Why do refrigerators have freezers on the top?

Here is the top-freezer fridge in the place I’m currently staying. I hate this thing.

Every time I have had the option to purchase a home refrigerator in my life, I have chosen a refrigerator with the freezer on the bottom. It’s only logical since you will access the refrigerator many more times in a day and will probably be seeking several items each time you open the door. Putting the refrigerator at the top gets the contents at eye level. And a bottom freezer is almost always a drawer you can pull open to quickly find what you need.

So why do most smaller home refrigerators have the freezer at the top, causing you to get down on your hands and knees to seek out the more obscure necessities in the nether regions of your refrigerator? (And as you might guess, I have lots of sauces, pickles and condiments squirreled away in those nether regions.)

I assumed it was pure profit motive; top-freezer refrigerators must be much cheaper to manufacture. But it’s actually something more insidious: physics. As in, hot air rises and cold air falls below the hot air. So the cold air in your freezer will interact with the warmer air inside your fridge and make it more efficient. You can test this for yourself. Just put your hand on the ceiling of the interior of your refrigerator, to note the temperature difference. Then compare the floor and the walls of your top-mounted freezer to notice the temperature difference there.

What, you say you found no such thing? That the temperature on the ceiling of the fridge was the same as on the walls, and the temperature of your freezer was the same on both its floors and its walls? (The temp at the very top of the freezer will indeed be warmer, but that’s because of the exhaust fan.) What’s next? McDonald’s selling sushi?

Quel horror! A bottom freezer fridge will cost you $70 per year in energy. (Less in Canada, presumably because it’s colder there.)

The reason that modern refrigerators appear to defy the laws of physics has another explanation: better insulation. So that delicious warm air rising up in your fridge never gets to encounter the icy air descending from the freezer, and vice versa.

According to this energy use label found at lowes.com, a 22.1 cubic foot refrigerator with a bottom freezer will use 584 kWh of electricity per year, at an estimated cost of $70. While a 20.5 cubic foot (closest comparison we could find) refrigerator with a top freezer will use 436kWh, at an estimated cost of $52. So congratulations. By putting up with daily inconvenience and contortions, you’re saving $18 in a year’s time. That will pay for a lot of chiropractor visits.

Here, by the way, is a very helpful comparison of refrigerator designs by an appliance dealer. I wish the contractor at my current residence had checked such a guide before ordering dozens of top-freezer fridges.