The Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator is the first refrigerator that I’ve ever tested — and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have the opportunity. My family never owned the nicest of refrigerators. For that matter, I never owned my own full-sized fridge until I moved into my house and the previous owners left their fridge behind for me.
At 25.6 cu. ft., the Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator (model no. HRM260N6TSE) is big enough for a family of two or six. The freezer is incredibly deep, and the fridge part has so many shelves and drawers for organizing your food and drinks. Even better, this fridge has a VersaTemp Zone, an additional drawer that you can utilize as more fridge space or have it chill your soft serve ice cream. Whether you use the app or the control panel on the front of the fridge, you can choose the temperature of this zone — and the others too.
The ice maker is somewhat small, but at least you get the option of cubed or crushed ice and a water dispenser too. This isn’t the most affordable refrigerator, however, it’s a good investment and will look stylish in most homes too.
Keep reading for my full review then, head to our best french door refrigerators guide to see how it compares. Don’t forget to check out our guide about how to choose a refrigerator to help with the decision process, too.
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: Key Specs
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: Price & availability
The Hisense 25.6 Cu. Ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator is currently available online exclusively at Lowe’s for $2,899 MSRP, with an introductory price of $1,799.
It's not the most budget-friendly refrigerator but considering the design and that it’s a Smart fridge with three different sections and an ice maker and water dispenser, I’d say it makes sense. A two-year limited warranty comes with the fridge, which is not bad. I’ve seen some high-end fridges with only one-year warranties.
Score: 4 out of 5
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: Setup
The fridge was delivered by Lowe’s on a scheduled date. I was given about a 30-minute notification before their arrival. The fridge was in the back of a truck. While one man removed the fridge from the truck, the other came into my house and began measuring the doorways. He then removed the doors from the refrigerator that I had in my kitchen, as the other man removed the box and packaging from around the Hisense fridge.
I had made the mistake of not measuring my doorways when I agreed to test the fridge. The men had to remove the door that leads between my mud room and my garage from its hinges. Even then, they weren’t sure if the new fridge would fit. Thankfully, it was easy enough for the men to remove my old fridge and put it in the garage. They reassembled it for me before they left. They brought the Hisense fridge into my garage and removed the drawers and doors.
Though it was a very tight squeeze — like centimeters — the men were able to get the Hisense refrigerator into my kitchen. They assembled everything and made sure the fridge turned on by plugging it into the wall. When they left, I removed the plastic stickers and packaging from the outside and inside of the fridge and then downloaded the ConnectLife app. It took me a few minutes to connect the Hisense 25.6 Cu. Ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator to the app.
Later, I got to work connecting the water line under my sink to the fridge. I hadn’t done that with my previous refrigerator but after looking at the pipes under my sink, I realized that plumbing-wise, it was set up for me to do it on my own without having to call a plumber.
Hisense had provided a stainless-steel braided refrigerator water line that was about three feet in length. That length did not suit me. The water line connector was on the back left side of the fridge. My sink is on the right side of the refrigerator. Three feet wasn’t long enough. I ran to Home Depot and got a 10-foot stainless steel braided refrigerator water line and a brass split adaptor with a ¼-inch outlet and a 3/8-inch outlet. The sink line fit to the 3/8-inch outlet while the water line fit to the ¼-inch outlet.
After turning off the fridge and the cold-water line, fitting the slip adaptor, and then connecting the lines, I turned the water back on slowly. I could hear the water rush to the fridge. I plugged the Hisense refrigerator back in, waited five minutes, and used a cup to try to get water. It took a few seconds, but water came through.
Just to be safe, I filled a gallon container with water and then poured it down the sink. I also threw out the first batch of ice. I’d read somewhere that this is something you should to make sure everything has been cleaned out of the line, filter, or the fridge.
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: Design
The Hisense 25.6 Cu. Ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator is a fingerprint stainless steel fridge that has three main sections – the fridge, the freezer, and a third one in between the two called a VeraTemp Zone. The fridge capacity is 18.67 cubic feet. The handles of the fridge are along the top and the bottom of the doors.
While the right door is easy to open, the left side is a bit more difficult because it has a door seal that suctions to the door. One thing I don’t love is that if I open the right door, it doesn’t stay open. It’ll swing back to the fridge, and while I can see the benefit of that (because it won’t let the cold air escape as easily), sometimes I just want the door to stay open without me having to hold it.
There are two shelves inside the fridge, which offers three levels to store food. If I wanted to adjust the shelves in the fridge, I could easily do this. The shelves are split into two pieces that can be unclipped and then moved up and down. One of those shelves can slide backwards. It’s a great feature for taller items like gallons of milk or large bottles of soda. Below the three shelves are three drawers — two mid-sized ones for vegetables and a thinner one between them where you can store snacks or cheeses and such.
On the inside of the right door are three shelves, perfect for sauces and dressings. The left door has three shelves too, but they’re limited in height because most of that door is taken up by the ice maker chute. In the top left corner of the fridge is the icemaker, and while it may be long in length, it’s short in width so it can’t hold a ton of ice — just enough for daily use.
Below the fridge is a drawer, the VersaTemp Zone. It’s not that deep of a drawer, but on the left side there is a medium-sized removable container. You can adjust the temperature of this drawer to be whatever you need. It can be another large drawer with (nearly) the same temperature as the fridge or it can be used as something like a wine chiller.
On the bottom of the Hisense refrigerator is the freezer. When you slide it out, it reveals a deep bisected drawer. There is another built-in drawer that extends out, allowing you to store smaller items.
