Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Save Money, Space and Time with this Absolutely Stellar Hisense Fridge-Freezer
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere’s a great bit in Edgar Wright’s now-classic sitcom Spaced where flatmates Tim and Daisy puzzle over their CAL900 fridge-freezer’s seemingly preternatural ability to suck electricity and freeze over within mere hours.
“It’s almost like it’s become… self-aware…”
We jest, but perhaps we can all relate to this problem. In our house we’ve been through four fridges in the past decade: one with an icebox that was possibly self-aware, and three separate units (two fridges, one freezer) that just didn’t function in any understandable way. But they were cheap and small and… therein lay the problem, we eventually realised.
Spending a couple of hundred quid on a fridge and/or freezer may seem a good idea but definitely falls into the category of ‘false economy’ – whereby you end up spending more on running the things and replacing them, rather than enjoying them for a longer spell.
Enter the rather magnificent Hisense RB435N4WFE (no, you’re not expected to remember that number). Standing a proud two metres tall, this handsome fridge-freezer requires the right amount of vertical space (we went for the slick black version, so the only way it resembles 2001: A Space Odyssey is that it looks like the monolith that drives the apes crazy); but because of this verticality. we ended up creating way more floor space in the rest of the room.
It’s 60% fridge and 40% freezer, both of which are WAY bigger than either separate units we replaced. In fact it has a 336 litre capacity, which means it holds 18 bags of food shopping.
Our monthly shop more than easily fits inside, with room to spare. And it’s all super organised because of…
SHELVING
The extra-large and spacious bottom drawers make a very nice home for your fruit and vegetable storage. One genius feature is that you can adjust the temperature of each of these drawers to ensure produce stays relevantly fresh.
There’s a ‘Fresh Box’ (you might call it a Salad Crisper) at the top too, which maintains a slightly higher humidity so that your fruit and veg remain crispy and crunchy… and the big lower drawer is labelled the ‘Fruit & Vegetable Box’ to avoid sogginess of produce.
The rest of the three shelves offer easily-used space for groceries, jars, condiments and even a removable wine rack at the top, which fits five bottles at a time.
FROST-FREE
Back to that Spaced ‘self-aware’ issue, when it comes to the frost-fighting: we’ve kept ours at 4 degrees for about a month, and so far, zero sign of frost.
SO HOW DOES THIS SAVE ME MONEY?
Operating at 247 kWh per year, this fridge will save you, on average, £738 per year in terms of energy consumption. In comparison to the market average (£905 for other 300-399L models), it’s rated E, which is excellent for the price.
So instead of spending £500 on a separate fridge and freezer, or thinking you’re saving money buying smaller units, think again.
Did we mention there’s also a Water Chiller? This no-plumb, ready-to-use feature has been used every single day in our house to make lovely chilled drinks: just remember to fill it occasionally.
THE TECHNICAL DETAILS
Category: Frost Free Fridge Freezer
Backing: Metal
No. of drawers: Three
Total capacity: 336 litres (Fridge: 238L, Freezer: 98L)
Dimensions: 59.5 x 200.4 x 59cm
Weight: 64kg
Energy Class: E
Energy Consumption: 247 kWh/year (£738 / Market average £905 for 70/30, 300-399L models)
Power failure safe storage: 10 hours
Noise: 39 dB(A)
Climate Class: SN, N, ST
WHERE TO BUY
This fridge is available to buy at a wide selection of retailers for a variety of prices.
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