Hisense HV693A60UVADUK

Introduction

Hisense is well known for packing its home appliances full of extra features while maintaining reasonable prices. That’s definitely true of the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK, which has space for 16 place settings, directional water jets for spot cleaning, an automatic mode, auto-dispensing, and smart control.

Throw in the A-rated energy usage (verified by low running costs in my tests), and this integrated dishwasher is a brilliant, flexible way to clean your dishes.

It could do with a slightly better paper manual, although the one available through the app does a better job of explaining all of the dishwasher’s features.

Design and Features

• Large interior
• Clever cutlery tray and bottle stand
• Compatible with the ConnectLife app

A good dishwasher doesn’t just clean standard-sized dishes well, it makes it easy to load anything and everything and still get the best results. To that end, the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK is hugely flexible, with a large tub that has space for 16 place settings, all while fitting into a regular cabinet space.

On the bottom rack, the rear tines can be folded flat to accommodate pans and casserole dishes.

The left and right-hand side tines can be folded separately, so there’s plenty of flexibility to load up with a mixture of pans and plates.

I like the pop-up bottle stand, too. Just put this vertically and bottles can be dropped on top, standing upright for a better clean.

The side has more flexibility, with a fold-down wine glass holder and cutlery rack on the left. That’s great if you’ve got very tall glasses that may not fit on the top rack, although there’s some flexibility there that may mean you don’t need this.

Likewise, the low rack’s clip-on cutlery stand can help with long serving spoons and even very dirty cutlery that you want to put somewhere unobstructed, although you may not need it. Still, having too many choices of where to put things is never really an issue.

Open the top rack and it can go into one of two positions. There’s no clip to change position, you just lift until the rack clicks to put it in the higher position, then lift and drop to put it in the lower position.

I’m pleased to say that with my standard dinner plates loaded in the bottom, the top rack could be put in the lower position, without the spray arm hitting anything.

Flexibility on this shelf is excellent, too. Tines, front and back, on the right can be lifted and lowered, depending on whether you have sauces or small bowls to stand up. There are wine glass racks/cutlery racks on both sides, too.

There wasn’t quite enough room to fit my very tall wine glasses on this shelf without them hitting the cutlery rack above, which is something that the Hotpoint Hydroforce H8I HT59 LS UK can manage. However, Hisense’s dishwasher has two options for tall wine glasses.

First, there are the wine glass racks on the lower rack. Second, the cutlery rack has sliding sections on the left and right that open up more space below.

This does sacrifice a bit of cutlery rack space, but again, there’s so much choice as to how this dishwasher is loaded that it doesn’t make a difference, and it gives more space on the rack below.

In its full configuration, the cutlery rack is large, with plenty of space for cutlery and a dip in the middle that can take larger items, such as spatulas. Hisense thoughtfully provides extra clip-in cutlery holders that you can place anywhere.

The basic paper manual guided me through adding salt and rinse aid and setting the right levels for both based on water hardness. However, that’s about as good as it gets, and the manual doesn’t do a very good job of describing the programme controls.

Available via the touch buttons on top, the left-hand side of the control panel has the wash cycles. These are mostly obvious (Auto, Eco, Intense and so on).

Tap any programme and the wash time appears on the LCD.

However, the options on the right aren’t very well explained, bar the delayed start setting and speed wash option, which reduces a cycle’s running time. For example, the manual lists one option as All Dry, but doesn’t say that this is the setting to open the door automatically at the end of the wash (it’s on by default on most settings), after using the fan in the door.

UV Technology isn’t listed, but the dishwasher uses UV light to kill microorganisms. This uses more energy but is useful for sanitising items.

There’s then the Ion Fresh option, which isn’t explained at all. I connected the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK to the ConnectLife app, hoping that the app would explain this setting, but it doesn’t.

Instead, I used the app to access the full manual, which calls this option Air Fresh instead. Running over 72 hours, it uses the integrated fan to turn on at set intervals to keep circulating air, preventing dirty dishes from building up an odour. 

