Beko CS 460 FF Combi Fridge Freezer : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Advantages:	Plenty of storage space and inexpensive to buy with a nice big freezer
Disadvantages:	Pull down flap at top of freezer was too flimsy

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

How would you like a freezer that’s always so frozen over that getting anything in or out of it is a complete impossibility and a fridge that doesn’t get cold enough to keep your food fresh? No, don’t worry, this isn’t a description of my BEKO fridge/freezer, but the one it replaced.

I moved house about a year ago and as my dear old chilling/freezing machine went on the blink at the very same time, it obviously didn’t approve. I suppose it felt that it hadn’t been given the care and attention it deserved during its journey in the back of a transit van. The poor thing did look rather bruised and battered when it emerged.

From that day onwards, it refused to co-operate. Its lower quarters froze up and refused entry of any kind, hanging on to its drawers like a woman with a headache. Its upper half, however, seemed to want to draw everything and anything into the shelter of its warmth.

As you can imagine, my beloved fridge/freezer had turned into the enemy. Fresh food was ruined at an alarming rate, and freezing anything for later use was an absolute impossibility. The situation was dire, but with no money with which to purchase a new one, I had no choice but to try my best to coax and cajole it into at least hanging on to my cooked ham and liver paté for at least a couple of days.

Then one day the family found themselves queuing for the toilet. We were all suffering from a bout of the squirts. On hearing about the situation, Mr O, safe in his creep-in down in Kent, decided that enough was enough. He would come up the following weekend and we’d go out, armed with his credit card, and buy a new one. Whether or not we were suffering from food poisoning as a result of the old fridge/freezer is still up for debate, but Mr O was taking no chances. He wanted us strong and healthy.

The big day arrived, and off we went in search of the perfect replacement. We knew we had to stick to a budget of about £300 and I was determined to get as much fridge/freezer as possible for the money. The choice, after browsing various shops and inspecting many a model, fell on a BEKO CS 460 FF (sounds a bit like a foreign car number plate if you ask me).

Our initial decision was based on the combination of price and capacity. For £299, this is a larger than average fridge/freezer. At 11.3 cubic feet, it’s certainly a good deal larger than any others in this price range that we looked at that day.

We choose the white version, although for a few pounds extra, it’s also available in silver. I rather like silver kitchen appliances, but as this one appeared to be more a dark grey than silver, we decided to give it a miss.

The design is quite sleek, with gently rounded doors and no screwed-on handles to come loose. There are gully type handles at the edges where the two doors meet. These are quite deep and very comfortable to grip, although they do tend to collect grime. However, the rounded edges make cleaning them easy. The doors can also be repositioned, depending on whether you want left or right opening; a very handy feature that wasn’t available on all of the competing models that we saw. The feet are also adjustable.

The fridge has a storage capacity of 162 litres, divided by three wire shelves and one glass shelf. The middle wire shelf has a flap, allowing easy storage of tall bottles. Below the glass shelf there are two crisper bins, both of which have clear fronts. The space in the door is also well designed with three small storage shelves that can be positioned at various levels, an egg tray that holds 8 eggs (rather silly as you never buy 8 anyway), and two small covered storage shelves at the top. The milk shelf at the bottom has grippers to stop your bottles rattling around when the door’s opened. The light, placed on the ceiling of the fridge, is large and bright (15w) with an easily removable cover.

The freezer has the usual 4 star rating and with its 4 drawer, 96-litre capacity was definitely the biggest we found in our price range. Even most of the more expensive models only had 3 sections. The top section is a fast freeze section and has a pull down cover on the front. Unfortunately, this cover didn’t withstand being used by my son, who can be rather heavy-handed, and snapped off within weeks of our purchase. I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference in its performance without the cover though, but I do think it could’ve been better designed as the hinges were rather flimsy. The three compartments below this are for freezing and storage and are designed as wire baskets with clear fronts. Being able to see at a glance what’s at the front of each drawer is very handy and, although they do mist up with the cold, the misting is so insignificant that it doesn’t impair visibility to any real degree.

One of the features I really appreciate with the BEKO CS 460 FF is the ice bank. At the very top of the freezer section, there’s a narrow pull-out tray. This holds an ice tray for making your cubes. The finished cubes are then stored on the pull-out tray meaning you can have lots ready for those hot days when the kids are continuously asking for cold drinks. Handy for parties too! You do have to be careful with it though; if you pull it out too far, the tray tilts and you end up with ice cubes all over the kitchen floor. Yes, of course it’s happened to me, how else would I know?

The only drawback with this model is its energy efficiency. Whereas most fridge/freezers are rated B, this is rated C meaning that it’s slightly less efficient than most. The estimated energy consumption per year, based on standard test results over a 24 hour period, is 493 kilowatts. This may vary depending on where the appliance is located and how often the doors are opened.

After being used to the racket that my old fridge/freezer made, this one seems positively silent. Of course, it isn’t silent, all fridge/freezers will make some noise, but it certainly isn’t intrusive.

After 6 months of use I’m extremely pleased with this model and if I had to go back and choose again, I’d still buy this one. It has everything you need in a fridge/freezer, is well designed and, although the front flap of the fast freeze compartment broke, seems generally well made.

BEKO, evidently, are quite up and coming these days. They make everything from freezers to wide-screen TVs and have their manufacturing plant in Turkey.

Now, enough waffle, let’s go and get that joint out of the fridge and get on with Sunday lunch before the good Mr O starts wondering why he bothered to buy it.

~~+~~+~~