Frigidaire_LFFH20F3QW_Frost-Free_Upright_Freezer_Review-Consumer-Files-2

Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Frost-Free Upright Freezer Review

In Appliances by Consumer FilesLeave a CommentLast Updated: April 21st, 2021

Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Review

  • Capacity
  • Easy Setup & Operation
  • Energy Consumption
  • Reliability

Summary

This is a superb freezer by a well-known manufacturer and an excellent addition to any home. Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer is recommended for anyone, provided you’ve got the room for it!

4.7

Do you like to stockpile meats and frozen vegetables when you find killer deals at the grocery store? Do you live in an area where that’s a pure necessity?

If so, then you may have considered adding a second chest-style or upright freezer to your home specifically for that purpose. And if you’ve been agonizing over the selections trying to find the perfect one for your home, then you’re going to love this detailed, hands-on review of the Frigidaire 20.2 cubic foot upright freezer.

I live in the mountains of Appalachia, and there’s exactly one road down the mountain and into town.

If it rains and the river floods, town may as well be a million miles away. Same thing if it snows. So up here, having a “Winter Stash” is simply the standard way of doing business, which is why I bought this freezer in the first place.

During the spring and summer months, I would regularly hit the two grocery stores in town, both for boxed frozen vegetables and for meat that’s on clearance. Whenever I find great deals, everything goes into the freezer.

When I first moved up here, my biggest problem was my fridge/freezer combo just wouldn’t let me buy in bulk the way I wanted to. So, when I saw this one on sale at Lowe’s for $599, I jumped all over it.

As of the initial writing of this review, I’ve had it for a month. I’ll update it periodically if I encounter any problems, quirks, or new wrinkles that emerge over time. For now, let’s jump right in, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Getting the Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer

An image of Frigidaire-LFFH20F3QW-Freezer from front.

I hadn’t even gone to Lowe’s to get a freezer the day I bought it. But since it is regularly sold for $899 and was on sale for $599, it was one of those “right place, right time” things. I figured since it was on my wish list, I couldn’t let it go at that price.

It was bigger than I had originally wanted. The smaller one sitting next to it was only a hundred bucks less. So I figured I might as well get a big one. The guy on the floor in the appliance section said that Frigidaire makes one model that’s even bigger. But honestly, as tough as it was to get this one through the door, I don’t think that other one would have fit at all.

Lowe’s also offered free delivery, which was one less headache to have to deal with. So I took them up on it and awaited the appliance’s arrival.

I had gone down on a Friday and was told that delivery wouldn’t be until Sunday. But the drivers called Saturday morning and said that a spot opened up, and if I wanted it, they could bring it to me around lunchtime on Saturday.

That worked for me because Saturday is a good day for meat specials in town, so I happily accepted the bumped-up timeframe. Unfortunately, it started raining about 45 minutes before the delivery guys arrived, and by the time they got to my place, the yard was a lake.

The two men gamely slogged through it though and brought the freezer up to the side door.

The door itself and the screen door had to be removed (in the pouring rain). And since I live in an old farmhouse, the doors are a bit narrower than they are in more recently built homes. It fit, but just barely – in fact, the straps on the hand truck scraped the door frame as it passed through, but they got it in on the first try, without a scratch.

Aesthetic & Form Factor

An image of Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer After One Trip to the Store

As mentioned, Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW is a big freezer. The second biggest upright that Frigidaire makes. Simply typing 20.2 cubic feet doesn’t do it justice, nor do enough to give you a proper sense of scale. When you open that door and start into it, it’s a cavernous expanse.

It’s plain white, so it’s tough to call it an attractive appliance. It’s just nondescript. No special effort went into making it eye-catching, and that’s fine by me. I bought it to keep large amounts of food cold, not to be a conversation piece, so I was perfectly happy with its plain vanilla appearance.

With the handle attached, it measures 34.5” wide, 32.28” deep and 73.19” tall and weighs in at a hefty 195 pounds. I was glad I got free delivery!

Setup

Once the delivery guys got it into the kitchen, all that remained to be done was to pull off the packing tape used to protect it in transit, pull out the packing materials that kept the shelves in place while it was being manhandled, put the handle on using an Allen Wrench, and plug it in.

We let the freezer cool down for about an hour before we headed to the store. We simply left it on the factory default setting, which proved to be fine for our purposes. Although, the temperature dial is easy to access, so we can always adjust it later if needs be.

Extras and Other Features

I was surprised that the freezer came with extras. It is a freezer, after all, so I was a bit curious as to what the extras might be.

They’re interesting and surprisingly useful. Here’s what you get:​

  • A key! – The freezer is lockable. So for instance, if you’re keeping it in your garage, rather than in your house, you can lock it up for an added layer of security.
  • Color-coded tabs – We haven’t used these yet but I can see how they would certainly be beneficial to some people. You can either leave them plain and make a mental note (“okay, the shelf with the red tab is for beef, yellow is for chicken, and green is for pork,” etc.), or you can write on them with a Sharpie.
  • Allen wrench - In case you ever need to take the door off!

The freezer also comes with “Sabbath Mode.”

