written by on 23/04/2013
Very poor machine, had two replacements due to not cold enough in the fridge and freezer red light on all the time. Replacement worked ok. All the plastics inside broke after a few months, and i started getting rust on the front after 12 months. Got an engineer out to it after 18 months due to it freezing everything in the fridge and he told me the thermstor had failed. I would need a new electronic circuit board ! Also found out whilst i spoke to the engineer that Hotpoint doesnt exist anymore, the Hotpoint brand is owned by Indesit. So what i have is an Indesit Fridge Freezer branded as Hotpoint. Disgusted by the whole thing !! will not be buying Hotpoint or Indesit anymore.
written by danskat01 on 26/02/2013
Owned this for 5 years now, initially it was ok, freezer tiny due to all the space taken up by the 'frost free' bit. Makes lots of strange noises - so much so with TV on loud my wife and I were constantly wondering what the popping & whirring was! Yes the fridge and freezer drawers soon broke, poor quality brittle plastic with corners chipped off etc. Just over a few weeks ago the compressor started to get louder and louder, a real distraction. I thought Hotpoint would be excellent quality etc in relation to the cost but nope. We've had a few terrible experiences with their customer services in general too. It does the job, we've never had to defrost it, you do need to drag it out every year to clean the water container at the back which stinks btw but if you don't mind shoddy part quality with noisy running then yes £20 would probably be the most I'd pay :)
written by optizap on 13/09/2011
OK if maintained : - Beware getting crumbs in the door seal around the freezer part and especially don't miss cleaning the gap on the bottom horizontal seal inside the door. If you don't clean get red light on. Although frost free these freezers can build up ice on the element inside the freezer part behind the white box at the back where you cant see. If Ice has built up the freezer will rattle a lot rather than a healthy smooth hum. This can rattle your door letting air in making red light come on. To fix simply defrost until all Ice has thawed. Once defrosted clean with sterilizing fluid and switch back on - should be fine. I have had mine for 3 years now with no problems with this maintenance approach.
written by on 24/05/2011
Have this red light on again, my freezer is full and once again the food is ruined and will need to be chucked, this was a replacement for original purchase which did the same. Thing is I am just wondering if the fridge was even working properly as I found that food was not keeping so well, I have also been vomiting lately something I never suffer from and I am beginning to think food was not being kept at the temp it was set to. The back has been taken off, obviously the build up has disappeared as only noticed this morning, its not looking good, DO NOT BUY THIS FRIDGE FREEZER AS IT HAS DESIGN FAULTS WHICH WILL BE COSTLY TO RECTIFY, obviously not happy that I am going to have to buy a new one, HOTPOINT must be aware of this model, not even fit for purpose, people should get their money back.
Written on: 03/12/2011
I have just had a LEC chest freezer break down yesterday. It was bought new in Aug 2007. Compressor had failed.Independent refrigeration engineer with 40 yrs experience of domestic and shop appliances, says that anything built more than 15-20 yrs ago were built to last.Nowadays that is not the case. Says I may have just been unlucky, but said the compressor had been made in the Far East (substandard ?)and the freezer had been assembled in Denmark. Label on rear confirmed that. Says he has attended 14 fridge/freezer combinations in the last 12 months, which have failed when under 3 years old. To replace compressor on my LEC -? £200, compressor and other parts, then labour, and also compressor to be re-gassed.
written by on 24/05/2011
This frost free fridge freezer Model FFA74 should be withdrawn from sale and purchasers who have had frost build up and food ruined because of it compensated. My replacement FF is doing exactly the same as previous item, you just have to keep taking the back off and removing huge build up of ice time and time again, definitely badly designed from the start, also the small silver dials are very prone to not working,(the pin breaks inside)I have just had the whole control panel removed and its shocking that the turning pin is made of thin plastic which will of course and has done snapped, means a whole new top control panel. Anyone thinking of buying DONT its rubbish, salad drawers both crack cause they are cheap and nasty, the only good thing about this is the style, the rest is a disgrace, I would never touch a Hotpoint appliance again.
written by on 14/01/2011
Hi. I've owned my Hotpoint FFA74 for just over 5 years now. In that time we have moved twice which has meant that the fridge has been defrosted twice. Up until a few months ago the fridge has had no real problems; no issues of frost or water. Obviously it does make noises when it is defrosting itself, but we've become quite fond of it's 'chuntering' :)
A few months back we started to notice the water. Having read the reviews mentioning manual defrosting, I realised that that probably accounts for why our f/f has lasted so long thus far, so we manually defrosted it again and water problem has been solved!
Granted that the f/f is supposed to be 'frost-free', defrosting it 3 times in 5+ years hasn't been too problematic. Plus it has withstood being dragged around the country, twice, very well. All in all, for the price we originally paid for it, I can't really complain!
written by afanaddict on 21/11/2010
I found this review board while looking for a fix for my FFA74. After reading comments mentioning de-frosting I thought I`d give it go - had it for 6 years and never done it! My problem was the red light on for freezer high temp and food not fully frozen. Bit of a faff taking the inside back panel off (it was frozen on) but after leaving for 6 hours and removing a huge lump of ice from inside, all working fine again. As another user mentioned, Hotpoint really should be on to this,they could have saved themselves a whole lot of hate and many of their products would not have gone to the tip needlessly!!
written by on 14/10/2010
If you like water in the fridge and lots of strange noises then buy one of these things.. they really are junk.
written by on 20/07/2010
This product has proven to be unreliable with the freezer compartment having stopped working completely. I guess I could be positive about it because the fridge compartment now feels as cold as a freezer! The fridge drawers broke very early in its life and there is always water in the bottom of the fridge compartment. I now have to buy a new fridge freezer...it will not be Hotpoint!
