Verdict

With its huge capacity, the 60cm-wide Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer could be a great budget buy if you need a lot of food storage but don't have the largest kitchen. An integrated water dispenser and great technical performance are great to see at this price, too. Yet, there are signs of its budget nature, including the awkwardly-placed water tank and basic controls, placed very high up. If you can overlook the minor issues, this is a great sub-£500 fridge freezer.

Pros

• Spacious fridge
• Lush exterior finish
• Chilled water dispenser
• FreshZone drawers work well
• Lots of shelves
• Handy wine rack
• Solid technical performance
• Great value

Cons

• Limited door pocket space
• Awkward water tank
• Shelf height not adjustable
• Drawers slightly stiff
• Fingerprint heaven
• Controls are 2m high up

The Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA frost-free fridge freezer is a spacious stainless steel model that promises to keep your meat and fish fresher for longer thanks to the Fresh Zone 0°C drawer. The hero feature is the non-plumbed water dispenser on the front, although the reservoir does eat into your door space.

With over 360 litres capacity including a good-sized three drawer freezer with the open top drawer, there’s a decent amount of room for food and this model was a solid performer and ran quietly. Interior design in the fridge was a little awkward, and the tricky-to-fill water tank makes it limited for tall bottles. Yet the price is attractive, it performed well and, if you fancy the water dispenser, this fridge freezer is hard not to like.

Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer – What you need to know

• Capacity – Whopping 360litres split 70/30 make this Hotpoint a big capacity cooler for a 60cm wide fridge freezer
• Fridge performance – even cooling and fabulous 0 degrees drawer give this fridge loads of fresh food flexibility
• Freezer performance – reliable technical freezing results but the lower two drawers are best for meat and fish if you are likely to get a power outage
• Running costs – 380kWh / £57 per years is a little higher than the energy label’s 355kwH / £53, but still rates as A+

Related: Best fridge freezer

Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer Design

At just over 2 metres tall this stainless-steel Hotpoint fridge freezer is a big beast with equally capacious storage. The controls, and potentially the top shelf, are way up high, so those of a vertically challenged disposition may want to step away from this review now. Yet that extra height adds up to extra storage space over its 190cm competitors, coming in a whopping 360 litres all told.

The stainless-steel finish on the outside is lush although something of a finger-print magnet. That might be an issue if smaller hands use the unusual front-mounted chilled water dispenser on the front. This is non-plumbed and has a decent capacity water tank on the inside of the door. Unfortunately, the tank cannot be removed so filling up is slightly awkward as you have to put the liquid in a jug and pour it in.

The water reservoir can’t be removed, so it’s a bit fiddly to refill

Opening up the fridge door with the nicely grippy handle, you get crisp white light from the single overhead lamp. The H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer has a spacious fridge area with four shelves and two good size drawers that slide open with ease. There’s a trusty wire bottle rack but that starts making the shelf space a bit cramped for height. We suspect most users will oust a shelf or the rack for taller storage.

The sky-wards controls are a combination of touch and blister buttons with temperature selected in 2-degree increments. Those looking for odd-number temperatures are out of luck. Controls are fairly logical but at this price, you don’t get any actual temperature display.

The water tank is in a very awkward place in the middle of the fridge door though, taking up a fair bit of space and limiting taller bottle storage. Raising the two small door pockets either side of the tank does allow a couple of tall bottles to reside in the lower pocket buts its not ideal for larger families with lots of drink requirements. Hotpoint does another version of the 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA without this dispenser so, if you’d prefer more space the option is there.

You may want to remove a shelf to get more vertical storage

For keeping meat and fish at prime temperatures for longer freshness, the Fresh Zone 0°C bottom drawer is a great feature. Our testing confirmed this drawer keeps a consistent temperature of around 0°C, delivering exactly what it promises. The FreshZone+ draw above aims to keep fruit and vegetables fresh by using precise humidity control and Hotpoint Active Oxygen generator promises to remove strong odours from the fridge and keep food-degrading bacteria at bay. Both drawers (and those in the freezer) are on sliders rather than rollers and got quite sticky when fully loaded.