I had never thought about having a Jewish freezer, and can’t see that I would ever need one. But if you’d like to make it so that your freezer will observe the Sabbath, you can do that.

Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer Open Look - Consumer Files

When placed in this mode, the lights won’t turn on when you open the freezer, and it’ll only power the compressor and pump cold air into the freezer at irregular intervals. Since you’re probably not going to be opening the freezer much on the Sabbath, this is fine, but again, it’s not something I use except to activate it just to see what it did.

There are two other things worth mentioning here.

First, the interior lights are LEDs, which mean they give off a great amount of illumination (if it’s not the Sabbath and the freezer isn’t in Sabbath mode) while using almost no power.

That’s a big win, and it’s worth mentioning here that it’s an Energy Star appliance. According to the tag, it uses only $58 a year in electricity, so it won’t add an undue burden to your monthly power bill.

Second, the first few days you have it, it “sings.”

That one had me scratching my head for a bit, but after a few phone calls to satisfy my curiosity, here’s the reason:​

While the freezer gets cold enough to start storing food within an hour or two, it doesn’t reach core temperature for a few days. During that time, if you'd open the freezer door, you’d hear the compressor working a bit harder than it normally has to, once it’s reached core temp.

As a result, you’ll hear a brief…singing. It’s like a combination between a sigh, a whisper, and a Pan Flute. Not at all unpleasant, but the first time you hear it, it’ll take you by surprise.​

Anyway, after about three days, it stopped doing that and hasn’t done it since, but it’s something to be aware of.

Storage Space of the Frigidaire Frost-free Upright Freezer

This is where the rubber meets the road, as far as I’m concerned, and the Frigidaire delivers in style here. You get four BIG, roomy shelves, six shelves in the door, and two catch-all baskets for odds and ends that don’t seem to fit anywhere else.

At our house, we divided up the space as follows:​

  • Top shelf – easy access, so leftovers and prepared meals to take out during the week
  • Second shelf – Cow 
  • Third shelf – Chicken
  • Bottom shelf – Pig

The shelves on the door, we use for frozen fruits and veggies, and of course, the occasional container of ice cream that puts in an appearance.

The two baskets wind up holding odds and ends we pick up in smaller quantity. For instance, I got a trio of swordfish steaks, a few chicken kabobs, and some locally made spicy sausage calling one of the baskets home, while the other serves as the bay for veggie overflow and some specialty cookie dough I ordered online.

Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer Storage - Consumer Files

So far, we’ve made two massive buying trips and spent around $400 to stock the freezer. We’ve also got an old, rugged FoodSaver which we use to vacuum-seal the meat before it goes onto whatever shelf it’s destined for.

This is certainly not a requirement but is recommended, and for two reasons:

First, by sucking all the oxygen out of the bag, you virtually eliminate freezer burn, so your meat will taste as fresh on the day you pull it out as it would have if you’d have cooked it right then.

Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer Second Trip - Consumer Files
Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer Vacuum Sealing Some Strawberries for the Freezer - Consumer Files

Second, because storing meat that’s been vacuum-sealed takes up significantly less space, meaning you can stash a whole lot more product on those shelves!​

Easy to Use, Easy to Clean

There’s really nothing to using the Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW freezer. You plug it in, let it cool down, and stash your food.

We haven’t yet had to defrost to give it a good cleaning, but the process appears to be straightforward. After reading the manual, it seems mostly a matter of wiping everything down with a damp cloth before powering back on and putting it back into service.

When we do a defrost and cleaning, I’ll update this review with additional notes about how it went.​

Pros & Cons of the Frigidaire Frost-free Upright Freezer

For me, the single biggest pro was the storage space. 20.2 cubic feet is massive, and it’ll be a while before we fill this puppy to capacity. By the time the snows come, I’ll have a stash that should last well into spring.

Less important, but still worth mentioning is the fact that it’s an American-made product, and I like buying American when and where I can.

There are two downsides, in my view. First, the sheer size. It’s a pretty monstrous appliance, and a lot of people just aren’t going to have the space for a dedicated freezer of that size. Second, the price. I got super lucky and picked it up for almost half off, but if it hadn’t been on sale the day I happened to see it, I wouldn’t have spent that kind of money on it. I’d have opted for something smaller and less expensive.

I’ve read some Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW reviews online about people being unhappy with the fact that their freezer stopped working after a few months. But I’ve literally never had that problem with any Frigidaire product I’ve ever owned, and I’m not anticipating any trouble with this one either. Although if it does start acting up, or stop working, I’ll come back and update this review with those details too.

Because I don’t have any direct information on the product’s reliability (yet), I marked it as a “4” in the summary, and will make adjustments to that score over time.

Final Thoughts on Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Freezer Review

The Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW freezer is awesome, and I’m very glad I happened to wander into Lowe’s on the day it was on sale. Because although it would have been my freezer of choice at full price, I am thrilled with it so far, and as you can see from the pictures, I’m getting a lot of use out of it! Highly recommended, but watch for sales!


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Frigidaire LFFH20F3QW Frost-Free Upright Freezer Review was last modified: April 21st, 2021 by Consumer Files