Convert L to ft³ litres ↔ cubic feet Free Online Secure
Type a value in litres and read it in cubic feet at once. The factor is exact by definition, the arithmetic happens in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
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Common values — Convert L to ft³ (litres ↔ cubic feet)
| L | ft³ |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.0353146667215 |
| 2 | 0.070629333443 |
| 3 | 0.105944000164 |
| 5 | 0.176573333607 |
| 10 | 0.353146667215 |
| 20 | 0.70629333443 |
| 50 | 1.76573333607 |
| 100 | 3.53146667215 |
Where these units come from
The litre has an awkward history. From 1901 it was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at its densest, which sounds elegant but came out at 1.000028 cubic decimetres — close enough to be confusing and far enough to spoil careful work. In 1964 the definition was abandoned and the litre became exactly one cubic decimetre, which it has been ever since. The gallon has a messier story still: the US gallon descends from the English wine gallon of 231 cubic inches, while Britain redefined its own in 1824 as the volume of ten pounds of water. Nobody reconciled the two, so a US gallon is 3.785411784 litres and an imperial gallon 4.54609 — about a fifth larger. The gallon, pint, cup, fluid ounce and spoons on this page are the US ones.
Where you meet them
Millilitres and litres run through daily life almost invisibly: bottles, fuel, paint, dosage, the capacity of a kettle. Cubic metres belong to water bills, concrete, shipping and the air a ventilation system has to move. Cubic centimetres name engine displacement, cubic feet appear in freight and in appliance capacities, and cups and spoons live almost entirely in recipes — which is exactly where the difference between a US cup and a metric one quietly ruins a cake.
Questions people ask
Is a litre of water really a kilogram?
Very nearly. The kilogram was first defined as the mass of one litre of water, and the two are still close: water at about 4 °C is 0.99997 kilograms per litre. It is not exact today because the kilogram is now defined from a physical constant. Warm water is slightly lighter, so the rule is a good approximation and not a law.
Where are cubic feet used?
In the United States for natural gas billing, refrigerator and freezer capacity, and the interior volume of shipping containers, and worldwide for airflow, where fans are rated in cubic feet per minute. A cubic foot is exactly 28.316846592 litres, so a small fridge of 4 cubic feet holds about 113 litres.
Is the answer exact?
Where both units are defined in terms of one another by whole numbers, yes — the page says so above the figure, and the only rounding is in how many digits are shown. Where the ratio has no finite decimal, the page shows twelve significant digits and says the relation is approximate rather than pretending otherwise.
Does anything I type leave my device?
No. The arithmetic runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded and there is no server to upload it to. Load the page once and it keeps working with the network switched off.
Fridges, freezers and ovens: European litres in American cubic feet
A European refrigerator is sold by its net capacity in litres, while an American one is sold by its capacity in cubic feet. When you move house across the Atlantic, or buy an appliance abroad, you need a conversion to know how much food it holds. To convert L to ft³ you divide by 28.3168. A 300 litre fridge is therefore 10.6 cubic feet, a 70 litre oven 2.47 cubic feet, and a 25 litre microwave 0.88 cubic feet. This page divides as you type, and the text below goes through fridges, freezers, washers and ovens, and explains why the numbers still need care.
The page covers the rule with examples, a note on each unit, a comparison, a tour of appliances and the slips to avoid. All arithmetic happens in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
How to convert L to ft³: divide by 28.3168
The rule
One cubic foot is exactly 28.316846592 litres. To convert L to ft³, divide the litres by 28.3168, or multiply by 0.0353 for a quick figure. So 100 L is 3.53 ft³, 283 L is 10 ft³ and 500 L is 17.66 ft³. To go the other way, multiply cubic feet by 28.3168.
Worked examples
A chest freezer of 200 litres is 7.06 ft³. A wine fridge of 150 litres is 5.3 ft³. A 58 litre washing machine drum is 2.05 ft³. A fridge-freezer of 400 litres is 14.1 ft³. For a rough estimate divide by 28 and take off one percent.
