Avanti 3.5 cu ft Chest Freezer: Space Efficient & Affordable

Avanti 3.5 chest freezer Review Summary

As usual, we’ll review this chest freezer from Avanti using the 5 criteria we consider essential for a good chest freezer. Many appliances have lots of features that go beyond the ones we consider basic.

At first, it may appear like having a rich-feature chest freezer is the best thing, yet these not only make them more expensive, but if the very basics are not covered you may not be investing your money wisely.

Let’s start with the Budget: The Avanti 3.5 Chest Freezer Price Check

For a high quality 3.5 cu ft chest freezer, this Avanti model is right in the middle of the price range, since there are more expensive and affordable options.

Avanti is a well established brand since 1972 and they specialize in compact appliances. This Avanti CF350F0W model receives lots of positive feedback from users and comes with a 1-year manufacturer limited warranty, so your money is well invested.

If you want to see different budget options here is the Avanti freezer 3.5 vs similar products

Here is a comparison table with this and other options. For all chest freezers, consider adding between 3 and 5 inches to each side and back for proper air circulation and efficiency.

Space Efficiency: The Avanti Freezer 3.5 Outer Dimensions vs Inner Capacity

How good is the Sealing of the Avanti 3.5 cu ft chest freezer?

This is another crucial aspect of any chest freezer because without a good seal, food won’t stay frozen. The sealing of the Avanti freezer 3.5 is achieved when a flexible plastic gasket and the freezer’s top frame get in touch.

In our opinion the sealing of this deep freezer is good and will easily keep your food good and preserved.

We’ve noticed ice build up and dirt are common on both the gasket and the frame, so we recommend to keep an eye on these and use a dry cloth to ensure both are clean.

Since the frame of the freezer is hard plastic, you can use a plastic ice scraper to remove either ice or dirt if that is needed. For the gasket, only use a cloth to avoid damaging it.

Performance – Is it Reliable?

When it comes to performance, it is much more about what we do with the freezer and where we place it than the freezer itself.

For optimal performance: We recommend placing your unit inside your house so it uses less power. Also, the bigger and more food items you put in, the longer it will take to freeze everything.

Noise Level: It terms of noise this freezer is rated in the lower range of dB, meaning this unit is pretty silent. You should not expect it to be noisy and if it is, you should return it.

Power consumption: This unit is not Energy Star certified. However, the electricity this freezer consumes is estimated to cost around 23 USD per year. It will vary from region to region and also on how you use it and where you place it.

Pro Tip: Place your Avanti mini freezer away from direct sunlight and with proper ventilation and heating. It is true this freezer can work in extreme temperatures, yet the hotter the ambient temperature the harder the unit will have to work to reach the desired temperature. Same way if it is too cold outside, the internal thermostat of the Avanti 3.5 will read a low temperature and turn off the compressor and your food inside can thaw.

Pro Tip: While it is tempting to use all the available space of the inside of your freezer, the Avanti chest freezer 3.5 works best if you don’t load too many food items inside. Use 85% of its internal capacity for better results.

User Friendliness – Features that are worth mentioning

This chest freezer comes with other features that while not needed for its primary purpose, they make your life easier as a user.

Stay open lid: Pretty helpful when you need to use both hands to get or put in food items. Most new chest freezers come with a balanced hinge design, which is another way to call it.

Two power indicators, the green and the blue: The green light is on as long as the freezer has energy, so it is a great way to get a quick visual confirmation that your unit is powered up. The blue light turns on and off regularly, and it indicates when the compressor is running, so don’t panic if you see it off.

Drain outlet: While not mandatory, it comes handy when defrosting the unit and doing clean up and maintenance. We’ve seen other freezers where you have to scoop out the residues, but with this drain plug is easier to get rid of all that easily. You want to put a recipient outside the drain plug to gather all the water and soap and avoid making a mess.

Wheels: Especially chest freezers this size are easy to move, so the wheels may not be a super needed accessory. Yet, once the freezer is full of food, the story changes. The wheels of the Avanti 3.5 model save you the time to have to unpack your food to move the freezer and then pack everything again.

Inner Cabinet Characteristics

All the interior of the freezer is covered with an aluminum liner, which is a common material for some models of these chest freezers because reduces the costs of fabrication and make its prices low.

While this liner is great to keep food frozen, it also gets dents easily, so it is normal if you see some with time. The best way to keep these at minimum is to store everything with care.

Never use a metallic nor sharp object to clean the interior. Instead, use the provided plastic scraper. A good way to keep your freezer in optimal conditions and clean is to defrost it periodically to keep the scrapping of the aluminum liner at minimum.

The frequency of the manual defrost process depends a lot on the amount of food you stack, but if you see frost that is between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick, that is a good time to defrost your unit.

Wire Basket

The wire basket is strong and definitely is spacious enough to hold some small food items. This is great for keeping some ingredients handy. The basket as well slides easily from side to side to facilitate access to food items.

While this is great for getting quick access to some items, you need to be careful when manipulating this wire basket. It comes with a paint coating that prevents it from rusting, but with use, the wire losses its coating and rust may appear.

What we recommend to keep it in optimal conditions is to remove the basket first when you do the defrosting of the unit. Since it will be cold, it’ll get wet when you get it out so dry it quickly with a dry cloth.

Same when you move it, do it gently to keep the coating in the best shape possible.

Pro Tip: If you load your 3.5 cu ft Avanti freezer to 85% or 90% of the capacity as we recommend, you will not have that much room for moving the wire basket. This will help keep its coating for longer. Also, you’ll learn that organization with chest freezers is a big thing.

People frequently buy these together

A thermometer is a great way to ensure this freezer is working in optimal conditions. Having this inside the freezer will allow you to check if the temperature is stable or if it varies. This comes handy as the temperature knob of the freezer does not tell specific temperature but only a min to max range.

These mats help get most of the frost on them and not on the freezer. Consider these will take a bit of space from your inner cabinet and that while handy, may not be mandatory.

Downsides discussed and potential solutions

This section deals with those things we’d like this freezer to either have or do better. While nothing here would refrain us from recommending this unit, these are things you want to know to make a more informed purchase.

No interior light: It would be great if there was an interior light in this freezer, especially since it is garage ready and garages not all the time are well illuminated. While not a deal breaker, you want to consider putting this in a well lit area.

Easy to dent on the outside: This is pretty common in all of these chest freezers, so don’t sweat too much for this. Some people are lucky and their units arrive perfect, yet know it is common to see shipping damages in the units. These should be small dents, yet if you get a broken unit with a whole, that may impact performance. The same is true if the dents prevent the sealing of the unit.

Final Thoughts about this 3.5 cu ft chest freezer from Avanti

This Avanti chest freezer is definitely worth its price. It qualifies well in what we believe are the core requirements of a deep freezer of this capacity, and it even offers a few additional features that make your life easier.

While it is advertised as a garage ready unit, and we did confirm this, you need to know it will make it work harder if you place it in a garage that is not well ventilated or heated. Our best recommendation is to place it inside your house, and with a design this compact, we think it won’t be hard to find a spot to put it.

If you are looking for some extra storage space for your frozen food and space available is tight as well as the budget, the Avanti 3.5 chest freezer is a good buy for you.