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  • Introduction

  • Design & Usability

  • Performance & Features

  • A Chilly Reception for Hotpoint

  • The Cold Stare of Science

  • Temperature Performance

  • Moisture Retention

  • Freezing & Thawing

  • Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

  • Introduction
  • Design & Usability
  • Performance & Features
  • A Chilly Reception for Hotpoint
  • The Cold Stare of Science
  • Temperature Performance
  • Moisture Retention
  • Freezing & Thawing
  • Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

Introduction

Design & Usability

Almost too simple for its own good.

The Hotpoint's external visage, with its barren white doors, small logo, and thin plastic handles, exudes an air of basic functionality. Upon opening the doors, however, that appearance of basic functionality downgrades into a somewhat more frustrating low level of usability.

There's almost no spill protection.

The shelves in the fridge have tons of wide open space between them, something which may seem appealing at first glance. If you like to stock up on lots of small items, though, such as yogurt or fruit, you may find that a lot of your groceries end up stacked on top of each other.

Also, most of the shelves are made of wire, which means that there's almost no spill protection whatsoever. Keep the liquids on the bottom, folks. You don't really have the option of shifting the layout around, either, as the two wire fridge shelves are the only adjustable components of the entire design.

You don't really have the option of shifting the layout around.

The controls are small, but the fonts on them are a bit undersized. The appropriately vague control knob—we would never expect anything more from a low-cost model—lacks a manufacturer's recommended setting, so calibration is reduced to nothing but guess work.

The crisper drawers only live up to half of their name in terms of design: there's no adjustable humidity control, both the drawers and their unified shelf lid are made of opaque plastic, and there's no seal to be found. The plastic-on-plastic design turned out to perform really well even it didn't look impressive, but we'll address that further on.

The freezer was just bizarre: one wire shelf is pretty standard, but we've never seen one that had two levels built into it. The odd stepped design didn't seem to add much to the overall practicality of the freezer, but it could be useful for special occasions, such as storing the Thanksgiving turkey. That said, regular day-to-day use doesn't seem to benefit.

{{photo_gallery "Front", "Fingerprints", "Handle", "Interior", "Fridge", "Controls", "Crisper Drawer", "Fridge Door", "Freezer", "Freezer Door", "Side", "Back"}}

Performance & Features

Not much of a fridge, but a darn good crisper.

This is a budget fridge, and we weren't expecting perfection. As such, the wide range of performance results took us somewhat by surprise. Without a recommended manufacturer setting on the control knob, we did our best to calibrate the fridge using an external thermometer. In the end, the fridge delivered unexpectedly accurate temperatures from top to bottom, all of which came close to the ideal 37ºF.

The freezer had one of the widest ranges of temperature fluctuation we've ever seen.

Fridges with only one control knob tend to deliver optimal performance in one compartment at the expense of another. Not so here: the freezer, too, came close to the ideal 0ºF. The downside to all this near-accuracy? Temperature fluctuation. It's only one element of fridge performance, but it's arguably the most important when it comes to food preservation.

As mentioned, there were some sizable shifts in the fridge: enough that it may have a negative impact on your food, but nothing we haven't seen before from a budget model. The freezer, however, had one of the widest ranges of temperature fluctuation we've ever seen. That kind of performance can accelerate freezer burn, which spoils food and wastes money.

The crisper drawers retained exponentially larger amounts of moisture than many higher-priced models.

Given the presence of that major performance flaw, it actually made us very sad to see just how incredibly well the crisper drawers functioned. They retained exponentially larger amounts of moisture than many higher-priced models that came with fancy-looking drawers and adjustable controls. The fridge on the whole is quite energy efficient, too, a source of savings that may be negated by food spoiling as a result of temperature shifts.

A Chilly Reception for Hotpoint

A cheap fridge that's almost good... just not in the ways that count.

The Hotpoint HTH17CBDRWW certainly has its place. It's energy efficient, has a decent amount of usable space, and costs very little. Most retailers tag it at roughly $550. That said, it's also one of the least accurate fridges we've ever tested. Fluctuations in temperature that could speed the growth of freezer burn and potentially cut the shelf life of your fresh food negate all the other strengths of this model as far as considering it for your primary fridge.

Now, that said, this would make for an awesome second fridge for storing cold drinks out in the garage. It's got enough things going for it that, as long as you don't plan on storing delicate foods or items that could spoil quickly under normal circumstances, it could be a good choice. If you need a cheap model for refrigerating hardy items that you don't want taking up space in your main fridge, then by all means, give this one a closer look.

The Cold Stare of Science

It's very unusual to find a fridge with such divisive results as the Hotpoint HTH17CBDRWW. On one hand, it's energy efficient, has truly awe-inspiring crisper drawers, and offers decent temperature consistency from top to bottom. Its ability to maintain those temperatures over time, though, is quite awful; it's a prime flaw that trumps almost every other practical element of this fridge, and the one that keeps it from earning more praise from us.

