Hotpoint FFS70

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Long
Cleaning & Maintenance	Very easy
Value for money	Poor

Advantages:	Silver, Microban inside, Frost - Free
Disadvantages:	Not the quietest, Expensive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

When we moved from our (rented) flat to our first house two years ago we found ourselves with the opportunity to upgrade a number of household appliances. Among them was the tatty old Fridge-Freezer that we had put up with for the last 5 years. To cut a long story short, we (obviously) ended up with the Hotpoint FFS70, a fine upstanding specimen of the Fridge-freezer species that was ours for the princely sum of £430 (including delivery) from the local Currys.

Why this particular model when there are plenty of choices at a lower price? Hopefully I'll explain. If not, I may go and ask my wife the same question... again.

Our previous Fridge Freezer had been a 60/40 split between the Fridge and the Freezer, leaving precious little room fore more than a packet of burgers and a bag of oven chips in the freezer compartment. This had proved a major frustration so we wanted something with a better split. Standing around 6feet tall and split 50/50 between the fridge (on the top) and the freezer (on the bottom) the FFS70 gave a good balance between fridgeiness and freezeriness.

The fridge compartment is about 180 litres in capacity with 3 full glass shelves, a split glass shelf, two generous salad drawers and a 5-bottle wine rack. All the usual shelves and compartments are on the inside of the door, with the big bottom shelf being able to accomodate a prodigious amount. The shelves are all easily repositionable and make for a very flexible configuration, able to accommodate almost any container you could wish for. The wine rack will happily take 2litre bottles of fizzy as well as the obligatory bottles of white. It doesn't stop there though, the inside of the fridge is made of Microban, the plastic that is treated with a permanent anti-bacterial agent so it's naturally repellent of the bugs that can cause stinky smells and bad stomachs.

In use the temperature has remained fairly constant and seems to be even through the whole compartment apart from particularly warm days when stuff at the back of the compartment gets frozen as the fridge tries to maintain it's set temperature at the front as well. While this can lead to some surprises when eating a yoghurt, at least it means your milk & eggs that are stored in the door will not go off in the blistering British summers.

While it takes up the bottom half of the unit, the freezer is considerably smaller in useable size. This is to be expected though as it has considerably more insulation, plus most of the "workings" sit at the back of it and intrude into the useable space. That said, the 4 compartments work well, providing more than enough space for the spoils from a particularly successful trip to Iceland, although the slim-line top tray is of little use other than for ice-cubes and the occasional ice-lolly. The Frost-Free tag was a big selling point as well, not being frequent consumers of frozen food, things used to end up looking like frost-covered hedge-hogs in our old one. Frost-Free has prevented this and meant that we can tell what's what in the freezer after 2 months of storage without having to hold it over the sink and chisel othe ice off it.

From the outside it's a fairly plain-looking thing. We opted for the silver finish as it fits well with the few stainless-steel appliances that came fitted in the kitchen but it's also available in white (no surprises there then). The adjustable feet at the front allow for easy levelling, while the back has been designed such that it fits flush against the wall. There's even a cut-away section so that it fits over the skirting board, ensuring that no unsightly workings/wires are visible. The door handles are sensibly positioned, cut out of the bottom of the fridge door and top of the freezer door, meaning there's nothing sticking out and so nothing to be snapped off. The doors themselves can be hung opening in either direction and while it would be interesting to have the top open one way and the bottom open the other, it is probably best to have them both open the same way.

The minimalist control panel at the top of the unit offers a dial from 1-5 for each compartment, with 5 being the coldest. We've found that 3 is about right for both. A fast-freeze option is included but we've never found the need to use it. There is also a holiday mode that sets the fridge to tick over while you're away for extended periods of time, but it's no use for storage so you'd need to chuck everything out before engaging this one. Speaking of which, it's 'A' rated for energy efficiency so my green, save the planet streak was happy.

So far, so good but are there any complaints?

It's probably down to the fact that we have an open-plan ground floor, but I've found it surprisingly noisy. Not intrusively noisy, but it becomes noticeable when the house is quiet. My wife even complains that it can be heard upstairs at night, when everything is quiet (our bedroom is above the kitchen). Aside from the noise, the plastics used for some of the fridge fittings are also a bit on the brittle side. I know it's cold in there and that plastics tend to become brittle in the cold, but it's not as if they weren't expecting it to be cold! We've already got the obligatory crack in one of the salad drawers and we lost the flip-down lid on the Cheese/Dairy shelf in the door a long time ago.

Would I buy it again? It's a fine machine and we've not had any problems with it. It looks the part and comfortably accommodates our refrigeration requirements. The times I've bought cheaper brand household appliances I've always had problems with them and so I prefer to pay the bit extra for a more respected brand. That said, I've since seen a lot of other, cheaper fridge/freezers from the big brands that offer much the same features. I think I paid extra for the Microban, silver finish and the 'A' energy rating. These things will still drive the cost up but on reflection >£400 is probably a bit much, so it only gets 4 stars.