Connect!

Best channel on youtube.I've got a degree in Physics 60 years ago,and learning more from this young man each time I watch him.Better than TV.Thank you.

Good video. As I am a developer for thermodynamic systems in fridge I barely have anything to object. Comparing a top freezer to a bottom freezer makes not much sense. The French door is so much inefficient due to an electrical heater preventing condensation between the doors. 10-30% overall depending on the model. Manual defrost models of bottom mounted freezers are quite common in Europe btw. I defrost my Bosch every 2 years.

I've had an upright freezer and a chest freezer-personally I prefer digging down to the bottom of a box rather than to the back of one, as things are less likely to fall out on the floor.
Gloves are a good idea either way.

As a PhD in engineering, who took many (too many) thermodynamics classes, i think you're better at teaching the basics of thermo than most of my professors.

I've though this a lot and I'm sure I said it before, but your channel is amazing. You're the reason we bought a 15cu.ft. Chest freezer and it's been REALLY helpful during the price gouging that's currently happening. Thanks!

The amount of info in these videos are incredible. I'm seriously impressed, pretty much all your videos are like this (well thought out, informative and funny).

I've always preferred the classic top-freezer design, WITHOUT ice dispenser; now I know I can be smug about it! Thanks, Technology Connections!

I was intrigued when I first plugged my chest freezer into a meter: I thought it was malfunctioning. Glad to have found this video. Definitely want to know more about it.

Thank you so much for this! I am a very cheap bastard. I have lived my entire adult life in China, most of my friends growing up in very poor areas. My 20 years here have taught me to calculate the cost of appliances. Something that majority of the people don't think about here. I'm planning on moving back to Canada soon and your video has given me hope, that I can continue to be a cheap bastard and still live a normal life. I love all your videos and your humour is exceptional.

Good to know, you wouldn’t think a bottom freezer would use more energy. Then again, I go into the freezer less than the fridge, so I think I’ll still look for one on the bottom. And who would have guessed a freezer uses less energy than a fridge. Another well done, informative episode.

I have a chest freezer but I keep it at 3C because it's full of kegs for my bar. It's super handy for that. I also have the freezer at the bottom/ French door combo in my kitchen, as I find the fridge being that height more convenient as it's the part I use most. Honestly it's worth using a bit more electricity for me.

If you're going to buy a chest freezer, I highly recommend getting one with a sliding internal shelf. Yes, for it to actually be usable, you then can't use all of the space (as otherwise the shelf would have nowhere to slide to), but you still get 3/4 of the total space and MUCH greater accessibility to everything inside.

Thanks! I waited 4 months to finally get my freezer delivered (chest, garage ready) and it is totally worth it. And I am totally not looking forward to defrosting it.

Actually I use reusable grocery bags to store my food in the freezer. It's a lot easier to pick those out especially if they are labeled.

my takeaway is that we should start making efficient ovens that are stuck on the ceiling and open from the bottom.

This video made me realise how impractical it is to have chests full of stuff in Minecraft or any other RPG

Hi I just found your channel the other day while searching for humidifiers and I'm so glad. Thanks so much for making them and sharing all this fun practical knowledge!

I think the reason bottom mount French door refrigerators are the the most popular is because placing the fridge compartment and thus the compartment you will open most frequently higher up means less bending down. Each of the double doors are smaller then one big door so it is good for smaller kitchens or families that may have multiple people in the kitchen at one time.

im glad i went back and watched this!! intuitively, i guess i'd assumed that more expensive or popular refrigerators and freezers were inherently more efficient despite wanting the cold-hole storing capabilities of a chest freezer! i will keep this in mind thank you

Great video, I always enjoy your insights into seemingly mundane topics. In case it hasn’t been mentioned in the previous thousands of comments which I am admittedly too lazy to do more than quickly scan through, I just wanted to let you know for future reference- the term heat pump is generally reserved for a device whose useful work is the heat output. While all vapor compression devices could be used to move heat for a useful purpose in theory, a freezer does not put that heat into a used purpose, rather it dumps it into the space so it would not be considered a heat pump. It’s a picky differentiation and doesn’t really matter for the purpose of this video but in the interest of sharing knowledge I wanted to bring it up. Source: I am an engineer in the HVAC industry.

