Freezer buying guide

The size of freezer you need depends on a number of factors: the size of your family, your available storage space and, of course, your budget. We have a range of freezer sizes available, to fit your home, shopping habits and family’s needs. Our product range features freezers of different heights, widths and styles for the optimum storage to suit every home.

• Upright freezers have shelves and/or baskets to allow you to easily organise and access your frozen foods. These are ideal if you need plenty of storage but don’t have a lot of floor space as the storage volume comes from the height of the appliance (as opposed to the width).
  
  
• Chest freezers allow you to store food in bulk which makes them ideal for meal prepping. A minor inconvenience for some, these freezers don’t usually have shelves, but sometimes have wire baskets to make organisation easier. If you’re choosing a chest freezer, select one with a 4-star freezer rating as these appliances allow you to safely store food for up to 12 months.
  
  
• Under counter freezers are designed to fit underneath a worktop or kitchen counter, allowing you to freeze a few essentials.
  

Energy labels/ratings can help you pick an appliance that’s greener for the planet and kinder on your bank balance. Helping you save money on your household bills; these labels also encourage manufacturers to develop more energy efficient products. Spanning from an A-rating (the most energy efficient) to G (the least energy efficient), this scale was redesigned in 2021 to help adapt the labels to the new industry standards that are now much more environmentally friendly than in previous years.

Refrigeration appliances are rated according to the maximum and minimum ambient temperatures they are designed to function in. These are worth noting if you plan to store your freezer in a colder space or garage. The three climate classes are:

• SN (sub normal) +10°C - +32°C.
  
  
• N (normal) +16°C - +32°C
  
  
• ST (sub tropical) +18°C - +38°C
  

The noise output from a freezer is measured in decibels and shown as dB, allowing you to compare the average noise output from different machines. The higher the dB, the louder the operating noise. Levels below 40 dB are considered very quiet and manufacturers have made huge advances in reducing the noise with new technology.

• Frost free freezers are hassle-free. With some freezers, you will need to manually defrost the appliance in order to ensure it continues to run in the most energy friendly and cost-efficient manner, but frost-free freezers do that automatically. The initial cost may be more expensive, but they will soon pay you back in time, money and ease.
  
  
• Fast freeze is a feature that rapidly cools an area (or the whole freezer cavity) by adding additional cold air. This means that your food is frozen more quickly so that it retains more of the nutrients, vitamins and flavours.
  
  
• Temperature control is an often under-used feature that allows you to adjust the temperature range. If your freezer gets a lot of use and the door is opened often, it’s worth setting your freezer to a lower range to help keep items frozen.
  
  
• Reversible doors gives you the versatility to change the direction the doors open to work better with your kitchen or room layout. All of our product listings state clearly whether or not the freezer has reversible doors.
  

Did you know that many of our products are also available for rental? Enjoy the latest tech with low, monthly payments and regular opportunities to upgrade, find out more about Hughes Rental here.