A chest freezer can be used as a refrigerator if you have a conversion kit with a temperature-regulated thermostat, which will allow it to operate efficiently.
There are many reasons why people purchase chest freezers, and these appliances can be particularly useful in terms of convenience and efficiency.
An additional bonus is that a chest freezer can be converted to function in the same way that a refrigerator does and may even be more efficient than purchasing a second refrigerator. Furthermore, the freezer can be switched back when you need more freezing space again.
The advantages of chest freezers
Chest freezers may not be as commercial and attractive as the upright freezers, but they are a convenient solution if you want additional freezing space and subsequently, fewer trips to the store. These chest-style freezers are also considerably less expensive than the fridge-freezer combination models.
As an added bonus, chest freezers are also quite energy-efficient and they come in many different styles and sizes, so it should be easy to find one that will meet your household’s needs.
Can a chest freezer be used as a refrigerator?
Although having a chest freezer can be quite handy when you have a lot of things to freeze, it can also be difficult to know what to do with it when there is just not that much that needs to be frozen. Fortunately, you can turn your chest freezer into a refrigerator quite easily.
When people first figured out that their unused chest freezers could be used as second refrigerators for their homes, stores, offices, and more, the process required skills and knowledge about how to rewire and reprogram the compressor and temperature sensors within the chest freezer.
However, as time has progressed, you can now get a conversion kit that allows you to reap all of the benefits of this type of conversion.
Turning your chest freezer into a spare fridge when it is not needed as a freezer can be extremely beneficial, as this means that the chest freezer will not just be wasting space in your basement or garage.
This chest freezer to fridge conversion will also use less electricity than a second refrigerator would, which is quite beneficial, because it could even end up saving you money on your electricity bill in the long term.
If you are still not sure about the chest freezer to refrigerator conversion even with the additional benefits and the simplicity of the process, you do not need to be concerned, because your converted chest “refrigerator” can be changed back into being a freezer if and when you choose to do so, just as easily as with the initial conversion.
How does the chest freezer to refrigerator conversion work?
Now that it has become more popular for people to convert their unused chest freezers into spare refrigerator, because of the benefits that this can hold, easy-to-install conversion kits have been developed and are available for you to purchase.
These kits usually contain a temperature-regulated thermostat or temperature controller, which you plug your chest freezer into, and it is then plugged into the power outlet, using kits like in the examples below:
| Temperature-regulated thermostat | Price | Where to buy |
| Inkbird ITC-308 Digital Temperature Controller | $35 |  |
| Buy it on Amazon | ||
| DIGITEN Digital Temperature Controller | $28.99 |   |
| Buy it on Amazon |
This temperature controller will then switch your chest freezer on and off to regulate its temperature so that it stays constant at the fridge temperature that you have programmed it to.
The benefits of converting your chest freezer to a refrigerator
Chest freezers, in general, are very energy-efficient appliances that do not use much electricity in a year. On the other hand, refrigerators use a large amount of electricity every year.
On top of this, the chest freezer requires much less power, since it only needs to run its compressor now and then to keep the unit at a refrigerator temperature.
Therefore, if you take into account that a chest freezer already does not use much electricity and that it uses even less electricity when it is only functioning as a fridge, converting your chest freezer to a refrigerator means that this appliance uses quite little electricity to run each year.
Can a converted chest freezer be turned back into a freezer?
Not only is the process to convert a chest freezer back to a refrigerator quite simple and beneficial, the process to convert the chest “refrigerator” back into a freezer when you need it again is just as easy.
You simply need to unplug the chest freezer from the temperature controller and plug it back into the socket that you had it in before. You may also need to reset the freezer’s internal thermostat, but this is easy to do.