Is an Upright Igloo Freezer Worth It for Your Garage or Apartment?
Worth it if you want easy access, not maximum cold retention
around $220price at time of review — check Amazon for current
- Worth it ifYou want to open a door and see everything at eye level instead of digging
- Skip it ifYou're storing a season's worth of meat or garden produce you'll barely open
Amazon shoppers rate it 4.6 out of 5 across 1,046 ratings. That is their number, not ours.
By Maya Bennett, kitchen & home · updated 2026-07-28
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You know that feeling when you're on your knees in front of a chest freezer, one arm buried to the shoulder in frozen bags, hunting for the chicken thighs you know are down there somewhere, cold air rolling out over your face the whole time. It's not really about the freezing, it's about the digging. That's the specific ache an upright igloo freezer is built to fix, standing tall instead of low, opening like a door instead of a lid, so the real question becomes whether standing up to get your food is worth the floor space it asks for.
Here's the trick worth understanding before you measure your garage corner. Inside the cabinet, a D-type refrigeration tube runs coolant in a loop that touches more surface area than a simple coil, so the aluminum interior chills down fast once you plug it in and recovers fast every time you shut the door. That quick recovery matters specifically because of the upright shape: because the door swings open rather than lifting straight off, cold air that's settled at the bottom wants to spill out onto the floor the second you open it, so the faster the tube can re-chill the walls, the less that spill costs you. The balanced hinge holds the door open anywhere between 45 and 90 degrees, which sounds minor until you're holding a bag of groceries in one hand and don't want to prop the door with a shoulder. Inside, one removable wire basket keeps whatever you actually reach for often (ice cream, bagged vegetables, the emergency lasagna) up near eye level instead of buried under everything you froze back in March. The dial runs from negative ten to ten degrees Fahrenheit, so you're setting a real target, not guessing.
So the real trade you're making isn't chest versus upright, it's digging versus standing. You give up a little of the chest freezer's natural talent for holding cold in, since an open door lets more air spill out of an upright than a lid ever would, and in exchange you get to see what you own and reach it without a search party.
Worth it if
- You want to open a door and see everything at eye level instead of digging
- Your space is tight enough that upright footprint beats a low, wide chest
- You open the freezer often enough that quick access matters more than raw efficiency
Skip it if
- You're storing a season's worth of meat or garden produce you'll barely open
- You want the absolute best cold retention per cubic foot
- You need shelving beyond one basket for heavy organizing
Not for anyone doing rare, bulk, long-term storage where a chest freezer's better cold retention matters more than being able to see what's inside.
If you want to open a door, see your food, and grab it without excavating, this is a quiet yes for a garage, basement, or apartment corner. If your priority is squeezing every bit of efficiency out of long-term bulk storage you rarely open, a chest freezer will still out-hold it on cold retention. Either way, you now know exactly what upright buys you and what it costs.
Check price on Amazon · around $220 or Add it to your Amazon cart to sit on it
Before you go
Is Igloo a good freezer brand?
Yes, for compact upright and chest freezers aimed at homes, garages, and apartments, Igloo focuses on straightforward, no-frills cooling rather than premium features, which is what keeps the price down.
What are the disadvantages of an upright freezer?
Because the door swings open instead of lifting off, more cold air escapes with every opening, so upright models tend to work a bit harder and can build frost on the upper interior walls faster than a chest freezer of the same size.
What is the lifespan of an upright freezer?
Most compact upright freezers like this one are built to run reliably for roughly eight to twelve years with basic care, though how often the door gets opened and where it sits (a hot garage versus a cool basement) affects that considerably.
Full spec sheet
| Brand Name | Igloo |
|---|---|
| Model Name | Igloo 3.5 Cu Ft. Upright Deep Freezer Chest |
| Included Components | Removable basket |
| Item Type Name | Deep Freezer with Quick Freezing System & Adjustable Thermostat- Low Noise Freezer with… |
| Model Number | Igloo |
| Manufacturer Part Number | ICFXX35BK6A |
| Wattage | 100 watts |
| Door Orientation | Top |