Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK

Introduction

If you don’t have the space to go wide and still want lots of fridge space, then go up and get a tall fridge freezer. It’s a growing trend to do this, with the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK the latest to come in at just over 2m tall.

There’s lots of space inside, a good amount of flexibility and a simple cold water dispenser. Add in smart app control, and this is a great-value fridge freezer, although its running costs are a little higher than the direct competition’s.

Design and Features

• 60cm wide and 2m tall
• Integrated water dispenser
• Flexible interior

Hoover has definitely taken a step up in terms of finish and quality for its products. I was impressed with the build quality of the Hoover HSC918EWXK French Door fridge freezer, and the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK is just as well built. Its smooth finish and trendy-looking badge make this as nice-a-looking fridge freezer as I’ve seen.

Although a standard 60cm wide fridge freezer, the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK is 2050mm tall to maximise space. With 287-litres of fridge space and 120-litres of freezer space, there’s 407-litres of total space to play with, only just behind the Hisense RB5P410SACCUK.

This fridge freezer is a good choice for those without much floor space in their kitchen, but plenty of head height. Just be aware that the back of the top shelf is quite hard to reach unless you’re tall.

What you do get is some nicely organised space inside, with a few compromises. In the door, you get two full-width door pockets, and three smaller door pockets, with the latter having a choice of multiple positions.

I’m not quite sure why there aren’t four smaller door pockets, for symmetry, but the three you get are a good size: deep enough for large bottles and with tall sides to prevent things from falling over when the door is open.

At the bottom, the door pocket is quite large, but you can only fit in taller items and larger cartons, such as 4-pint milk cartons, on either side of it. That’s because of the water tank above (size not disclosed).

This tank gives you a way of dispensing cold water through the front of the fridge, which is a nice touch, but it does take up quite a bit of room inside. It’s also not filtered water, unless you have an external filter that you put water through first.

In the main fridge cavity, you get four shelves, with one fixed and the others adjustable in a few positions. There’s also a standard wire bottle rack.

Be careful where you place the bottle rack. In the first position I used, 2-litre bottles of drink wouldn’t fit without lifting the shelf above. Overall, whichever way you put the shelves in, you end up with one that doesn’t have much height and won’t even fit in a can of drink. Slightly different spacing or more choices of shelf positions would have been nice.

At the bottom of the fridge, you get two drawers. One is a 0°C drawer, which is ideal for keeping items fresh for longer, such as meat, fish or cheese.

The top drawer has a Natural Fibre filter at the top, which helps maintain humidity levels to preserve fruit and vegetables for longer.

At the bottom is the freezer section, which has three pull-out drawers. It’s a very standard layout and there’s nothing wrong with it: the drawers are a good size, and slide out easily enough, making it quick to find food.

At the top of the fridge is the control panel. Oddly, this only has temperature settings for the fridge, with the option of 2°C, 4°C, 6°C or 8°C. There are no physical controls for the freezer.

However, connect the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK to the hOn app, and I could set the freezer to a temperature of my choice, and set the fridge to odd-numbered temperatures.

The app’s well worth having, plus it sends you warnings, such as when a fridge door has been left open.

Performance

• Good temperature control
• Gets a bit warm at the top of the fridge
• Not the cheapest to run

To see how well the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK performed, I loaded it up with freezer blocks to simulate a full load of food. I then measured temperatures throughout the fridge and freezer for a few weeks.

In the fridge section, I found that the average temperature was 4.54°C, which is 0.54°C above the target of 4°C that I’d set. I found that the standard deviation was good, with most temperatures fluctuating by +/-0.5°C.

However, just be careful of the top shelf: this was warmer at an average of 5.39°C, so I wouldn’t use this to store food that’s more sensitive to higher temperatures.

In the 0°C drawer, I found that eh average temperature was a cold 0.83°C, with temperature fluctuations mostly +/-0.42°C.

Freezer temperatures were good, with similar results at the top, middle and bottom. At an average of -20.5°C, the freezer was a -2.5°C colder than my target of -18°C. Again, temperature control was spot-on with most temperatures fluctuating by +/-0.47°C.

An E-rated appliance, the Hoover H-COMBI 500 HONCQ4T620EWXK isn’t the cheapest to run. I estimated that it would cost £59.86 per year to run, at a cost of 15p per litre of space. That’s almost double the running cost of the Hisense RB5P410SACCUK.

Should you buy it?

FAQs