Downstairs, the freezer is made up of two closed good-sized drawers that are smoothly pulled out, and Hotpoint’s handy Easy to Find Tray. This pull-out open-fronted drawer gives easy access to your ‘go-to’ freezer items like ice cubes and frozen treats. The drawers are solid, clear plastic with good capacity and can be removed easily for a counter-top rummage.

Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer Performance

From top to bottom, the H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer turned in solid cooling and freezing performance and will keep your food frozen for up to 12 hours in the event of a power failure. The FreshZone 0°C delivered just what it promised with excellent consistency and the salad drawer was a degree or two colder than the main compartment, again ideal for the proposed contents.

Switching off the power for three hours saw the Hotpoint’s insulation work hard even though the open top of the upper freezer drawer doesn’t help to keep things cool. Yet even this top area keeps below 0 degrees C for close to 12 hours ensuring the power can go off for quite a while without food safety concerns.

The noise was low at around 40dB and running costs were just about in keeping with its A++ rating from our tests. This machine is likely to use around 380kWh (£57) per year based on our test results. There are more frugal fridge freezers on the market, but few have the H7T 911A MX H AQUA’s huge capacity, stainless steel looks, water dispenser or the attractive sub £500 price point. The water dispenser felt a bit gimmicky to use and presented compromises internally that we couldn’t live with, but if instant cool water is up there on your wish list from a 60cm wide fridge freezer, this Hotpoint offers great value.

We loaded our Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer at 1kg per 10litres of freezer space, demanding a solid 10kg of produce. With the machine placed in our environmental chamber at 18-19 degrees C, we set the fridge to 4 degrees C and the freezer to -18 degrees C and let cooling commence. Once down to temperature we added a 2l bowl of water at room temperature so we could measure how quickly fresh food freezes and how well that food fares when the power is turned off.

Here’s how we configured the fridge freezer’s temperatures

Chilling our fresh food sample down to -18 degrees C at its core took a rather lengthy 20 hours, suggesting the fast freeze function will be well worth usiung if you are loading up with fresh produce. Once everything had stabilised, the Hotpoint showed decent temperature accuracy, coming in about 1-degree cooler on average than the -18 degrees selected on the controls.

The two lower drawers can be lumped together in terms of performance as they are very similar. Averaging -19 degrees C they kept that temperature within +/- 2 degrees throughout testing which is a respectable result. The open front top drawer averages a little higher at -18 degrees c but did have a much wider swing through the compressor cycle, presumably due to its open architecture and the cooling vents being in the top section of the compartment. The temperature here swung +3/-4 degrees as the compressor went on and off, which is quite a sizeable variance. While that won’t have any major detrimental effect on your frozen food it’s not necessarily the most energy-efficient way of doing things.

We calculate this Hotpoint will use around 380kWh per annum based on our tests (energy label says 355kWh) which will set you back around £57 at an average electricity cost of 15p/kWh. Bear in mind that in hotter kitchens or with more family members opening the door frequently, those costs will rise commensurately.

The Hotpoint 7 H7T 911A MX H put in a solid set of technical test results, especially when you consider its extra capacity, sumptuous finish and water dispenser at the price. You can get more even cooling and lower running costs, but you will be forking out a few hundred pounds more for an appliance to achieve that in the first place. So, given the price and features, we can’t help but give this Hotpoint a technical thumbs up.

Should you buy the Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer?

Monstrous capacity for a 60cm appliance, in-door water dispenser and a dedicated meat and fish drawers make this Hotpoint great value from the off. Add in the solid technical results, sumptuous stainless-steel finish, decent freezer capacity and tricks like Active Oxygen (anti-bacterial and anti-odour) technology and the AQUA is starting to look like a bargain. Yet the water tank is about as awkwardly placed as it possibly could be and cant be removed to fill, the shelves are not adjustable and the fridge compartment suffers a chronic lack of storage for tall-bottles. The stiff to slide drawers, single + on its A-rated energy and basic controls place seriously high up all hint at where costs have been saved to keep the price under £500. Yet the price is below that benchmark, so if you can live with its quirks and really want a non-plumbed water dispenser, the Hotpoint Class 7 H7T 911A MX H AQUA Fridge Freezer is a good choice

Trusted Score