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

Yes, I did research there. I have a local store who will order me anything and match prices. My husband wants to see everything in person. I will look at Lowes, thanks for the advice.

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

cynic, Again, I don't have a freezer, therefore my statements are just based on my understanding of how things generally work. Also, I am not saying that a manual freezer is a lousy freezer. I can understand a self-defrost may not be as efficient because it uses a heating system inside to defrost regularly and there is a fan to circulate cold air. Also, I think a manual defrost most likely will need thicker insulation because it can't even out inside temperature as well, while a self-defrost will uses thinner insulation to give you more storage, which is a good selling point. However, some of this lack of efficiency is balanced out when you manually defrost a freezer, because you need a lot of energy to melt the ice and re-cool the entire freezer again and all the food that's been out for an hour or so. thinner insulation can give you around two cubic feet more of storage. "----dcarch, I assume you're saying keep a freezer in a cold garage.------" Actually I am talking about a split system. The condensing coil is installed outside of the house. This system gives you bonus cooling in the winter and will not heat up your house in the summer. The basic mechanics of a refrigeration cycle, just like an air conditioner, it is most efficient when you don't really need it. "----I don't see freezer burn as ever being a good thing!-----" Of course not. What I was trying to say was that a self-defrost freezer uses forced cold air and that can mean faster freezer burn if you don't package your food well; however, it is a good thing because the food get frozen much quicker. The quicker the food gets frozen, the smaller the ice crystals will form inside your food (less cell membrane damage), which may mean better quality food (similar to flash freezing). One of the main advantages of a frost free unit, besides convenience is its ability to keep recommended temperature quickly and evenly throughout the inside. The thermostat typically used in a freezer is of the capillary type. This kind of thermostat will take anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees F from the set temperature to turn the compressor on and off. This deviation from 0 degree F in an unevenly cooled freezer can mean a less than ideal storage environment for food. This condition gets worst when ice is formed on the freezer walls because ice is a relatively good insulator. dcarch