Model
Gaggenau RF491704
Rank #580 means 579 of the 622 freezer models we track cost less to run each year; the 70th efficiency percentile means it uses less energy for its size than 70% of those models.
What does the Gaggenau RF491704 cost to run per year?
The Gaggenau RF491704 costs about $101 a year to run, well up the cost table for its class at rank #580 of 622. It uses 22% less energy than the U.S. federal standard model in its class, which would cost about $127/yr to run, a saving of roughly $26 a year. Capacity-normalized, it ranks ahead of 70% of freezer models we track, a reasonably strong result for the class. This class has no published efficiency-factor figure beyond annual kWh itself, so at 19.4 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 Gaggenau RVF497790 at $99/yr runs a little cheaper and the Miele F 2901 Vi at $101/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 Gaggenau RF491704's $101/yr adds up to roughly $1414 in electricity alone, before purchase price or repairs.
Also sold as: Thermador T36IF900SP.
By the numbers
The Gaggenau RF491704 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 $101/yr, here is what the Gaggenau RF491704 adds up to before purchase price, water, or repairs enter the math.
Left running for a decade at today's US average rate, the Gaggenau RF491704 costs about $1010. That is roughly $260 less than a standard model in its class, which would run closer to $1270 over the same ten years.
How the Gaggenau RF491704 compares
The freezer class we track runs from $25 to $120 a year. At $101/yr, it runs about $26 a year above the class median of $75, and it is about $76 a year more than the cheapest freezer to run at $25. Against the US federal standard model for its class at about $127/yr, the Gaggenau RF491704 uses 22% less energy.
What drives its running cost
At 19.4 cu ft, the Gaggenau RF491704 is a large freezer for its class, which spans 1.1 to 23 cu ft with a median of 13.8 cu ft, and larger freezer models generally cost more to run than smaller ones in the same class, simply because there is more to keep cold, spin, heat, or light.
- 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 Gaggenau RF491704 cheap to run?
Its $101/yr running cost, rank #580 of 622, is above what most freezer models we track cost to run, so this is not one of the cheaper picks on electricity alone.
How much does the Gaggenau RF491704 cost per month?
About $8.4 a month, which is the $101 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: 543 kWh from ENERGY STAR times the US average of $0.1856/kWh comes to about $101 a year. It covers electricity only, not the purchase price, water, or installation.
How efficient is the Gaggenau RF491704 for its size?
70th 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 579 | Gaggenau RVF49779022.3 cu ft | $99 |
| 578 | Liebherr MF 366118.9 cu ft | $99 |
| 577 | Thermador T36IF905SP19.4 cu ft | $98 |
| 576 | Miele F 2912 Vi19.4 cu ft | $98 |
| 575 | Liebherr MF305115.2 cu ft | $98 |
Source
ES_0031649_RF491704_03082017044344_70122368View certified freezer listingsENERGY STAR data as of July 2026Gaggenau and RF491704 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.