We are looking for a small chest freezer: less than 200L
Anyone have any recommendation ?
Trademe: looks like price don't really go down.
Harvey Norman Outlet would have good deal ?
The most eco friendly option seems to be a horizontal one (open from the top) and 3.5 energy star ?
I like the idea of upright freezer specifically for garage where space is limited any ways. Secondly, it is easy to use as you don't have to dig through all frozen stuff specially something in the bottom of chest freezer.
I accidently linked the fridge as well, BC I thought it was a larger freezer.
I bought this one. My price was $524.25 a couple of years ago with a discount of some kind. The retail price was $699. Current "hot price" is $548. It's a good freezer. Classic fisher and Paykel brand. I have only felt it needed a full defrost once in that time, and it was pretty quick and easy to do. Good reviews. 3.5 star rating. https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/p/fisher-paykel-143-litre-ches… I have seen it come up on TradeMe and local fb marketplace for cheaper, but just means you have to wait for a long time for one to appear.
I tend to avoid F&P Appliances now. Most if not all of their new appliances are designed to be as "un-user friendly" as possible. Meaning you'd have to call in a technician even for a minor fix that you can do yourself. Older F&P appliances pre 2010 are good. Otherwise Westinghouse is good as they're designed to be user friendly and you can fix minor things yourself.
We bought a 200L chest freezer from TWL about twelve years ago - it was $299 reduced from $599 so half price. Still going strong.
These things are pretty simple - it has never gone wrong. We have defrosted it about once every couple of years (ahem, maybe) - you just take it outside (they are not heavy), unscrew the plug in the bottom, and leave it, then once it has emptied, we clean it with soapy water, rinse, and leave to dry.
I reckon we got our money back in about six months just by being able to stock up when things are on special.
The only regret I could have had is that I didn't buy it earlier and started the savings sooner!
Alan.
What is twl?
Sorry - The Warehouse Limited.
Thanks for all the feedbacks.
From what I get, the brand do not matter much here ?
If budget isn't your concern, then the bigger brands and the more you pay for will be better as everything has its value generally and from personal experience (of course these are machines so there are the odd ones where they could be faulty from the start but much less probability than the cheap ones). I'm honestly happy for Alan6984 above with the chest freezer from TW because if it's the one I have in mind from 2-3 years back, those were almost 50/50 with leaking problems. The product didn't have the auto-defrost feature so having to manually defrost it every now and then shouldn't be an issue if you're prepared. But honestly, I'd go for auto-defrost if you can.
Energy-rating is just a guide I'd say. It really depends on how you use it - how regularly will it be opened and closed, how full it will be stocked etc. If not as frequent and mostly used as storage then chest freezer is good, but otherwise it might be worth investing in an upright one to save yourself from stress of having to dig through all the time :)
Brand-wise, Midea seems to be a good option for the lower end of budget nowadays. F&P in the good old days when it was made in Aus was pretty trustworthy but now not really. I haven't used a Westinghouse freezer alone but from experience of refrigerators (fridge/freezer) it's pretty reliable for a mid-range (had two and both kept going without an issue for 10+ years). LG is one of the most energy efficient I'd say. Most of their refrigerator products are like at least 3.5 stars where you can find many that are 4 or 4.5 stars. Samsung is good but many alternatives for a lower price. Haier I don't really recommend - not really worth the cost which has increased a lot and personally not happy with them.
Oh and please look around small businesses if you can. Big ones like HN are strong and they are actually super greedy that they even pressure small businesses!
Good luck :)
Twelve years ago, but yes - you should never take one person's personal recommendation (or warning) too seriously as they can easily be an outlier, but they will have no idea.
Also beware people who are too keen for you to buy the same thing as them in general - they are often trying to convince themselves that a foolish purchase was not so.
I'm pretty sure that a $299 chest freezer from The Warehouse could not reasonably be expected to have lasted twelve years - we have been lucky, not particularly smart or anything.
I suspect we would have gotten good value out of almost any chest freezer - purely from the return on investment of being able to buy specials in bulk.
Alan.
Haha yeah you have to be wise and careful not to intake personal feelings as advice and avoid believing fanatically, but more take into consideration of the real experience and facts that are shared (and hopefully its the truth).
Oh and sorry, I missed the "twelve years" part. Honestly, I was also contemplating on what TWL could be for a moment and thus my mind must have gone blank. I just presumed it'd be The Warehouse Limited as the item and its prices were very likely to be ;)
Well hope the freezer is good to you for another 12 years Alan thumbs up
We are now thinking about this one : https://www.tradedepot.co.nz/midea-bar-freezer-92l-stainless…
But there is no stock …
If you only have limited space to fit it in, then might be okay, but not very big capacity for the money?
A few other options in case it isn't in stock for a while:
* Kogan 99L Chest Freezer - $329 @ MightyApe
* ICELAND Chest Freezer 99L - $299 @ Trade Depot. This one appears almost identical to the Kogan one, just with different LEDs and control dial.
* Living & Co Chest Freezer 146 Litre White - $299 @ The Warehouse
I agree with Alan6984. Other than some options suggested by TheDealMan, I found these which are in stock if you're happy to stretch the budget a little. Not sure whereabouts you're located but it seems the below store is in Auckland and a "small business" (which would be good to help small businesses :))
https://www.catchers.co.nz/midea-172l-upright-freezer-white-…
https://www.catchers.co.nz/parmco-145l-chest-freezer-white-7…
Also, FYI I heard Trade Depot's Midea products are imported independently to the actual Midea flagship in NZ and some or all are older models.
Good point about Trade Depot / Midea (not that I knew before you posted here).
On that same note, while grey / parallel imports are absolutely legal in NZ, and your CGA rights will exist, you might still find that things are not as easy as they would be if you purchased from an authorised reseller. You could argue that is Trade Depot's problem (and i would agree), but you might also find it adds to your own hassles too.
Also, once you are outside the CGA (whatever period that might be for any given item), you will often find it harder to get spare parts (if that would be applicable) for grey / parallel imports.
Alan.
Thanks for alll the advice.
We only need a small one to store additional food with the new baby. No intention to store whole lamb rack or anything like that (no time to prepare and cook that neither …). Probably baby food in the freezer fridge in the kitchen, and any raw meat, prawn, chicken nuggets, … in the garage freezer.
We are in Hamilton so the choice is quite limited, it's going to be online + shipping …
No worries. Congratulations on your new baby by the way!
Hope you guys are aware that babies will grow (and fast) and you'll need more to keep refrigerated, so you might want to consider few years ahead if you haven't already ;)
You can always call in and check for shipping (and possibly nego). Hamilton is a pretty easy one from Auckland I'd say if you want to enquire at least (which is free!). Small businesses are generally close-knit and have a "family-oriented" tendency for their clientele and although may have less "power" than their big competitors but will go above and beyond to help the needs for you (I mean I guess it's natural if you want to survive against the biggies)…
All the best guys
We got this instead
https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/robinhood-183-litre-upright-f…
https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/robinhood-239-litre-upright-f…
Chest freezers are horrible to use and they take up more floor space. Energy rating is based upon regularly opening and closing the freezer so chest freezer gets a better energy rating, but if it's in the garage and only opened alternative days or whatever then it's not quite as bad. The plastic slide out buckets rather than open sleeves keep the cold in a bit better. Really happy with this freezer we bought it during the first lockdown.