20:33
This dude's humor is so good man. It's just the right amount of cheesy and self-aware that always gets me, not to mention it tends to be very subtle. I didn't even catch this joke the first time I watched this vid. Anyway, I already liked this video but I wanted to give him even more recognition so here's my comment.
Please, never stop doing what you do.

I really enjoy your videos. You present some very complex facts and principles in a very simple and witty way. I have learnt so much frome your videos about things we take it for granted.

Also I always enjoy your videos about older tech more than the stuff about latest developments. I would think it would be very 'cool' if you did a video series on the history of refrigeration, perhaps with some old freezers or fridges as practical examples?

A thought on bottom freezer with pull out drawer requiring more energy: when you pull out the drawer, you're removing the contents of the drawer from the insulated box. While it's relatively brief, this removal allows for a greater amount of heat exchange between the items in said drawer and the surrounding warmer air. It's also likely a greater amount of cold air inside the freezer will be exchanged with warmer air from outside the freezer simply due to the action of a greater quantity of items moving in and out of the freezer area. Does all that add up to a 20% difference? Likely not and as you mentioned, the ice maker likely contributes to that difference as well. However, I suspect it is a factor in the increased energy need.

Thanks for your interesting video it confirmed my technical knowledge until my chest freezer died in may last year. I've to look for a new one (300liters) and knew the old one was using more than 1kWh a day for a twice a year, instead of a monthly manual defrost model. I've bought more baskets to better organize and limit the open door times a little bit. Surprised that a new front door was doing better. I now have the Siemens front door GS51NDWDV no-frost model that, measured with the same power logger, less than half of the energy 0,4kWh a day.

Excellent presentation and thought leadership with humor as usual. Nice work and love the themed background for every video.

This is like the 4th episodes on refrigerant and condensers. I have to commend you for your consistency in explain heat pumps.

25:40 Manual-defrost fridges do exist; my mother has had one for at least 15 years, and it's still going. We're both from Eastern Europe; things are _different_ here.

This design is very common where I live. I'd say that having a big tub freezer for large and long term storage and a smaller one for more day to day use is the way to go.

I absolutely love these videos on heat pumps, I've learned so much watching this channel

I recently bough stackable baskets for my chest freezer and they make it so much easier to access everything.

Your channel has been very helpful for me while I outfit my tiny solar-powered house with efficient little electronics. Thanks!

"If you have a leafblower and a chest freezer" sounds like the ravings of a madman and i love it.

I really appreciate your informative and excellently narrated videos. Your jokes and posturing are hilarious. Thank you for your videos and all of your content.

I have a 12v dc fridge with a similar design, it’s smaller and only uses like 30 watts, it’s meant for off grid application to be run by solar. I’d love a video on propane fridges too, those are fascinating

"It's the thing that makes the buzzy noise and makes the cold happen" that made me smile lol and I was always told it was good to keep a freezer full on stuff to help keep everything frozen longer should the power go out

There was a mention of chest coolers. I happen to have a chest freezer that out of the factory had a setting on it's thermostat to keep it around 2-5 degrees C. I think it's identical size to the one in the video... I used it for a few years as a fridge/cooler with the occasional boost to get the beer cold faster. Yes, it was an effort to have a very energy efficient small house. And no, you do not need to keep eggs inside a fridge if you have a decent pantry, that's not heated. :) Back to the fridge: As it was opened more frequently than the usual freezer and it was not freezing, there was issue with condensation, that of course all went to the bottom. Cleaning it out really sucked. So using it as a cooler has a lot of drawbacks, but yes, energy consumption was definitely not one of them. Great content, thanks a lot!

I actually have a french door freezer(second hand, it was a steal after cleaning it) and there are, in fact, two ice makers. There is one in the door for putting in your glass(that door is remarkably thick) and the one in the drawer is useful for filling up your cooler for work or whatever else you need large amounts of ice for. It has a button to turn either one on or off.

Hey, uh, so apologies to all of you who use Celsius (as you should) but since we're talking about refrigerators and freezers, well hopefully you know about what those temperatures should be.

Thank you for another great video; always fun to watch. My former refrigerator was a GE Profile, bottom freezer drawer with the dual zone compressor, no in-door ice maker. It was a wonderful unit and the Kill-a-watt confirmed it was very efficient. But with great frills comes great fails, as proved when it had a problem 7 years in. No repair service available meant I had a very expensive wall locker. I ended up going with a similar, fewer frills, replacement that costs $1 more a month to run. I hated using more electricity, but it can run for 140 years for the purchase cost difference.

