Model
Danby Designer DUFM085A4*
Rank #95 means 94 of the 622 freezer models we track cost less to run each year; the 54th efficiency percentile means it uses less energy for its size than 54% of those models.
What does the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* cost to run per year?
The Danby Designer DUFM085A4* holds rank #95 of 622 on running cost, at about $46 a year, a genuinely cheap result for the class. It uses 11% less energy than the U.S. federal standard model in its class, which would cost about $51/yr to run, a saving of roughly $5 a year. Efficiency-wise, once size is accounted for, it sits right around the class median, ahead of 54% of the models we track. This class has no published efficiency-factor figure beyond annual kWh itself, so at 8.5 cu ft (the class spans 1.1 to 23), size is the clearest lever we can point to for this model's running cost.
Immediately around it on the leaderboard, the Criterion CUF32P1W at $46/yr runs a little cheaper and the Danby Designer DUFM085A4TDD at $46/yr runs a little more, a sense of how tightly models are packed at this point in the ranking. A freezer typically stays in service for somewhere around 14 years; over that span, the Danby Designer DUFM085A4*'s $46/yr adds up to roughly $644 in electricity alone, before purchase price or repairs.
Also sold as: Danby Designer DUFM085A4TDD, Danby Premiere DUFM085A3*.
By the numbers
The Danby Designer DUFM085A4* normalized against its whole class, so each figure means something.
What it costs you over time
Running cost is an every-year number, so it compounds. At $46/yr, here is what the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* adds up to before purchase price, water, or repairs enter the math.
Left running for a decade at today's US average rate, the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* costs about $460. That is roughly $50 less than a standard model in its class, which would run closer to $510 over the same ten years.
How the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* compares
The freezer class we track runs from $25 to $120 a year. At $46/yr, it runs about $29 a year cheaper than the class median of $75, and it is about $21 a year more than the cheapest freezer to run at $25. Against the US federal standard model for its class at about $51/yr, the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* uses 11% less energy.
What drives its running cost
At 8.5 cu ft, the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* is a small freezer for its class, which spans 1.1 to 23 cu ft with a median of 13.8 cu ft, at the small end of the class, capacity itself is doing a lot of the work to keep that figure down, separate from how efficient the unit actually is.
- Interior volume. As with refrigerators, more cubic feet of frozen storage generally means a bigger compressor and a higher annual energy figure.
- Insulation and defrost type. Better-insulated cabinets lose less cold to the surrounding room, and frost-free (automatic-defrost) freezers run a periodic heating element that a manual-defrost model does not.
- Chest vs upright design. Door orientation affects how much cold air escapes per opening: top-opening chest designs generally hold cold better than front-opening upright ones.
Common questions
Is the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* cheap to run?
Yes. Its $46/yr running cost puts it at rank #95 of 622, below what most freezer models we track cost to run.
How much does the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* cost per month?
About $3.82 a month, which is the $46 annual estimate spread across twelve months at the US average rate of $0.1856/kWh. Your own bill scales with your local electricity rate and how heavily you use it.
How is this running-cost figure calculated?
The formula is annual kWh times price per kWh: 247 kWh from ENERGY STAR times the US average of $0.1856/kWh comes to about $46 a year. It covers electricity only, not the purchase price, water, or installation.
How efficient is the Danby Designer DUFM085A4* for its size?
54th percentile once size is factored in. That means its size-adjusted efficiency is a real factor in the running-cost figure above; its capacity plays a large role too.
Cheaper to run in the same class
| Rank | Model | Cost/yr |
|---|---|---|
| 94 | Criterion CUF32P1W3.2 cu ft | $46 |
| 93 | Criterion 453-60543.2 cu ft | $46 |
| 92 | Vitara VLUF0310EW3.1 cu ft | $45 |
| 91 | Vitara VLUF0310ES3.1 cu ft | $45 |
| 90 | Vitara VLUF0310EB3.1 cu ft | $45 |
Source
ES_0031682_DUFM085A4*_12012017104801_70163948View certified freezer listingsENERGY STAR data as of July 2026Danby Designer and DUFM085A4* are used here for identification only and are not endorsements. Figures are computed by WattWise Labs from public ENERGY STAR data, not measured in our own lab.