Why not 30.48
The number 30.48 converts feet to centimetres. A volume in litres needs its cube divided by a thousand, which is 28.3. Using 30.48 leaves you 8 percent too high, which could be the difference between a fridge that fits and one that does not.
A quick sanity test
The cubic foot is the larger unit, so the figure shrinks by nearly 28 times. If your “convert L to ft³” calculation result shrank by 30 times, or only by 3, a wrong factor crept in.
The litre
A cube of ten centimetres
The litre is the unit of appliance capacity in Europe and most of the world. Energy labels state net capacity in litres for the fresh food and freezer compartments separately.
Where it appears
Energy labels, product pages, specification sheets and installation guides.
The cubic foot
Twelve inches in each direction
The cubic foot is 28.3 litres. American appliances are sold by it, normally as the total interior volume, including shelves and compartments, whether or not all of it is usable for food.
Where it appears
American appliance labels, retailer filters, installation guides and moving estimates.
Litre and cubic foot compared
A cubic foot holds about 28.3 litres. An American 18 ft³ refrigerator, 510 litres, looks big beside a 300 litre European one, and it is, but part of the gap is down to the way each is measured: European labels give net usable capacity, American ones the total internal volume.
The factor is not round, so mental conversions are only approximate. Use 28.316846592 for exact work, and 28 for a guess.
Where the conversion appears
Fridges and freezers
A European fridge-freezer of 300 litres is 10.6 ft³, one of 400 litres 14.1 ft³ and a large one of 500 litres 17.7 ft³. An upright freezer of 200 litres is 7.1 ft³ and a chest freezer of 300 litres 10.6 ft³. An American 25 ft³ side-by-side corresponds to 708 litres. When you convert L to ft³ for a fridge, you can set it against the space in your kitchen.
Washers and dryers
An 8 kg washing machine has a drum of about 58 litres, 2.05 ft³, and a 10 kg machine 70 litres, 2.47 ft³. The American 4.5 ft³ drum is 127 litres, but the standards measure different things, so the numbers do not map to kilograms directly. A European dryer drum of 118 litres is 4.2 ft³.
Ovens and microwaves
A European built-in oven has 70 to 76 litres, 2.5 to 2.7 ft³. An American range has 5 ft³, 142 litres. A microwave of 25 litres is 0.88 ft³ and a large one of 31 litres 1.1 ft³. The cavity is what matters for a baking tray, so check its inside width and depth as well as the volume.
Net and gross capacity
European energy labels state the net capacity, the volume that can hold food, excluding compartments that cannot. American labels usually state the total interior volume. The difference is often 10 to 15 percent. A European 300 litre fridge might have a gross volume of 340 litres, 12 ft³, and an American 12 ft³ model may hold only 300 litres of useful food. Check which figure a specification gives before you compare.
Range hoods and extraction
A kitchen of 40 m³, 1,413 ft³, with an extraction of 400 m³ per hour, 235 CFM, is cleared in six minutes. In the United States a range hood is described in CFM, in Europe in cubic metres per hour. Because the room volume is given in cubic metres or cubic feet, the conversion is needed to assess whether a hood from one market suits a kitchen in another.
In a spreadsheet
Enter the litres in column A and use =A2/28.316846592 in column B. For the reverse, =B2*28.316846592. A column with =price/A2 gives the cost per litre, and =price/B2 per cubic foot. Format capacities to one decimal place, prices to two, and keep the source column so any comparison is traceable.
Rounding
The factor is exact, so rounding is your choice. Labels generally state whole litres or one decimal of a cubic foot, so 300 litres gives 10.6 ft³, not 10.594. Round at the end of the calculation, and when two capacities fall within a few percent of each other, treat them as equal, since the measurement methods differ by more than that.
A mental shortcut
Divide litres by 28 and subtract 1 percent. For 280 litres, 10 minus 0.1 gives 9.9 ft³, against 9.89 exactly. For 560, 20 minus 0.2 gives 19.8, against 19.78. The error is below one tenth of a percent. Three litres per ten is a simple rule for rough comparisons: 3 ft³ is about 85 litres.