Nice video, clear and informative! The key factor for real life energy consumption of a refrigerator is ambient temperature. Living in a colder climate if you place the cooling appliance in the garage (or any unheated area of your home) this will significantly reduce the energy consumption year round. But please note a fridge/freezer with a mechanical thermostat located in the fridge does need to operate at room temperature.

A very interesting and efficient device is the electric showerhead. It's totally safe, almost everyone in Brazil use them every day and most houses here are not grounded. It spends lots of electricity, of course, but I'm pretty sure people in colder places would save a lot of money by using their boilers just to avoid freezing and heating up water just at the point you need it - and only to the degree you want it to be.

I'd like to know more about the slide out bottom drawer freezer. I would have thought the drawer would help a bunch, because the freezer is essentially 2 drawer buckets to keep cold air in

You probably should have mentioned that these days most freezer units which are located at the bottom of fridges are divided into compartments which slide open but are only accessible from above. This means that all of the cold air is still 'sitting' in these drawers, much as the cold air sits in the chest freezers.

In high school, I had to do a report on what I thought was the most important innovation to come out of the industrial revolution. I chose refrigeration which I recall most of my classmates thought was boring and unimportant. I still think it was a good choice.
Great video. Love this kind of information.

My vertical freezer has three drawers which minimizes how much air falls out when you open the door.
I have a 12 volt fridge which I only use for camping which is a box that opens on the top and acts like a fridge but can act as a freezer if you wish.
The idea of adjusting a chest freezer so it doesn’t freeze the milk is an interesting idea. There is a trade-off where you have to stack food perhaps keeping it in cardboard boxes might make that easier.

I wonder how well a dresser-like refrigerator would work, with many drawers that pull out individually rather than a big front door for all the cold air to spill out of.

Chest freezers are perfect for long-term stuff like meat storage, where you might stock up due to sale or in preparation for a large event like a family gathering or a holiday, but for day-to-day use upright freezers are better. If you are well organized and store the same products stacked in wire baskets, you can simply pull out the entire basket take what you need from the bottom to keep it rotated out with the freshest always being on top so that way you cycle through older product.

Whirlpool actually sells a convertible chest fridge or freezer with removable baskets that are about 1/3 to 1/2 way down, one on the left and on the right. The lid is also counterbalanced. This makes access much, much easier.

I like how you approached this. Best way to help people change for the better is to not show judgement, just inform.

"But on the other hand..."
Content of this quality simply isn't available on TV. I love this channel.

Yes, an entire icemaker lives in the door of the bottome freezer door fridge, you can see the release on the inside of the door to the left. They are LOADS of fun to work on! on the plus side, the whole....hole in the door issue is probably much less of an issue since it only leads to the ice maker compartment.

I've always preferred chest freezer over the ones combined with the fridge. Nice to know that they are more efficient than them too ahah

I think another part of the reason slide out drawer bottom freezers make it less energy efficient is that you are exposing the entire thermal mass to the outside air. The drawer itself has some insulating but the exterior of the insular I’ve layer will absorb some heat and then take it back into the freeze with it, as well as the turbulence of the air causes some of the cold air inside the drawer to essentially “slosh” out like moving a large tub of water

I've enjoyed your video very much, you explain things in an easy way to understand. It is a trade-off, but when the option is acquiring salmonella, having a fridge or freezer for storing food is always the best option, regardless of energy espendure.

Try elevating your chest freezer using bricks. It allows for a cooler air gap beneath it. It also makes it easier to drain during manual defrost, especially if it's over a wooden and/or carpeted floor.

"There is a sweet spot to be found."
So the true face of peak performance is a diagonal freezer.

I've seen commercial chest fridges on sailboats - probably because of their energy efficiency, their ability to keep stuff inside even while sailing through heavier seas, and because they're small enough so that you can still rummage through quite comfortably.

Speaking of efficiency of chest freezers and access, check out the fridge built by Bill Lishman (the same guy who inspired "Fly Away Home"). His fridge was designed to have the shelving sit inside of a large drum in the counter and the shelving would pop up from the drum using air pressure for easy access, and the shelves were set up as a lazy susan to make access to everything much easier. This improved efficiency because the cold air remained in the drum rather than flowing out of the fridge, so stuff stayed cool longer.

