Some upright freezers are very noisy and some are pretty quiet. If you get one of the less expensive ones, it may be very efficient but very annoyingly noisy. I know, because I've got a Frigidaire FFU14 in my basement about 20 feet from my home office. A garage definitely would be preferable if my garage had the electrical capacity and were insulated. Whether a freezer in the garage "uses much more electricity" is not a simple question to answer. How hot does your garage get in the summertime? And for how long? If the temp were 100F continuously for months --- maybe you live in Phoenix, say --- and you opened the freezer frequently, you could be using more electricity. OTOH, if you live in, say, Minnesota, where it can get hot for months in the summer and very cold for months in the winter, you could have a different problem. Most freezers do not work well -- or at all -- in very cold spaces, and many models come with cautions about placing them in spaces that get below 32F. I realize that this is very general information, but others might be able to give you more specifics if you could give us more details about temps and climate and the garage. When Gary says to read the manual for the models you are looking at -- that is the best place to start researching this questions. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 22:13

I bought a 13.7 cu. ft. Kenmore upright freezer over a year ago. I certainly love having it. I have only 4 cu. ft. in the freezer in the kitchen. When I got the new Kenmore freezer I thought I could never use all that space! I almost got a smaller one (8 or 9 cu. ft.), but I liked the light inside (of the larger 13.7 one) and I figured I would eventually appreciate the size. Well, although I do have enough space for alot, because it has fixed (non adjustable) shelves I have to pile things on top of and in front of things. If I had to do it again I might have gotten the 16 cu.ft. It's only about an inch wider and deeper, but it's a lot taller. That is it wouldn't have taken up any extra space. Air space I have plenty of...floor space is another matter. In the end the reason I did decide was because I decided not to pay for the extra energy for the larger model. It wasn't much really but it just seemed like so much space. The Kenmore is made by another company of course I don't know which one. A poster above said Whirlpool? Here are my observations: - A lot of space, including on the door, but fixed shelves limit flexibilty. - I wouldn't pay for the glass shelves all other things being equal. Glass shelves are great in a refrigerator (contains spills) but not important in a freezer (IMO) - It is noisy. It's much noisier than my refrigerator, but I wouldn't worry about that if it is going to be in the basement (unless the basement is used for watching TV or sleeping or something). I have read about the noisiness online so it's not just mine. - It seems to keep a good cold temperature without any problem (mine is indoors). - Food seems to keep well pretty long (e.g. freezer burn). However I put everything in ziplock bags. And of course any automatic defrost model will cause more degradation of food over time than a manual defrost. I hope this helps. - Jim

Crosley is a brand. The Crosley brand is owned by a a consortium of Canadian and US distributors who have things made under contract the way that Sears does with its "Kenmore" brand and Coscto does with its "Kirkland" brand. Appliance411.com says that the Crosley freezers are made in the former WC Wood plant that Whirlpool purchased a couple of years ago. Consumer reports does not have a Crosley in its current ratings for upright freezers and it is kind of hard to tell which Whirlpool freezer would be comparable. Interesting to see the ratings now because none of the uprights get good ratings for noise. I note that Frigidaire is down at the bottom now. I think CR does relatively rankings, which means that even the "good" rated ones are no better than the other noisy ones. A Haier model was the only one that I saw that got a better than average noise ranking. (I think it might be the one that is on the floor at Costco.) Here is a link that might be useful: Appliance 411

Refrigeration systems have Evaporators, Condensers, Compressors, and a metering device such as a capillary tube, that meters the delivery of the high pressure liquid refrigerant to the low pressure evaporator where the liquid refrigerant starts boiling off/vaporizing. This boiling off is when it absorbs the heat from the refrigerator compartment. When the refrigerant has completely vaporized and had absorbs as much heat as possible it goes to the compressor where it compressed and becomes a High Pressure gas. The high pressure gas moves to the condenser coils where heat is removed and the High Pressure gas condenses to a high pressure liquid which then goes to the metering device to start it's journey all over again. I've added a link to a video that explains the process. How a refrigerator works A self defrosting refrigerator/freezer has a heater under the evaporator coils. This heater is controlled by a timing device. In older more simple refrigerators is was basically a clock that would turn on the heater about every 12 hours and melt any accumulated frost from the evaporator coils and fins. newer refrigerators use sensors to, in a round about way, measure the amount of frost and only turn on the heater when the frost is at a certain level. Self defrosting refrigerator/freezers have a fan that circulates the air through the cabinet and over the evaporator coils. As the evaporator removes the heat it will also collect the moisture from the air and freeze it on the coils which effectively dries the air. When air has a very low moisture content it will draw moisture from unsealed food items which will then again travel through the evaporator leaving that moisture on the coils again. eventually the frost builds up and the defrost heater comes on again to defrost the coils. This water then goes through the evaporator drain and into a reservoir under the refrigerator in the warm machine compartment where it evaporates into the kitchen air.