As a person with extremely old appliances with one recent exception you might call me value conscience. My approx. 32 year old Kenmore Chest freezer has rumbled some discontent for the last year which has me interested in replacement, my lack of enthusiasm for the new appliance has stopped a number of purchases.
Frigidaire has about 90% of the home freezer market and in my opinion they manufacture as if they had no competition. Pinch the door liner of one and wince at the though of letting a juice can drop from more than a few inches, couple this with the insiping 1 year warranty, read some reviews and you may come to the same opinion I have, I would only purchase one as an act of desperation.
In some ways I understand this as the cost of a freezer today isn't much different than when I purchased my 32 year old unit. Energy efficiency seems to have resulted in smaller compressors that run more frequently. The refrigerants used today are different (not sure if this is a factor in life expectancy) but I can't see any excuse (again in my opinion) for the awful quality of the door liners. I've pulled a few units out in the stores so I could examine the backs and seen corroding copper pipes coming into tiny compressors. You will save something on your energy bill buying a new unit but I don't like the trade off in build quality.
I would pay to buy one better built, eschewing bells and whistles for a solid compressor and good tubing coupled with real warranty, at least 5 years on the sealed system but they just don't seem to be made.
So as suggested above I'm keeping an eye out for a used one, more than a couple of years old but not ancient.