Kenmore 16542

The Kenmore 16542 offers 14.8 cubic feet of storage (enough room to meet the needs of most families), interior and power-on lights, two lift-out baskets and a keyed lock. It is Energy Star-compliant and uses about 354 kWh of electricity per year. Professional reviewers give this freezer high marks for temperature control and efficiency, but they say it is noisier than many chest freezers. Users do not generally find the noise level to be a problem, though we found several complaints that the lid does not seal securely, causing this freezer to frost up quickly. Like all chest freezers covered in this report, the Kenmore must be defrosted manually. If you don't need a freezer this large, the 8.8-cubic-foot Kenmore 16922 (*Est. $340) performs just as well but is slightly less energy efficient.

ConsumerReports.org has not tested the Kenmore 16542, but the editors rate its performance based on their tests for the nearly identical Kenmore 16552 (now discontinued). We also found user reviews for the Kenmore 16542 at Sears.com and reviews for Kenmore chest freezers in general at Viewpoints.com.