Very informative. I was considering getting a bottom freezer model because of my assumption that - like a chest freezer - it used less energy to freeze food. Surprisingly wrong. Now rethinking what I need.

I'm a refrigeration engineer, and I do a lot of thermal FEA simulation for heat gain and external condensation performance. For the bit where you were speaking of different configurations having similar internal volume, but different energy consumption values. There are some reasons such as the machine compartment, which can be 10°F greater than the ambient air, being directly adjacent to the freezer compartment on a bottom freezer. Also, the evaporator fan also has a more difficult time forcing air into a fresh food compartment above, rather than forcing air downward as in a top freezer. These are impactful, and certainly design considerations are made with this knowledge, but by far the largest factor is the DOE energy standard. Energy requirements are not just a simple formula for how much energy usage per unit internal volume across the board. The value for allowable energy per internal volume differs based on the compartment type (freezer vs. fresh food) as well as configuration (top freezer, bottom freezer, side by side, etc.). As you noticed, the allowable energy consumption per DOE is less for a top freezer as compared to a bottom freezer. Most refrigerators are designed to an energy standard, be that DOE standard energy or energy star, then internal volume is optimized to meet that standard.

I use stackable baskets inside of my chest freezer. I actually find it easier to get to stuff than with the standing freezers. Heck, i was considering running a chest unit as a refrigerator as well.

"put the cans in the cooler and... Close the lid"
I sense some latent irritation that too many people like to leave the lid open

For practicality i love the freezer on the bottom set up. I hardly ever open the freezer compared to the fridge, so why not have it down out of the way and get all the vegetables in their crisper draws up higher where i might actually eat them.

Your message is so brilliant. Thanks for doing what you do!

Here in Thailand there are manual defrosting fridges. There's a button you have to push whenever you want to defrost. There's a small bucket just above the compressor and by the time you need to defrost again the water should already have evaporated. But if you let the ice build up too much you'll need an extra bucket.
By the way, we don't call them French/American fridges. We call those "twin door fridges".
Anyway, awesome video as usual.

I really love your channel. This is exactly the kind of thing I wonder about.

Funny sequence of events... I found you because I was searching for information on heat pumps. I watched that video a few months back, fell in love with your explanations, and have worked my way through the algorithm's recommendations of your videos. And now I come across this video where you mention that there's a video on refrigeration you've been meaning to make. So I just want to tell past you that you eventually do make the video!!!

"Assuming you have some storage"
Fun fact. You can use a freezer AS electric storage. If when energy production is high you over cool the freezer, that is make it even colder than normal, then when production drops off you can allow the freezer to warm back up to normal temperature and not use the heat pump during that time. That essentially means the running of the heat pump later came be done earlier, which is equivalent to storing the power to use later. There are some huge industrial freezers that do this to save energy by working overtime when power is cheap and demand is low to help reduce grid stress and "store" power for later.

love these break downs and connections made!

6:30 I recall the first time that I figured out that putting hot food in the refrigerator is REALLY inefficient... compared to letting the hot food cool to room temperature first. It makes total sense when you think about it... I'd just never thought about it!

I wonder if you could make a chest freezer, but it has a raisable rack with shelving to have some level of convenience. Im not quite sure how the mechanism would work, but maybe its worth a shot.

I'm so tempted to do the chest fridge thing now, mostly just to weird out guests and save money, but I'll never find a place that doesn't already have a regular fridge lmao.

Nice review ! I think you forgot a thing about the chest freezer conversion : The thickness of the walls, that seems to me thicker than on refrigirators.. ; )

When my family got a bottom freezer they told me it was more efficient to have the freezer on the bottom. Since that became the trend I assumed it was true. When I bought my house it came with a bottom freezer. I was looking to replace it with the same kind, but now I’ll consider broader options now that you have made me a better informed consumer.

That few seconds of pressure difference sticking the freezer door closed happens in walk-in freezers too! And can be quite alarming if the door closes on you accidentally and you immediately try to open it again. Particularly if you've forgotten to turn the lights on...

Back again.
I discovered that you can buy chest refrigerators!
They are designed for pickup trucks, but can run on wall power or 12vDC, and can run as refrigerators or freezers.
You can even find models with two compartments that can do both!

