Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Total No Frost Fridge Freezer Review
Spacious and flexible cooling
Verdict
Offering hugely flexible fridge space and door pockets, consistent temperatures and decent running costs, the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Total No Frost Fridge Freezer is a brilliant option for those looking for a standard 60cm-wide model. The fact that it’s frost-free adds to its appeal, ensuring you won’t ever lose hours to defrosting it.
Pros
- Frost-free model
- Flexible fridge interior
- Stable temperatures
Cons
- Top shelf a little hard to reach
Availability
- UKRRP: £799
Key Features
- TypeThis is a 60cm-wide fridge freezer
- CapacityThis Hotpoint fridge freezer a generous 263-litre fridge and decent 104-litre freezer
Introduction
For many of us, a “standard” 60cm-wide 70/30 fridge freezer offers the best compromise with regards to overall size without taking up too much space in the kitchen. While the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Total No Frost Fridge Freezer fits that standard, this is a high-quality fridge freezer that’s anything but.
A great price, stable temperature control and flexible shelving – particularly in the door – make this a brilliant choice for large families.
Design and Features
- Generous space inside
- Clever temperature and humidity-controlled zones
- Flexible shelving
Finished in stainless steel, the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Fridge Freezer looks stylish without ever dominating. You’ll find a standard layout here, with a large 263-litre fridge on top and a decent 104-litre freezer at the bottom. That’s more space than you get with the LG DoorCooling GBB92MCBAP, which costs far more.
Size isn’t everything, though; it’s about how usable that space is – and here, Hotpoint has been super-clever. Take the door pockets, for example. While many fridge freezers feature adjustable shelves, the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX goes one step further, including three half-width shelves alongside the two full-width shelves.
The half-width shelves sit in the middle of the door, in a choice of six positions. This flexibility makes it easier to fit large items into the door pockets. I managed to get two 2-litre bottles of lemonade into the bottom shelf, a large 2-litre carton of orange juice into a middle pocket, and still have room for a 2-litre jug of milk, plus space for additional cans and bottles.
Such flexibility can also be found in the main cavity of the fridge freezer. Here, there are four shelves and a bottle rack that offers space for five bottles in its slots; I managed to fit in a bottle of wine and two 2-litre bottles of fizzy drink.
Two of the standard shelves and the bottle rack can be moved into different positions; however, there’s a fixed shelf towards the top of the fridge. Even this shelf is different. It has a clever split in it, with the front half able to slide back and beneath the back half. The split meant that I could easily fit taller items on the shelf below, yet have the full-width shelf for shorter items. Again, it’s nice to have this choice and flexibility.
Since this is a tall fridge freezer (2027mm), the top shelf can be quite a stretch to reach, particularly if stretching to reach an item that’s sitting on the rear of that shelf. However, height-wise, that shelf has enough room to hold a can of Coke, so you’d be better storing smaller items that you don’t need very often here.
This model arrives with two drawers. The lower one has a dial to control humidity, and is for storing fresh vegetables and fruits. The top Fresh Zone+ drawer has a temperature dial, with options suitable for storing meat and fish, cheese and dairy, or fruit and vegetables. This goes between near-zero (meat) and closer to the set temperature.
Again, this level of flexibility is fantastic, and I fully recommend setting each drawer to the correct temp to suit its contents to prolong the life of your food.
The freezer is a more standard affair, offering three identical pull-out drawers for frozen food. Each is a good size and pulls out far enough to make peering to the back of it for items easy.
A control panel on the front of the fridge door controls temperature selection, plus control of the special Super Cool fridge and Super Freeze freezer options. Individually selectable, they rapidly cool the associated space, so are useful when loading the fridge freezer following a big shopping trip.
Active Oxygen is turned on by default and releases ozone molecules to keep the fridge smelling fresh while killing any micro-organisms. Note that this does add to power consumption, so there’s an option to turn it off.
There’s also a Holiday mode, which sets the fridge to 12ºC and the freezer to -18ºC – handy for saving money for those times you’re away on holiday, for example, when there isn’t much in the fridge.
Performance
- Excellent temperature control
- Decent power consumption
- No frost buildup
I test all fridge freezers in the same way, setting the fridge compartment to 4ºC in the freezer to -18ºC. Next I fit automatic door openers to open and close the fridge doors at set times throughout the day. That way, I can compare performance between different models, with all the fridges I test used uniformly.
Then I load up the fridge and freezer compartments with temperature sensors, which take readings every 15-minutes. By running this test over a two-week period, I can get an accurate overview of how a fridge freezer performs.
Starting with the fridge, I measured an average temperature of 4.39ºC, which was a variation of just 0.39ºC on the set temperature. The standard deviation is just over 1ºC, which shows that the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX was super-close to the target temperature, which is an impressive result.
It was similar in the freezer compartment. Here, I measured the temperature at an average of -16.74ºC, just over 1ºC above the target temperature. Again, the standard deviation of 1.25ºC shows that the temperature doesn’t fluctuate very much.
As mentioned in the name, the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Total No Frost Fridge Freezer is a frost-free model. Over the entire testing period I can confirm that there was no frost build up on this model, so no regular maintenance is likely to be required.
This is a C-rated appliance with yearly energy consumption of 162kWh, which works out to an annual running cost of £45.36 for 28p per kWh. The LG GBB92MCBAP is cheaper to run (£30.80 a year) but is far more expensive to buy, while the similarly priced Samsung RS6HA8880S9 costs more to run (£75.60 a year).
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Should you buy it?
If you want a standard 60cm-wide fridge freezer that offers decent running costs and flexible space, this is a brilliant choice.
If you want extra features, such as water dispenser, then look for a different model.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a fridge freezer is about getting a model that offers the right balance between size, features, price and running costs for your needs, and the Hotpoint H9X 94T SX Total No Frost Fridge Freezer gets the mix spot on. It offers very flexible internal fridge space, particularly with its door pockets, and a simple but usable freezer.
Running costs are decent, and the frost-free design means there’s no maintenance or defrosting to handle. Add to this the stable temperatures and excellent price, and this is a great higher-end fridge freezer for those with a standard 60cm slot in their kitchens.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every fridge freezer we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
We test for at least two weeks.
We use temperature sensors to monitor the internal temperature to help us accurately compare models from different manufacturers.
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FAQs
No, this is a frost-free model that won’t suffer from frost build-up.
This model offers 263-litres of fridge space and 104-litres of freezer space, which should be plenty for a large family.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