Reference values
28.3 L is 1 ft³, 100 L is 3.53 ft³, 200 L is 7.06 ft³, 283 L is 10 ft³, 300 L is 10.6 ft³, 400 L is 14.1 ft³, 500 L is 17.7 ft³ and 566 L is 20 ft³. If you convert L to ft³ and land far from this ladder, repeat the division.
Checking by reversing
To make sure your “convert L to ft³” calculation result is right, multiply it by 28.3168. If 300 L gave 10.6 ft³, then 10.6 times 28.3168 returns 300. A second check is the size of the answer: it should be about 28 times smaller. If it is only 3 times smaller, or 30, a wrong factor was used.
Shipping an appliance abroad
A 300 litre fridge-freezer in its carton of 65 by 70 by 180 cm has a shipping volume of 0.82 m³, 28.9 ft³, far more than its interior capacity. Freight is charged on the carton, so a mover's quote in cubic feet must be compared with the packed size, not with the label. A refrigerator that holds 10.6 ft³ of food ships as nearly 29 ft³ of box, and the “convert L to ft³” calculation step helps you tell the two numbers apart.
Replacing a fridge in an old kitchen
An older fridge of 250 litres, 8.8 ft³, may be replaced by a modern one with 300 litres in the same cabinet space, since walls are now thinner. An extra 50 litres is 1.8 ft³, a 20 percent gain. A shopper checking the new model against the old uses the same unit for both, and the conversion from litres to cubic feet is useful when a manual from a former home is in different units.
Capacity for a family
A common guide is about 100 litres of fridge space per person, plus 40 litres for a freezer. A family of four needs roughly 400 litres of fresh storage, 14.1 ft³, and 160 litres of freezer, 5.6 ft³. American guides say 4 to 6 ft³ per person for a fridge. Both rules lead to similar sizes once converted, which shows how much the units hide.
Moving between countries
A family moving from Europe to the United States with a 350 litre fridge, 12.4 ft³, will find that the standard American kitchen has a space for 18 to 25 ft³. The old fridge fits, but looks small. Moving the other way, an American unit of 20 ft³, 566 litres, may be too wide for a 60 cm opening. The conversion tells you the capacity, and a tape measure tells you the rest.
Cost per litre and per cubic foot
A fridge of 300 litres at 500 euros costs 1.67 euros per litre, which is 47 euros per cubic foot. A chest freezer of 200 litres at 280 euros costs 1.40 per litre, 39.6 per cubic foot. Shoppers compare price per litre to see which appliance offers more capacity for the money. When the sources use different units, you have to convert L to ft³ on one of them.
Camping fridges and vehicles
A 12 volt fridge for a van of 40 litres is 1.4 ft³, while one of 60 litres is 2.1 ft³. Camping gear catalogues in the United States quote quarts or cubic feet, and European ones litres. A coolbox of 50 quarts is 47.3 litres, 1.67 ft³. Anyone buying across the Atlantic converts both to a single unit and then compares the price per litre.
Soda dispensers and kegerators
A home beer dispenser takes a keg of 30 litres, 1.06 ft³, or a 19 litre keg, 0.67 ft³, in a cabinet of 3 to 6 ft³. A commercial kegerator might hold two 50 litre kegs, 3.5 ft³, plus the gas cylinder. The cooling volume is the sum of the kegs and the air around them. If you convert L to ft³ for each part, you can judge how much cabinet space a bar needs before ordering.
Laboratory fridges and cold rooms
A laboratory fridge of 400 litres, 14.1 ft³, stores reagents and samples, and a pharmacy cabinet of 150 litres, 5.3 ft³, holds vaccines at 2 to 8 °C. Cold rooms are measured in cubic metres, a room of 10 m³ equals 353 ft³. The capacity needed depends on how many boxes must be stored, and each box has a volume in litres or cubic feet.
Energy use per litre
An energy label gives annual consumption in kilowatt-hours, so a 300 litre fridge using 150 kWh per year uses 0.5 kWh per litre a year, or 14.2 kWh per cubic foot. An American 18 ft³ fridge using 400 kWh a year uses 22.2 per cubic foot, 0.78 per litre. Efficiency per unit of volume gives a better comparison than the total, and it needs both quantities in the same unit.