Temperature Performance

This fridge just can't walk a straight line.

For a refrigerator that has as vague of a control dial as this Hotpoint, we were actually able to get a decent temperature setting. Of course, it required the use of external thermometers, but that's beside the point. From top to bottom, our temperature sensors picked up average readings of 38.02ºF, 37.7ºF, and 37.47ºF. It's still a hair warm, but that's more or less spot on, with about half of a degree separating the two extremes.

{{photo_gallery "Fridge Temperature"}}

Unfortunately, it also exhibited an average fluctuation of about 0.66 degrees over time. In a quality fridge, that number would be closer to 0.2 degrees or less. Once you get above that, you may start to notice that your food won't stay fresh for as long as you might think it should.

{{photo_gallery "Fridge Temp Graph"}}

The freezer was worse on both counts. It had a wider temperature gap from top to bottom despite being much shorter than the fridge. Temperatures averaged -0.8ºF at the top, warming up to 1.09ºF at the bottom. Again, that factor alone is pretty good for a budget fridge: temperature shifts are to be expected. The killing blow here, though, is the temperature fluctuation. At its most reliable, we saw shifts of 0.65 degrees, increasing in width up to 1.33 degrees. If you're freezer temperature is shifting that much over the 0 degree line on a regular basis, you're going to be seeing a whole lot of freezer burn.

{{photo_gallery "Freezer Temperature"}}

Moisture Retention

High-end performance in the wrong fridge.

What more can we say? The crisper drawers in this fridge turned out to be nearly perfect. We don't get it: the drawers looked cheap, felt cheap, had almost no seal, could easily be left open, had no humidity control... and yet turned out to be some of the best crisper drawers we've ever tested. Over the course of three days, our test material lost an average of just 0.1 grams of moisture per hour. That's flat-out astounding. Unfortunately, the crispers were rather small, and the temperature issues in the fridge would negate some of preservative qualities of the drawers, but we'd absolutely love to see whatever Hotpoint did here in more fridges. Sometimes simpler really is better.

Freezing & Thawing

Quick and to the point.

For all of its consistency issues, this product's freezer was actually pretty darn efficient. In just one hour and 27 minutes, our room-temperature test materials had reached an officially frozen state. That's faster than average, with many other freezers regardless of capacity taking about 95 to 105 minutes. Faster freezing times can lead to better food preservation, and this Hotpoint needs all the help it can get to combat its temperature fluctuations.

{{photo_gallery "Freezing Graph"}}

Additionally, the insulation on this model proved to be sound. Over the course of 36 hours without power, the internal temperature of our test materials were still frozen. Another 12 hours or so and that likely wouldn't be the case, so as long as your electric company can get to you before too much time has passed, your frozen foods should be fine.

{{photo_gallery "Power Loss Graph"}}

Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

A smaller fridge with sizable energy savings.

There's no way around it: this is simply a smaller fridge than many other models. It walks a fine line between your typical apartment-sized model (usually 15.6 cubic feet or less) and the small end of more full-sized products (about 18 cubic feet and up). The main fridge compartment just has three shelves, two of which are adjustable, in addition to the small crisper drawers. The fridge door adds two more shelves—not adjustable—and a small dairy bin. It's a rather inflexible layout that will likely require stacking to maximize its use, but in total, the Hotpoint offers 9.47 cubic feet of usable space.

{{photo_gallery "Fridge Storage", "Fridge Door Storage"}

The freezer is just plain weird. It's got one wire shelf separating it into an upper and a lower section; that in and of itself is pretty normal, but going against the grain is the fact that the shelf is not only fixed, it's also multi-leveled. Add in the two small shelves on the freezer door, and you've got 3.54 cubic feet of unusually designed storage.

{{photo_gallery "Freezer Storage", "Freezer Door Storage"}}

In the end, this turned out to be a rather energy efficient fridge. It may stem a bit from the fact that the only thing being powered other than the cooling system is a lone light bulb in the fridge compartment, but that's neither here nor there. We calculated that if you have an average power rate of $0.07 per kWh, the Hotpoint would cost you $32.03 per year to operate. That's more than reasonable when compared with similarly sized models. Spread out the energy and you discover that each usable cubic foot only requires 0.07 kWh, putting the Hotpoint at the low end of the energy consumption spectrum.

{{photo_gallery "Power Data"}}

Meet the tester

Matthew Zahnzinger

Matthew Zahnzinger

Logistics Manager & Staff Writer

@ReviewedHome

Matthew is a native of Brockton, MA and a graduate of Northeastern, where he earned a degree in English and Theatre. He has also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and spends most of his free time pursuing a performance career in the greater Boston area.

See all of Matthew Zahnzinger's reviews

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