I've read a lot of owner reviews on the Home Depot website for GE and Whirlpool refrigerators. In general, for the comparable refrigerators I have looked at, GE gets better reviews for reliability and quality compared to Whirlpool. However, I find the Whirlpool refrigerators are more aesthetically pleasing. Whirlpool uses finger print resistant stainless steel on some of their refrigerators and GE doesn't. Whirlpool paints the sides of their stainless steel refrigerators a medium gray where GE paints the sides of their stainless steel refrigerators dark gray. Whirlpool's medium gray paint color matches the stainless steel better than the dark gray that GE uses.

We are probably just getting white since the freezer isn't in the kitchen. The appliance store also has Danby freezers. I like the size and shelving arrangement but don't know anything about this company.

Thank you. I like the layout of the Whirlpool. 1 srore promotes Fridgidaire and the other one says GE is the best.

I've had a lot of good luck with GE for long term reliability, but who knows if the new owners are already changing things or not.

Does anyone know anything about Danby? Nice arrangement of shelving. So far it looks like either GE or Whirlpool ate decent options.

Danby have been around. I don't know anything about the company. They seem to make basic units and a lot of special sizes and specialty units. I don't remember seeing any reports from users. Freezer technology for the basic function is old. What's newer is evaporators. If you want no frost, an evaporator system will be far superior, but perhaps not in budget. Manual defrost freezers, even dirt cheap ones, if you're careful about not opening the door much, and certainly not standing there staring (it helps to keep a running list of what's in there instead of letting out all the cold), it should serve you well.

For self-defrost units, that system would be the telling point. It's also old tech, so it should work, but how soon freezer burn sets in might vary. Given that individual usage creates wildly different environments in the freezer, it's hard to pin down which might work better for which person.

I'd say a lot depends on your budget. If you like it better and get it, what happens if you're not happy with it? Can you afford to sell it at half of what you paid and try again? What if you weren't happy with a better known one, once you got it?

The interior is important to me. That makes the Danby sound like a front runner for you.

So far I haven't found any Danby freezers to see in person. Leaning toward the Whirlpool- or the Maytag. Some slight differences on the interior between the 2 but like that the Maytag has a reversible door. We can work with it opening either way but I would prefer left hinged which isn't the norm. IMO the GE needs another shelf but not enough shelf position options to add one.

You might want to read the warranty info for the refrigerators you are considering. I was comparing a Whirlpool and a Maytag refrigerator and since they are both owned by the same company and the models were similar I expected their warranties would be similar too. However when I read the warranty info I was surprised to learn that they were quite different. As I recall the Maytag covered the compressor for 10 years but did not cover cost of labor to repair the compressor. Maytag also covered everything else parts and labor for 1 year. On the other hand, Whirlpool covered everything for 5 years, both parts and labor.

Thank you for reminding me to look at the finer print of the warranties.

I had an upright manual defrost Kelvinator for 40 years that was running like a clock when we sold our house and moved. I left it. And kind of regretted it but my freezer now is in my mudroom, not basement, needed to look slightly better ;0)

I bought a Whirlpool manual defrost upright 5 years ago. It's been fine. I downsized from 25 cubic feet to 18 and may have underestimated my space needs, but that's my fault, not the freezer. I keep a thermometer in it, temp is spot on always.

One little glitch - brand new, I found the light bulb not turning off when closing the door. A close to the bulb bag of berries had clearly defrosted. Service replaced the switch, but said he found the contact of door to switch 'interesting', like he still didn't whole heartedly trust it even though he went to great length to adjust the door to close perfectly. Neither do I (trust it), I removed the bulb. The freezer is in a brightly lit room or otherwise that could be a problem.

DH wants to go with a 17cf but I want a 20. Cost difference is minimal and size isn't much different. Quality is not the same as years ago. I'm not sure the age of the current freezer. They left it when we bought the house 11 tears ago.

I bought a whirlpool upright freezer 2 years ago. A few months ago it started accumulating frost at the bottom. The repairman came out & said the door was manufactured incorrectly and wasn’t straight on the bottom - there was an arc, letting in air. Whirlpool refused to replace the door because it was out of warranty. Infuriating - I’ll never buy a whirlpool again.

We have a whirlpool all freezer in our mechanical room. It is almost 6 years old. About a year and a half ago the temperatures started fluctuating. In the beginning temps were below zero. Now we are getting temps at 15F. We are replacing it with a GE all freezer which is being delivered today. We store a lot of meat in this feezer and we can’t take the chance of it going kaput.