written by on 23/06/2010
My Hotpoint frost-free fridge-freezer was shockingly unreliable, with a fridge which frequently warmed to room temperature. Hotpoint/Merloni repairs use their machines' unreliability as a means of generating more money, £100 plus for simple repairs. They are not likely to improve reliability when it's profitable for them to break down. Contact has to be made using a premium rate phone number. I learned to replace the thermistors myself, which is not difficult, but defeats the object of going frost-free (which also doesn't work anyway) since they didn't last very long. Eventually the fridge and then freezer developed further faults, it's now scrapped after a few years use. Expensive to buy, unreliable, expensive to repair. I won't be buying Hotpoint again.
written by on 20/06/2010
As others have pointed out, this frost free freeze does frost up. If it is de-frosted every two years, it will work fine. Either a 24 hour de-frost with the power off and door open, or if you undo four screws and that the plastic back off, it will take 4-6 hours. A pity Hotpoint have not told customers about this. If it is left to frost, the electricity usage will increase, and eventually the door will not close due to ice build up at the back of the freezer pushing the drawers out.
written by on 06/06/2010
Have just come online to find advice about possibly having this Hotpoint model serviced after my children are eating melted ice cream AGAIN. Was thinking it was a fault of our individual fridge- freezer only to find these terrible reviews, all reflecting our experience and I have to say I am in complete agreement. It is NOT frost- free, does NOT freeze food efficiently and regularly collects water in the fridge. Absolute rubbish.
written by on 29/04/2010
LASTED 4 YEARS BEFORE FREEZER PACKED IN
IS NOT FROST FREE
WELL WORTH BUYING FOR SOMEONE YOU HATE
written by on 28/04/2010
absolute waste of money...i will never use hotpoint again, its obviously a design fault and they are getting away with it.
written by on 27/04/2010
Bought second hand. Had it now for over 2 years now. Everything with it happens now as previous users described. The motor started being noisy. After a while, the freezer gave us high temperature warning light. Went off few times as the freezer started to get under around -16 C. As soon as you deselected "Fast freeze" the freezer shuts off itself and only the fridge works. Temp inside the freezer is +13 C now. The drawers were cracked already as I assume, they got froze stuck to the bottom of the fridge. Now we probably need to get a new one, a much better one. I am only happy I paid £80 for it, and not over £300 as the pour new owners did. Pity though I need a new freezer.
written by on 08/02/2010
This fridge/freezer is driving me mad. Consuming 100% more electrictiy than similar model it replaced of different manufacturer.
Service dept from head office arrogant useless and of no help.
This company is obviously in serious trouble. No responsible company would allow such indifference.
Buy another manufacturer.
I would have liked to have known the running cost before buying and the indiferenc of the service staff.
written by on 29/01/2010
In November 2006 I purchased TWO identical Hotpoint FFA74P FROST FREE Fridge Freezers from Dixons online at a cost of almost
£600. Once the first year guarantee period was up we began having similar problems with both units. Both veg trays cracked
when removing from fridge because they were stuck frozen to the bottom of the fridge. Both sets of freezer draws cracked
easily during normal use. Last year I took one of the two year old fridge freezers to the dump because the freezer kept
defrosting and ruining the contents. In the past month my second identical Hotpoint Fridge Freezer has begun making loud
cracking noises 24/7. The red light showing Freezer high temperature is constantly on and I am now loosing food because it
is not completely frozen.There is also a large deposit of ice forming at the rear of the frost free fridge freezer.
I wrote to Hotpoint and received this reply...
Regrettably, whilst we do appreciate your concern, no manufacturer of electrical mechanical appliances can guarantee how
long a part or product may last before a failure may occur. It is in recognition of this fact that we provide a one year
guarantee on our Hotpoint products. Unfortunately, once an appliance has expired this guarantee, and a customer has decided
not to take out any extended warranty, then our service charges are applicable.
I can confirm that is model has not been recall and has not been caused for concern.
In the meantime, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and please accept my apologies for any inconvenience
which you may have been caused.
Thanks for nothing!
In future I will avoid Hotpoint like the plague
written by on 30/10/2009
I have had two of these,Hotpoint Future FFA74, the first one I was lucky enough to have taken out insurance for, it developed a fault within the first year in that items in the fridge were freezing up, the salad drawer where I kept my vegetables was always frozen and considering it was supposed to be frost free was a joke, lumps of ice forming behind the salad drawers as well. Just after the year, the bottom freezer went and ruined all the food. The engineers efforts to repair failed on three occasions, he gave up and I was given a brand new one, although still the same model, after about 6mths I noticed the same thing happening, although the vegetables in the salad drawer were not completely frozen, there are lumps of ice forming behind the drawers again which causes puddles of water to appear inside the fridge so as soon as I see it I know where its coming from,although this is not so severe as the first ffreezer it is still happening, I have also had build up of ice within the bottom freezer part whereby it has had to be taken apart and melted with a hairdryer. This surely must be a design fault that Hotpoint must be aware of as I have noticed other people reporting the same problem. I am seriously away to buy another smaller ffreezer but will stay well clear of Hotpoint and would never buy another ever again.
written by on 16/10/2009
like many previous posters mine too broke down after 2 years, phoned hotpoint to make use of the free 5 years spare parts warranty that came with it, they said the labour would cost 159.99 spread over 10 months, if they cant fix it then they would replace it. went for this option, couldnt be repaired after 3 visits so they now offered us a brand new FF200LP for just 180 pounds actually worth between 385-515 in the shops! made up! overall the FFa74 wasnt bad over the years did the job but you'd expect it to last longer than that!
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Hillir's Comment
Written on: 25/09/2013
All the back corners of the freezer drawers have broken off, making the use of the drawers difficult to manage. I shall not buy my replacement from Hotpoint.