Will it fit in the kitchen
Capacity is only half the story. A 510 litre American fridge may be 36 inches wide, 91 cm, while a 300 litre European one is 60 cm wide. Kitchens in the United States have cut-outs of 36 inches, in Europe 60 cm. Volume tells you how much food, dimensions tell you whether it fits, and the conversion lets you check both at once.
Wine and beverage coolers
A wine cooler of 150 litres, 5.3 ft³, holds about 50 bottles, and a beverage cooler of 90 litres, 3.2 ft³, about 100 cans of 330 millilitres. Makers quote capacity in bottles, litres or cubic feet. A conversion lets you compare coolers from European and American ranges, with the note that shelves and shapes affect real capacity.
Drawers and compartments
A crisper drawer of 30 litres is 1.06 ft³, a freezer drawer of 60 litres 2.1 ft³ and a door shelf of 6 litres 0.21 ft³. Fridges are often described by compartment, with fresh food and freezer volumes given separately. A total of 220 plus 80 litres is 7.8 plus 2.8 ft³, 10.6 ft³ in all. Adding the compartments in the same unit avoids mistakes in the total.
Small fridges and office coolers
A bar fridge of 45 litres is 1.6 ft³, a dorm fridge of 90 litres 3.2 ft³ and an under-counter model of 130 litres 4.6 ft³. Office buyers compare models by capacity per employee. A staff of 20 needing 3 litres each requires 60 litres, 2.1 ft³, so a 90 litre bar fridge suffices. The conversion matters when a catalogue lists only cubic feet.
Ice makers
An under-counter ice maker with a storage bin of 12 kg holds about 13 litres of ice, 0.46 ft³. A machine that makes 25 kg a day in the American style is rated at 55 lb. Ice has a density of 0.917 kg per litre, so 25 kg is 27 litres, 0.96 ft³ of ice a day. Bin capacity and daily output both appear on specification sheets.
Dishwashers
A dishwasher has a tub of about 55 to 65 litres, 1.9 to 2.3 ft³, though capacity is stated in place settings, 12 to 15. An American unit may quote 16 settings. The volume does not map exactly to settings, but when you convert L to ft³ for the tub, you can compare the room inside with the number of settings claimed.
More values for convert L to ft³
A longer list of conversions
If the value you need is not in the first list, these further conversions may be close enough to read off directly:
- 0.1 L = 0.00353147 ft³
- 0.5 L = 0.0176573 ft³
- 3 L = 0.105944 ft³
- 4 L = 0.141259 ft³
- 7 L = 0.247203 ft³
- 15 L = 0.52972 ft³
- 20 L = 0.706293 ft³
- 75 L = 2.6486 ft³
- 200 L = 7.06293 ft³
- 500 L = 17.6573 ft³
- 2,000 L = 70.6293 ft³
- 10,000 L = 353.147 ft³
Mistakes when you convert L to ft³
Using 30.48
That is the factor for lengths. For volumes, divide by 28.3168.
Comparing net with gross
European labels give net capacity, American ones total interior volume. Check which figure you are comparing.
Multiplying instead of dividing
The cubic foot is the larger unit, so the number shrinks. If 300 L became 8,495, you multiplied.
Short answers
What is one litre in cubic feet?
About 0.0353.
What do I do to convert L to ft³?
Divide the figure by 28.3168.
What is one cubic foot in litres?
About 28.3.
What does 300 L come to in cubic feet?
Roughly 10.6.
Does the page send my figure anywhere?
No, everything happens in your browser.
Related tools and a final note
Other volume converters sit nearby: Convert L to fl oz, Convert L to m³, Convert in³ to ft³, Convert yd³ to ft³, Convert ft³ to in³, Convert km to mi, Convert mi to km, Convert °C to °F, Convert °F to °C. To go the other way, use Convert ft³ to L.
To recap: you convert L to ft³ by dividing by 28.3168 and writing the unit beside the result. Everything is computed locally, with no account and no upload.