I couldn’t find anything in the manual that explained the Water Jet Zone. These are additional spray arms, one front-right and one back-left, that can be manually turned on to add an extra shower spray or targeted high-pressure spray. As the website explains, they are designed to send a direct shoot of water into the dirtiest of pans, but some more help in the manual as to when and how to use them would be helpful.

This system is similar to the 3D Zone cleaning on the Hotpoint H8I HT59 LS UK, only with Hotpoint’s version there’s a button on the control panel to enable the feature; with the Water Jet Zone, I had to reach into the dishwasher to adjust the dial, which is fiddly if the machine has been loaded.

I did find the app useful for monitoring the dishwasher. A light on the floor shows that the machine is running, but you can’t see how long it has left. With the app, I could see the progress and time remaining.

There’s a 0.5 litre auto-dose detergent container that takes liquid detergent. Based on how dirty the machine senses the plates are, the dosage is adjusted. With enough detergent for up to 20 washes, it’s a handy thing to have, as you can set-and-forget the dishwasher for most of the time.

If you prefer powder or tabs, there’s a standard dishwasher tab dispenser in the door, which you can load up. If the auto dose dispenser is empty or removed it won’t be used, but you can combine tablets with auto dosing if you really want. And, there is a setting to disable auto dose if you really don’t want to use it.

Performance

• Exceptionally low running costs
• Brilliant cleaning performance on all settings

I put the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK through its paces, using pre-stained dishes and a range of cycles to see how well it can clean in real life. I started with the Eco cycle, which is a long, everyday cycle that conserves energy and water usage.

This cycle cost just 15p to run (assuming 24p per kWh), which is lowest that I’ve seen for a full-size dishwasher. Given the 16 place setting capacity, that works out at a cost of under 1p per place setting, which is phenomenal. With a combination of the fan and the door opening, my dishes were left dry.

Of course, low running costs are nothing without good cleaning results, and the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK is a powerful cleaner.

On this Eco setting, I loaded up a dirty coffee cup, which came up completely clean on this setting. Some dishwasher struggle here and need a higher temperature.

It was the same result with the mug that had dried tea stains in it. Again, this came up completely clean.

My red wine glass, was washed properly, too, leaving a nice shine on the glass and no traces of the wine.

I was impressed with the trickier tests, too. Letting ketchup dry on a dinner plate, the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK managed to completely clean the plate.

With the dried-on mac and cheese plate, the majority of the stain was gone, bar one stubborn bit of dirt that was easy to wash off.

The spoon that I used to serve the mac and cheese was cleaned perfectly, with all of the congealed cheese washed off.

The toughest test is the bowl used for microwaved scrambled egg, but the Hisense HV693A60UVADUK put in a good shift and managed to get rid of a lot of the mess, although the bowl still needed a hand wash at the end.

I then moved on to the 70°C wash cycle, with the Water Jet Zones opened up and UV turned on. This increased the running cost to 49p, which is a lot, but the cleaning was exceptional.

This time around, the eggy bowl was completely cleaned, without a trace of dirt left behind. If you’ve got very dirty dishes, then this is a good mode.

If you’re not sure which mode is best, then the Auto mode, which operates between 45°C and 65°C could be good. This cost me 40p to run, but the dishwasher did very well.

It handled common items, such as coffee mugs, with the stains all removed and a nice shine to the finish.

My eggy bowl was handled well, too. There’s a tiny trace of mess left behind, but you have to look to find it, and a quick wipe was all that was required.

For items in a rush, there’s a one-hour mode that runs at 65°C. With this Fast wash, the running cost is 32p. It’s good for lightly soiled items, and managed to remove the stains from a tea mug easily enough.

If that’s not fast enough for you, the time-save button cuts the run time down to just 15-minutes, with a running cost of 8p.

This really is a mode for lightly soiled items only. When I ran this mode, I found that my dishes were quite wet at the end of the cycle, and some mess from a previous clean was washed up on top of a mug. I also found that my plates had a slightly streaky finish and needed a wipe with a tea towel.

Cleaning performance is pretty good for lighter items, and this mode even managed to clean up a coffee mug. If you’re in a hurry and need a quick turnaround of cutlery, glasses and plates, this mode could help.

Should you buy it?

FAQs