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  • Design & Features

  • Usability

  • Performance

  • A Pricey Performer

  • Temperature Performance

  • Freezing & Thawing

  • Storage Space

  • Design & Features
  • Usability
  • Performance
  • A Pricey Performer
  • Temperature Performance
  • Freezing & Thawing
  • Storage Space

This Kenmore is definitely more expensive than other freezers, but we still think it's a good value—especially at the heavily discounted Sears price of about $880. Not only is it quite large, it’s also got a ton of adjustable storage options that make finding food fast and easy.

Design & Features

It’s big. Really big.

With an advertised 20.6 cubic feet of storage, the 28093 is a massive appliance. The stainless steel door is impressive, but also incredibly easy to smudge. If you’re using it frequently, expect to have to clean it fairly often.

This is also a rare freezer that actually utilizes a degree-based thermostat. It gives you the option to toggle between Fahrenheit and Celsius and boasts a Quick Freeze for when you’ve got to chill a lot of food quickly.

It also has a basic control lock to keep food safe from curious children and inquisitive neighbors. If you forget to lock the door and it comes open, the freezer will sound an alarm... which might not do you much good if it's in the basement and you're in the second floor bathroom.

It should come as no surprise that a freezer this high-tech includes an auto-defrost; no chipping away with a screwdriver and towels for this bad boy. You even get a designated Soft Freeze Zone for ice cream, which keeps temperatures a little lower for ready-to-eat treats.

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Usability

With storage so customizable, you could mistake it for a fridge

Both upright and chest freezers aren’t exactly known for their storage flexibility, which makes this Kenmore all the more impressive. A bevy of adjustable shelves are found on the door, giving you plenty of vertical storage options.

The main cavity isn’t quite as flexible—there’s only one extra shelf slot to be shared among the three—but it makes finding and getting to food a snap.

Glass shelves have adjustable barriers, drawers come with movable dividers, and there's even a dedicated frozen pizza shelf with several different clips for altering its height.

All of the dividers are made out of blue plastic to match the trim on the glass shelves for a dash of style. Unfortunately, some of the pieces—specifically the shelf sliders—are a bit stiff, so be careful not to snap them apart when making adjustements.

Performance

Accuracy and precision

The more internal space you have in a freezer, the harder it can be to circulate air evenly while keeping it cold. This Kenmore managed to do a good job at this despite the large internal capacity, remaining effectively cold over both time and space.

There are two important caveats to mention, though: We measure what equates to the internal temperature of food, not the temperature of the air around it. Even though 0ºF is the recommended temperature for freezing food, you’ll want to turn this machine down a couple of degrees for optimal performance.

Also, make liberal use of the Quick Freeze: It took over two and a half hours for our room-temperature materials to finish chilling. Other models can take as little as an hour and a half, and long freezing times can cause food to lose taste, quality, and nutritional value.

A Pricey Performer

The micromanager’s dream freezer

In terms of MSRP, the Kenmore Elite 28093 is a very expensive freezer. Even on sale for around $880, this freezer will cost up to twice as much as some smaller, simpler uprights.

However, this Kenmore Elite offers superior accessibility and customization in addition to a small footprint—compared to chest freezers—and tons of interior storage space. If you want to store lots of food and need help keeping track of it all, this could be the freezer for you. Other than some hiccups with freezing time, the Kenmore Elite 28093 (MSRP $1,159.99) proved itself to be an effective appliance. Make sure to turn the temperature down a bit lower than you might expect for ideal performance.

Temperature Performance

It’s all about internal temp

When degree-based controls are available on a freezer (which isn’t often), we set it to 0ºF. Unfortunately, even if the air around your food cools down to 0ºF, that level of cold doesn’t always penetrate to the center of your food.

Our test materials averaged an internal temperature of 1.1ºF, just a bit too warm for ideal freezing conditions. Turn the controls down at least two or three degrees to get the most out of your product.

Fortunately, other temperature tests were on par with standard freezing performance. We noticed an average difference of ±1.8ºF at different points in the freezer, with an average shift over time of ±1.6ºF. It’s not perfect, but it means this Kenmore can hold its own with most of the competition.

Freezing & Thawing

Slow freeze times

When it comes to freezing food, faster is always better. In that respect, this Kenmore did pretty miserably. Room-temperature materials hit 32ºF in about 2.6 hours, reaching 0ºF after almost 40 hours. If you’re going to the store and getting a full batch of groceries, absolutely take advantage of this machine's Quick Freeze feature.

Fortunately, this upright managed to retain cold air better than it was at creating it. After 36 hours without power, it had only warmed up to 29.5ºF.

Storage Space

So much room

There’s a whole lot of shelves, drawers, buckets, and bins inside this Kenmore taking up space—but not as much as you might think. Compared to the 20.6 cubic feet of space advertised with this product, we found that 17.02 cubic feet were actually usable for storage. That’s a pretty solid ratio, and one that should accommodate even larger families. What’s even better is how accessible each and every one of those storage surfaces is as a result of the layout and design.

Meet the tester

Matthew Zahnzinger

Matthew Zahnzinger

Logistics Manager & Staff Writer

@ReviewedHome

Matthew is a native of Brockton, MA and a graduate of Northeastern, where he earned a degree in English and Theatre. He has also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and spends most of his free time pursuing a performance career in the greater Boston area.

See all of Matthew Zahnzinger's reviews

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