Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge Review

Verdict

The Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge is a huge-capacity fridge with flexible storage space at a great price. The single light isn't great and the shelves suffer a bit of flex, but all of this can be forgiven given that this fridge costs half that of its premium competitors. Importantly, this fridge offers excellent cooling performance and technology to keep your food fresh, making it a great budget buy.

Pros

• Versatile configuration
• Consistent cooling throughout
• Low running costs
• Outstanding value

Cons

• Basic controls
• Awkward lighting
• Sticky lower drawer

What is the Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1?

Hotpoint’s Day 1 HS1801AA.1 integrated refrigerator offers a generous 318l capacity and flexible storage thanks to five adjustable shelves. It comes with a handy wine rack to ensure your favourite tipple stays chilled, and two slide-out draws that are perfect for veggies and fruit. An A+ energy rating aims to provide cheaper annual running costs and Hotpoint’s Day 1 technology promises to keep food fresher for longer, too.

Staggeringly consistent and even cooling plus super-flexible storage make the Day 1 a serious bargain in the typically pricey integrated cooling sector. It isn’t without its niggles, including a single poorly paced LED light, basic controls and flexi glass shelves.

In terms of integrated cooling bang per buck, however, the HS1801AA.1 takes some beating.

Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge – What you need to know

• Storage capacity – 318l is monstrous capacity and near the very limit of what’s available/possible in a 60cm-wide integrated fridge
• Storage configuration – Two drawers, five door pockets, a wire bottle rack and five shelves with plenty of adjustment options make this a seriously versatile cooler
• Cooling performance – Consistent average temperature and low fluctuation make this Hotpoint a solid technical performer
• Running costs – It’s a frugal performer delivering on its solid A+ rating, costing comfortably less than £45 a year to run

Related: Best fridge freezer

Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge design –  Packs versatility and hi-tech cooling into a surprisingly affordable package

At nearly 1.8m tall and 55cm wide, the Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 is a large integrated refrigerator that maxes out the available space in a built-in enclosure. It’s relatively affordable for a full-size integrated fridge, offers A+ energy efficiency, and a host of tech to keep your food fresher for longer under Hotpoint’s cliquey “Day 1” moniker.

Open the reversible door, suitable for fixed or slide furniture door mounting, and you’re greeted with a tall space with plenty of adjustable hardware. The controls are placed two-thirds of the way up on the right side, making for easy access even for the vertically challenged among us.

The controls are basic, with temperature control via a vague three LED indicator system with no specific for actual temperature and a fast cooling function. Although simplicity isn’t always a bad thing, we expected a little more pizzazz from a refrigerator at this price.

The control pod is also home to the interior light cluster. It’s a single LED unit set halfway back into the enclosure and suffers badly from load-shading. That is to say, as soon as you load up the shelf adjacent, above and below the lamp you can pretty much forget any illumination to other parts of the fridge.

Again, at this price we expect better lighting. It isn’t a deal-breaker, especially for those with bright kitchens, but it’s a design flaw that could have been avoided simply by placing the lamp in a different place. On the plus side, there’s a flashing light alarm if you leave the door open too long

Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge storage – Plenty of options, a bottle rack and five door pockets make this fridge super flexible

The interior of this fridge is nicely appointed in terms of where you can place the shelves and wine rack, with plenty of options. It has clear glass shelves with classy chrome trim that are easy to move, pull out or clean.

The handy wine rack offers enough space for four bottles of wine or 2l of fizzy drinks; plus there are two, twin full-width pull-out salad drawers. It’s a tall unit so flexibility is key, and there are plenty of shelf positions available so you can configure it with a variety of heights between shelves.

We loved the ability to get wine bottles upright on a dedicated shelf, but this did highlight one minor issue with this model. The shelves aren’t made from the thickest glass, and loading up with heavy wine bottles caused the glass to bow alarmingly.

In the cause of research, we loaded up a shelf with as many wine bottles as we could and then stuck a four 2kg diving weights on for good measure. The glass flexed downwards by almost 1cm in the middle. Yet, even given an extra push by hand didn’t see it break.

You’re unlikely to realistically load the shelves to that level, so we can only assume Hotpoint has its glass engineering sorted. Ideally, thicker glass shelves would inspire more confidence in heavyweight loading.

You get five door pockets, although in keeping with the slightly cramped confines of an integrated appliance, they’re neither particularly deep or tall. Only the lower one is adjustable, but why you’d want to raise it above the lowest position – which offers the greatest height capacity for bottles – is a mystery to us.

Both of the clear plastic drawers use sliders rather than rollers, making the lower drawer, in particular, a bit sticky when fully loaded. The upper drawer is labelled “Fresh Crisper” for fruit and veg. The lower drawer is truncated front to back, but remains deep enough to stuff with plenty of produce.

If you pull out the upper salad drawer completely then you get another full-width, full-depth glass shelf. There’s no specific meat and fish drawer or low-temperature zone on this model but the fan air circulation aims to keep temperatures consistent throughout.

Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge performance – A bunch of technologies that aim to keep food in tip-top condition

The highlight of Hotpoint’s specification sheet is its Day 1 feature, which combines a raft of tech to keep your food fresher for longer. This includes a high-efficiency motor, excellent insulation, fan-assisted cooling for even temperatures and an Ozone generator.

Ozone is a powerful oxidant that common bacteria can’t survive so effectively decontaminates the air, particularly after the door has been opened. The upshot is a marked reduction in the rate of decay in you stored produce, be that meat, fish, fruit or vegetables, and reduction in unpleasant odours.

The Day 1 feature’s abilities are hard to test and quantify, but this Hotpoint kicks off with excellent basic technical test results.

After a little trial and error of the nebulous LED indicated settings – we settled on the mid setting – this Hotpoint managed a solid 4ºC perfect target temperature, consistently throughout the lower 75% of the compartment. The upper two shelves averaged only half to a full degree higher, making this one of the evenest cooling tall fridges we have tested.

Temperature consistency was also good, giving this integrated fridge a clean set of technical test results. Combine that with its A+ energy efficiency and low running costs for its capacity, and we can forgive this Hotpoint for its lighting issues and flexi shelves. For a mid-price, full-size integrated fridge you’d be hard-pushed to find better without significantly increasing your budget.

Should I buy the Hotpoint Day 1 HS1801AA.1 Integrated Fridge?

Capacious, flexible cooling space with plenty of furniture, Hotpoint’s Day 1 continues to impress with exceptionally consistent and even cooling throughout. Factor in the Day 1 tech that generates bacteria-squishing ozone, and this fridge is up there with some of the best at keeping your chilled food fresh for as long as possible.

On the down-side, the mid-placed single lamp is a bit of lighting home-goal, the cooling controls are very basic, and the thin glass shelves are rather flexi.

Yet this Hotpoint’s asking price is close to half that of some of the more premium fridges. On balance, this fridge isn’t quite perfect but as close as you’re going to get for large capacity, very efficient built-in cooling appliance for under £500. Nice one, Hotpoint.