Hisense RS694N4ICE

Verdict

Although it’s a little smaller than many American style fridge freezers, the Hisense RS694N4ICE still has a lot going for it. This model is excellent value, especially for a plumbed-in model, making it a great choice for those on relatively tight budgets. Temperature control shows stability, but I’d knock the fridge temperature down a little, as I found it ran a touch warmer than programmed.

Introduction

Outside some of the more budget brands, it’s hard to get a fully plumbed-in fridge freezer at a relatively low price. The American Style Hisense RS694N4ICE resets those expectations, and this model is available for a shade under £800.

It’s a touch warm in the fridge section, and isn’t the biggest fridge freezer that I’ve reviewed, but stable temperature control and good build quality make it stand out.

Design and features

• Good build quality
• Flexible internal space
• Plumbed in ice and water

Finished in stainless steel, the Hisense RS694N4ICE certainly looks the part and it’s hard to tell it apart from the more expensive Hisense RS818N4TIC. This model is a plumbed-in one, so it needs to be connected to a water supply, connecting the in-line water filter.

You’ll want to connect the water filter somewhere relatively easy to reach, although the fridge freezer does at least slide easily on its casters. Plumbed in, the fridge freezer will make ice automatically.

Using the touch buttons on the front, there’s an option to dispense cold water, ice or crushed ice.

Although an American style model, this is one of the smallest that I’ve reviewed, with a total capacity of 562-litres, split between 371-litres in the fridge and 185 litres in the freezer section. That’s not an inconsiderable amount of space, but overall there’s about 70-litres less than most of the competition.

Space is, at least, neatly organised. There’s a total of five shelves in the fridge, neatly spaced, so even some taller items should fit in.

Hisense has provided a regular bottle rack, which can take five bottles. I slightly prefer a bottle shelf, as it’s more flexible, but the rack here will take wine or larger bottles of soda, too.

There are two drawers at the bottom, with the larger one on top. That’s a good amount of room for fresh food, but I would have liked to see a humidity to control, to adjust the storage to store the type of fresh food.

Four large and deep door pockets are there for essentials, such as milk and cartons of drink. I found it easy to fit in even the largest of milk containers. High sides mean that these items won’t fall over when you open and close the doors.

The top pocket doesn’t have much headroom, but it’s ideal for condiments, such as ketchup.

Inside the freezer, there are five good-sized shelves, each wide and deep enough to take a regular frozen pizza.

Two drawers at the bottom proved to be good storage spaces for packets of things, such as chips and veg.

While the two door pockets aren’t the biggest, they’ll take a couple of packets of fish fingers, or some iced lollies, so you can grab the items that you use the most.

Control of the Hisense RS694N4ICE is via the touch panel on the front, which has separate temperature controls for the fridge and freezer, which I set to 4° for the fridge and -18°C for the freezer.

Performance

• The fridge runs a little warm
• Stable temperature control

I set the Hisense RS694N4ICE up with my automatic door opener and closer, and loaded the inside with ice packs to simulate a load of real food. I then placed temperature sensors around the inside.

Measuring the fridge, I found that it was an average of 5.81°C, which is 1.8°C higher than the set temperature, hitting a high of 7.6°C and a low of 3.7°C. Measuring standard deviation, I found that most temperatures fell within +/- .72°C, which is very good and shows that there’s not general much fluctuation within temperatures.

Overall, the fridge was a touch warmer than set, so I’d be tempted to knock the target temperature back by 1°C.

In the freezer compartment, the results were closer, with an average of -18.53°C, so just 0.53°C colder than the target. Standard deviation showed that most temperatures fluctuated by +/-0.98°C. Under 1°C is a good result, and the Hisense RS694N4ICE just manages this. There was a bit more fluctuation with a high of -10°C and a low of -21.1°C.

An E-rated appliance, the Hisense RS694N4ICE has matching running costs. According to my tests, this fridge freezer will cost around £77.22 a year to run assuming a cost of 24.5p per kWh. The larger Hisense RS818N4TIC is about £25-a-year cheaper to run.

Compared like-for-like, the Hisense RS694N4ICE costs about 14p per litre of space, while the Hisense RS818N4TIC costs just 9p per litre of space per year.

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