As part of our Great Kitchen Makeover, we needed a compact but capacious freezer to use as an overspill for our normal under counter freezer. A small chest freezer was what we needed and I was attracted to this one by a combination of the Smeg brand reputation, large capacity and feature set. At £249 it was well priced considering the SMeg name although many cheaper rivals were available.
The freezer was lighter in weight and construction than I was expecting, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage, but surprising considering the heavy-duty build quality of most Smeg appliances. It is a nice size at H86 x W54 x D61cm and although there are smaller chest freezers out there, few could match the 104 Ltrs freezing capacity for the size of the body. Inside the freezing compartment, all looked good inside with a large internal shelf (presumably to house the freezing mechanism) with the bottom of the compartment a good stretch to reach. On the top is a veg basket which can be removed or slid from side to side as required.
There is a control panel facing forward at the back of the freezer with large coloured LEDs for Power, Alert, and Fast Freeze, the LEDs are rather dim and hard to see if they are on in strong daylight. The green Power LED confirms the device is working, the red Alert LED tells you if the internal temperature is too high, and the orange Fast Freeze LED confirms that Fast Freeze is in operation. Next to the LEDs is a well marked rotary dial to set the temperature.
The main feature of interest is the Fast Freeze mode. This is used to quickly freeze newly inserted non-frozen items up to 2Kg in weight or to otherwise quickly bring the temperature down.
Using the device is as simple as you might expect although the instructions say to run the device for at least 20 hours initially before freezing food. It does take a while to get down to operating temperature during which time both the green and red LEDs should light up. Remember to fit the two rear spacers into the grill on the back of the freezer before positioning it.
That is all there is to it. Time will tell just how well it works but so far after a few days of use all the family are really happy with it
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