I am thinking of buying an Hitachi French Door Refrigerator, specifically a RG620GAXK, which is made in Japan. I have not been able to find any reviews of Hitachi refrigerators, let alone this particular version.
So, I am wondering whether anyone has recently purchased an Hitachi refrigerator and what they think of them?
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Looking at the Choice website, it appears that they haven’t reviewed Hitachi refrigerators (member content)…
This could be because the brand does not have high volumes in Australia.
I also see that on the Hitachi website the fridge comes with a manufacturer’s 5 Year Warranty |and 10 Year Compressor Parts Warranty…it should at the price it is advertised for (noting the ACL apllies irrespective of the manufacturer’s warranty). One thing to check is if the brand is not high volume, what will long term product support be like should there be a problem.
Also look at similar function/layout and sized frindges from other manufacturers for comparison and before finalising your decision. Choice website above is useful, as well as reliability survey results for refrigerators (member content)…
This webpage may also be useful (member content)
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These type of reviews are anecdotal but might be more helpful than having nothing.
https://www.productreview.com.au/c/french-door-fridges-refrigerators/m/hitachi.html
The things to consider are trends and dates as well as product and support comments.
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One sexy looking fridge?
I’d buy it just for the free battery drill, honestly! 
Do you have a friend who is internet savy and can read Japanese?
It’s a big fridge for the average Japanese home or appartment, however you might assume that with 127 million population there might be a few reviews over there?
There are numerous ‘designer’ brand fridges eg Toshiba, Liebherr, Bosch etc. They sell in such low volumes as noted previously, and often at massive premiums. You would want to ask that they not only look good, but perform even better and for longer!
You have a great question?
One question worth seeking an answer to is what environmental conditions are they all made for?
If your home is fully air conditioned, perhaps having a fridge designed to operate in Europe or Japan is ok here? If you have a tropical Qld house, at dew point 100%RH every summer morning or NT Alice 45C summer days, which is best?
Our super efficient Electrolux is not so good with high humidity, but our branded Westinghouse generic made in Thailand is bullet proof. 
One rattles more though!
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Hi I am looking to buy a slimline fridge for a small space soon. I want auto defrost so not a bar fridge. I have seen Lemair model LTM268S and LTM268W advertised at 2 retailers inc Appliances Online but don’t see this brand review on your site. Can you please explain that and if poseible review it.
Just to add to that I have seen some Al
Welcome to the . community @ecofriendly,
Choice selects products to test from those that are of most interest to the general consumers as evidenced by sales, although reference or speciality products are sometimes included. I hope that explains the absence of the Lemaire.
It is not obvious to me re your reference to AI. Would you clarify that please?
I also moved your query to request a test although that does not guarantee it will be included in future testing.
The LTM268S is not listed on the Lemair site only the Lemair LTM268W. I did find references to spare parts for the S, so that leads me to suspect that it is an older discontinued model.
I don’t know if you saw and if it suits you; there is a 343 L fridge in the latest review which has been recommended by Choice.
As @PhilT said, it is impossible for Choice to test all products; there are too many and they change too often. This is the place to put any requests for Choice staff to consider adding a product or category to future tests.
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As @meltham said, the market’s just too vast for us to test everything, so in order to provide the most value to the greatest number of people we try and focus our testing on the more popular, higher sales products, and Lemair only represent a small slice of the fridge market. That said, we are seeing a trend to more slimline fridges, and there are a few Lemair models on our radar. We don’t have any in the current test, but we will endeavor to include one in future.
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I certainly hope that they are vastly superior to the Lemair room aircons Haymans sold in the 1980’s.
They were built using Soviet Union compressors and were unbelievably noisy.
Hello, as someone who currently lives in a studio apartment with a very noisy fridge that drives me nuts, I would very much appreciate Choice conducting a dedicated review to small (width 55cm) slimline fridges. I haven’t been able to find any recommended slimline/small fridges in your reviews, the one’s you have reviewed all seem to have pretty bad ratings. As more people are living alone and in apartments and as the tiny house movement grows , I’m sure a Choice review dedicated to small fridges would be very well recieved. Thanks
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Hello @emay,
We have purchased two over the previous 10 years. Both Westinghouse. One a normal top Freezer Frost free and the other a bottom freezer Frost free. Nominal 230l made in Thailand, the other similar size, made in Malaysia from memory.
Both were very noisy and cycled frequently. The bottom freezer model also has issues with freezing the vegetable compartment frequently.
