Product Link: Summit FS20L
Average Price: $340-480
Availability: Available online and off; although it can be a bit difficult to find offline.
Rating:

After losing 44oz of frozen milk to some unknown catastrophe in the freezer unit of our refrigerator, I was determined to not let it happen again. The spoiled milk represented about 3 hours of continuous pumping across 10 days—who wouldn’t cry over that?

I soon learned that using normal household refrigerator/freezers held many problems for the storage of breast milk. The number one culprit? The defrost cycle! While it makes our lives easier, it also puts all frozen items through a warming cycle that is incompatible with long-term storage needs. There are also issues of cross-contamination from meat and fish, and variable temperature problems from freezer storage items increasing and decreasing. These issues create an environment that is not safe for breast milk storage.

My course of action was clear: I needed to find a dedicated freezer for storing breast milk, and possibly some of the baby food cubes that I had been making, as well.

It’s amazing how difficult it is to find a freezer that meets the following criteria:

• Small/compact but with adequate room for storage.
• No glass door (not needed, and lets sunlight in)
• Capable of maintaining very low temperatures (0F/-19C)
• No defrost cycle (very important! the defrost cycle raises the temperature in the freezer for short periods of time to melt any accumulated frost. This can also cause spoilage.)

It’s also interesting how difficult it is to find information on what type of freezer to use, where to get it, and what to look for/avoid in a freezer. The search engines are full of information on how to store breastmilk, how long breastmilk can be stored at various temperatures, various bottles, trays, bags and contraptions that you can use to store frozen breastmilk. But absolutely zero on what to look for in a freezer.

Some research and communications with various small appliance manufacturers lead me to the conclusion that what I was looking for was a medical freezer. A small compact freezer capable of maintaining very low temperatures, and that does not have an automatic defrost cycle.

Which lead me to Summit’s FS20L. A freezer offering 1.6cu feet of storage, the ability to maintain temperatures of -20 degrees C, no defrost cycle, and it even has a convenient front lock to prevent the door from accidentally coming ajar, or more importantly- to prevent your child from opening the door to explore. (Or as I ended up using it, to prevent my husband from using it to store more ice cream.)

CAPACITY

The capacity of the FS20L is 1.6 cubic feet which stores quite a bit of breastmilk. I calculated that approximately 378 oz (or more) can be stored in 6oz bags frozen flat- approximately 21 bags fit across a row, two rows fit on the top shelf and one row on the bottom shelf- and this leaves plenty of room for air circulation. You can probably fit more milk in if you pack it tighter- but for my needs 378oz of stored milk is probably more than I could pump in a lifetime. I chose to store my milk on the lower shelf and use the upper shelf for frozen baby food cubes. (Tip: Freeze the cubes in your regular freezer before moving them to the Summit- this keeps inside temperatures from varying the way it will if hot or warm food is added.)

DIMENSIONS

The exterior dimensions of the freezer are 20″x20″x21″. Interior dimensions are different for the top shelf: 13″ deep by 15.5 wide, 6 inches tall and bottom shelf: 15.5″ wide, 8″ deep and and 8 inches tall. These dimensions work out perfectly for the size of standard-sized frozen bags of breast milk- the lower shelf fits one-bag deep and the upper shelf fits two bags deep and allows for plenty of room for air circulation to keep the temperature constant. The freezer is small enough to fit on top of most refrigerators, or on top of a counter. It’s wonderful for small city spaces, and can fit very comfortably in your nursery, just make sure you keep it locked and keep the keys out of reach.

NOISE LEVEL

This freezer is not loud at all, even in a small room. It doesn’t become annoying in a quiet room and it doesn’t overwhelm a TV or radio. We have the freezer in our living room about 3 feet away from the television, and it never becomes intrusive.

TEMPERATURE CONTROL

The temperature controls on the Summit are a bit “hit or miss”- a slider in the back controls the temperature but you have to adjust it blindly and use a thermometer to make sure you’re hitting your desired temperature. It took me 2 tries to hit the zero degrees F (-19 degrees C), the temperature at which you can store frozen breast milk for up to a year. Once the temperature hit the desired mark, however, it was rock solid and stayed there without variation. The hit-or-miss temperature controls are the only flaw I noticed with this freezer- although you’re probably going to want to just put it on the lowest setting (this setting resulted in -5F for me, which I thought was too cold).

DEFROST

This freezer must be defrosted manually and the frequency at which you need to defrost will vary. After I ran the freezer constantly for 6 months while opening it up every 2-3 days to add milk or food, there was a small buildup of ice along the top, and a lip of ice sticking out the front. I’ll probably want to defrost the freezer once annually. This works out perfectly for a mom that is pumping- by the time a year passes, your baby will be drinking less milk and might even be weaned. So there’s a good possibility that you won’t ever have to defrost- just unplug the freezer, wipe it down and put it in storage for the next baby. If you do need to defrost, just place all of the milk in your regular freezer temporarily (I choose to pack it with ice packs as well), and unplug the freezer for about an hour. At this point the minimal ice residue easily slides off and you can wipe down the interior with a dry cloth to remove any moisture.
When I first set up the freezer it took about an hour for it to drop from room temperature to the needed zero degrees. So expect the defrosting and re-cooling to take 1-3 hours.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

The freezer uses a surprisingly small amount of electricity for an appliance. Its Energy Star rating places it in the lower 50th percentile for energy use compared to other models. It uses 277kWh/year compared to lowest energy consumption of similar appliance which was 253kW/year and the highestenergy consumption: 318 kWh/Year. The yearly estimated cost of operation is only 26 dollars (this estimate was based on 2005 energy costs of 9.06 cents per kWh for electricity).

RECOMMENDED ACCESSORIES

The Summit FS20L offers optional accessories such as an external temperature readout and a battery powered alarm. If these aren’t cost effective, you can easily purchase a freezer thermometer with alarm from sites such as National Marine Products. (approx $10). This particular thermometer samples every 10 seconds and stores min/max temperatures to allow you to determine if you have had any temperacture fluctuations across the day. Its battery life is approx 5,000 hours with 1 AAA battery.

CONCLUSION

The Summit freezer is an excellent freezer for the working mom, and can store up to 4 weeks worth of frozen milk (depending on your storage method, baby’s age and intake requirements). The small size, low temperatures, and rock solid performance make it a wonderful investment for any mom that is pumping regularly or making homemade baby food.