This channel just popped up in my recommendations and I'm glad it did. He is interesting and obviously well informed on the topics he chooses to make his videos on. I also really enjoy him. Lol. I like his mannerisms and cadence of his speech. Very relaxing, so if I want to nap his videos are soothing and long enough that I can slowly doze off but his videos are also very informative and make the everyday mundane things we use or do actually interesting and therefore easy to watch and understand. So the videos themselves aren't what makes a sleepy Jennifer. I can easily fall down rabbit's hole and while away a couple hours learning. Which has been one of the best ways I've chosen to spend my quarantine time, along with learning about the cosmos and astronomy, (I've actually just purchased my first telescope and I found Jupiter. I could see all the bands of color but not the giant storm eye yet). I've also jumped feet first into marine biology. Tho fascinating, that topic often ends up leaving me sad and very disappointed with certain members of our species. So those have to be watched on a good day, cuz they just make a bad day worse and we already have the pandemic and really stupid politicians doing that particular job for us, smashingly.
Though I haven't caught his name yet, I would still like to say thank you. It's never occurred to me to research any of the everyday items and luxuries that we have at our disposal on a daily basis but this channel has gotten me interested in them. It's really interesting how the mechanics of it all works and I'm looking forward to going thru your video catalogue for curiosity and some times as a sleep aid to drown out nonsense noises, relax myself and get a restful, refreshing nights sleep. No nightmare inducing content here to mess up a good sleep and who knows, maybe my subconscious is picking up some of the info he is throwing down, lol. Thanks again. 10 out of 10. Would recommend. 🤓👏👍

ive had mine for a few months now and having the extra freezer space is nice when i dont have to tetris foods in the small freezer with my roomate. I can now stock up on things and not worry about spacing issues. Just nice to know that the thing that i have on all the time in the living room isnt taxing the landlord much, though this video popping up 2 years after its release in my feed is a nice reminder that i need to buy shelves to put in it so that im not stacking stuff on top of stuff. 🤔

19:05 About your slide drawer. The drawer is a giant pump. Every time you pull it out, the space inside the freezer is filled with room temperature air. When you push the interior back in, the air is almost all displaced, but some of it will remain. It's your leaf blower example built into a freezers design.

24:15 I like how that label puts the energy usage at $42 on a scale of $46 to $46.

Thats right! French-door bottom-freezer unit does in fact have its icemaker just in the door of the fridge, accessed with that gray handle on the interior edge, and is why the left door shelves are so much narrower

I'm late to the party but as I am wondering how to preserve food in a boat for long periods, this was mighty interesting. Thanks.

Purpose made chest style refrigerators are a thing though. The place you'll find them most often is in the galley on a sail boat. Why probably goes back to the days of ice chests. Ice chests in boats have always had the door in the top instead of the side as was common in home ice chests, and since many sail boats *still* regularly feature an ice chest it probably makes sense to use a similar style refrigerator on a boat, especially if it's a retrofit that replaces the ice chest.

You are an international treasure (since I'm not from the US).
I do really enjoy the depth of your knowledge with such a funny cool way of delivering it.
You are one of a kind ✨️
Cheers from Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

yes! my parents fridge has an ice maker in the door lol, it’s pretty cool but it’s small so it doesn’t make/hold much ice.. maybe enough to fill the hopper with 4-5 glasses worth of ice

Alec: "Seriously, if you have a chest freezer and a leaf blower at home, try it. It's fun!"
Me: tries it, "Wow, this is fun!"

Started looking into this again. Over been keeping my house at around 78f this summer which is fine for me but everything meant to stay cold is working harder. So I keep my computer in my basement but my fridge is still in my kitchen. I'm looking at a small chest freezer with a low temperature of 39f. If I understand this right that's above the optimum fridge temperature. Walking to my basement to grab something to drink or unfrozen food (most of which I cook the same week) which progressively gets moved from my freezer. I don't need an ice or water dispenser so I don't see any downside other than the extra walking, which isn't bad anyway.

we had a manual defrost fridge that was old but still worked and the plug in meter said it used less electricity than the new fridge so I still kept it around for when we needed more space.

I use a RedBull CanCooler V2 in my shop and it's basically a chest fridge. Barely even has a lid but you know barely any heat is lost and the sides are so thick. Excellent cooler.