Most are under $500 retail and ideal for getting up twisting stairs Into older units and kitchens. Of course in older and also modern compact studio style appartments the bedroom is closer to the fridge than you might like.
Choice’s experts might be able to quantify the level of noise which should be the target If you are looking for a good nights sleep. Equally having a fridge fire up like a rescue chopper overhead, while you are sitting nearby reading a book might not be to your liking?
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Regarding noise any compressor is likely to sound more obtrusive in a confined apartment space than in a larger kitchen no matter how quiet in an absolute sense.
Assuming you have online Choice access, have you looked at the ‘compare’ feature for all of the smaller fridges (<=55cm wide)? When the individual test results are considered there seem to be choices that appear mainly let down by their small compressors so the fridge does not respond so well to changes in room temperatures and other bits that may be dictated by the small form factors that may be unavoidable such as thinner insulation as compared to larger fridges.
Would a dedicated test for smaller fridges add anything beyond limiting the models represented in a report since all the test data for all tested model is there?
Choice tries to test ‘what people are buying’ since there are limited budgets and Choice buys products just like ‘we’ do. Perhaps Choice might consider including more smaller models than just the volume sellers and if so, would that suit your needs?
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Might be worth having a look at productreview.com.au, and also at Appliances Online ( i see you looked there, maybe didnt see the reviews?) where it gets a rating of 4.7/5 from 87 reviews. Its also a good price at the moment. This is the top mount.
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Hi All,
We were actually in the process of testing several smaller fridges (from both large and small brands) when the current issues hit, so unfortunately our labs are currently shut. Our testers are a resourceful lot, so for many of our tests (small and kitchen appliances, technology and the like) they are continue testing remotely but unfortunately this isn’t possible for fridges (but if you have a room in your home that can fit 8 fridges and can maintain a range of temperatures from four to 37 degrees consistently then we’d love to hear from you). So while it will probably be too late in this instance, this information is coming.
As for the performance of smaller fridges, as you’ve all observed they do seem to perform poorly. In fact that’s why we don’t test fridges below a certain size - we’ve found they perform so poorly it’s not worth it. As for why smaller fridges don’t perform as well - it’s a range of factors - the smaller thermal mass means it’s harder to maintain consistent temperatures, thinner insulation doesn’t help, a smaller, less ‘grunty’ compressor has to work harder (also contributes to noisiness), and they’re generally built to a pricepoint, so they tend to have cheaper construction all round.
Now, as for how noisy is too noisy, that depends on your ambient environment and your own tolerance (and level of hearing loss - be it old age, industrial or selective…), but generally you’ll find a measurement of 60 dB equates to a loud conversation in an office or restaurant, 50 dB equates to a quiet conversation, and 40 dB would be the equivalent of a library - generally the lowest threshold of ambient noise in an urban environment. For context, 40 dB equates to a noise score of 80% in our test results, so if noise is a concern for you - a small apartment for example - then look for a score of 80% or higher.
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It would also vary due to the lower storage capacity. A large fridge which is fairly full will perform better due to the volume of cold goods stored inside.
A quiet and small fridge is possible.
There are Caravan /RV fridge freezer options up to 200l typical capacity. 12/24V DC - 240V AC operation.
WAECO and other major brands seem to get the nod from those sleeping next to one. Perhaps overkill for an apartment with $1,000 - $2,000 price tags.
A bonus perhaps for some is the ability to run the fridge directly from a battery if you are worried about loosing power for an extended period. The power efficiency is likely as good as it can be given the smaller size fridges have higher comparative losses.
Online feedback suggests there are bragging rights about how quiet your brand choice of fridge freezer is, or how little it sips from the storage battery when on DC.
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I had a 221L Westinghouse which in the end I only got rid of because it wasnt frost free (bought before that was a thing in small fridges) and I was sick of defrosting. I had replaced the seals once and it was performig as well as I needed it to. I then bought a 340L and find that its too big. Need a bigger freezer, bottom mount but dont need a big fridge. Its just me, some food, and my insulin and thyroxine. Small fridge in small kitchen is good. Currently looking at a bottom mount CHiQ 251L.
I am interested in buying the Electrolux EHE6899 however, l read on another review site that it is very noisy. I have an open plan kitchen and a bedroom close by. I would love some feedback.
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@Koala, CHOICE have reviewed (member content) the same model with BA at the end ie EHE6899BA and the review can be read at
If you aren’t a member of CHOICE you can pay for membership starting at $26.95 / quarter (you can cancel anytime after).
It is rated on many points including noise but as it is member content I can’t advise those ratings here.
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