On the left front side of the Hisense refrigerator is the control panel and the water dispenser and icemaker. The control panel has a variety of buttons that allow you to see and adjust the temperature of all three sections of the fridge, set a child lock alarm, turn the icemaker on and off, adjust between Fahrenheit and Celsius, and an Eco button. There are also three buttons for the ice maker — cubed, crushed, and water.
Score: 4.5 out of 5
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: Performance
It took a few weeks to get used to the Hisense 25.6 cu. ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator. I wasn’t accustomed to the recessed handles found at the top and bottom of the doors and there were moments I reached for a handle on the front even though there wasn’t one. Visually, I like the hidden handles, but I can understand if they’re not for everyone.
Right away, I tested the fingerprint resistant finish on the front — and it’s works. When I wipe my fingers across the fridge, there aren’t any fingerprints left behind. That said, if there is something on your hands, like lotion or food, it will appear on the fridge.
The refrigerator emits 37 decibels of sound, which is equivalent to the tapping on a keyboard. For reference, when I open the decibel rating app, it's flips between 36 and 37 decibels. The fridge has an almost imperceptible hum.
As far as temperatures go, I tended to keep the fridge at 40-43 degrees and the freezer at 0 degrees. I played around with the VersaTemp Zone temperatures. When the fridge was below 40 degrees, it tended to freeze my vegetables and cause icicles to form in my milk. To be clear, the fridge can be adjusted between 36-46 degrees, the freezer between -11 and 7 degrees, and the VersaTemp Zone can be set to 27-41 degrees. The temperatures of all three sections are easily adjustable in the Hisense IoT platform, ConnectLife, or via the control panel on the front of the fridge.
The app also allows me to turn the icemaker on and off (and informs me when it’s full), adjust the child locks, and turn the fridge on energy saving mode. There are also two other settings — Super Cool and Super Freeze. With the Super Freeze button, the freezer quickly lowers for faster fresh food freezing, which is best used in warm conditions. The Super Cool button quickly lowers the temperature in the fridge compartment to keep food fresh. I think the Super Freeze button would be really good to use if you need to quickly freeze fresh cut meat or seafood to kill any bacteria. The Super Cool button is a good choice for parties or events, where the fridge door is likely to be opened throughout the evening.
I felt like the fridge was well laid out to keep my food organized, though I would have preferred at least one more drawer. I tended to have to place my greens on the shelves because they couldn’t fit in my vegetable drawer. Granted, I buy a lot of vegetables that take up a lot of room (think cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes), but I would prefer to have a drawer for these vegetables to keep them fresher. I could use the VersaTemp Zone as a fridge if I really wanted the additional drawer space, however, I’m nervous that if I don’t see the food in the fridge with everything else, I’ll forget it’s there.
My parents joke that I have a lot of sauces and dressings, and it’s true, though I’ve had to cut back on how many I get because there are less shelves on the inside of the right fridge door than there were on my last fridge. While I could put some things in the inside of the left door, as it has some shelving, I’m limited on the size of the item because those shelves are considerably smaller. The ice chute takes up a lot of space. I usually store butter, limes, garlic, and other small things there.
My favorite part of the fridge is that the bottom shelf on the right side of the fridge slides back allowing more space to put tall items, like my almond milk. There is a shelf on the inside of the right door that can fit a gallon of milk, but I use it for my dressings and sauces.
In terms of the VersaTemp Zone, I found little use for it — which is not to say that it’s useless. I truly do think it’s a good spot to store deli meats, wine, or anything that can’t fit in the fridge. I can think of many ways that families could use that extra space. For now, I keep glass mugs in there so that if I want a cold glass of beer, I’ll have a chilled glass. It’s outfitted with a long, removable rectangular container, so I decided to fill it up with ice. As long as I put the VersaTemp Zone down to 27 degrees, the ice won’t melt. Perhaps this is a good work around to a small icemaker. Maybe when the weather warms up, I’ll chill some bottles of white wine in the drawer.
The freezer is incredibly deep and can easily hold bags upon bags of frozen foods. I don’t eat frozen food, so I use it to store my frozen ice packs. When you pull out the freezer drawer, another smaller drawer appears at the top. This is where I store my frozen meats — shrimp, chicken, fish, turkey, etc.
I was so excited to hook up my fridge to my sink because I love the convenience of a fridge that provides ice and filtered water. I can adjust the type of ice that I want on the control panel — cubed or crushed — or choose to have water dispensed. The water comes out cold and tastes great. It’s also a big enough area to fit water bottles and such. As for the ice, it does take a second or two to dispense. I prefer the cubed ice setting as the crushed ice takes longer to do and it’s not like the crushed ice you’d get at Sonic. The ice maker emits 79 decibels of sound, which is equivalent to a louder-than-average washing machine.
I don’t have kids, so I really don’t have a need to use the child lock function, but if you wanted to turn it on, it would lock the control panel, including the water and ice dispenser function, so kids can’t play with it. When the fridge door is left open too long, approximately 2 minutes, a beeping sound will emit notifying you to close the fridge. A notification will also be sent through the app.
In terms of maintenance, there isn't much you have to do. About every six months, the water filter will need to be changed. A light will appear on the control panel of the fridge informing you when to change it. Other than that, clean the exterior, interior, and door seal occasionally and replace the LED light if it goes out.
Overall, I have enjoyed using this fridge. It’s sleek and attractive, big enough for most families, and designed in a way to easily organize your food. Not to mention — the variations in temperature that can be controlled through your phone is an amazing feature. What more could you ask for?
Score: 4 out of 5
Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator: User reviews
With a 4.6 out of 5-star rating, I’d say that the Hisense 25.6 cu. ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator is liked by Lowe's customers. Granted there are only 55 reviews on Lowe’s, but I still say that’s impressive. Customers noted how spacious the fridge is and how they really liked the sliding shelf that lets you put taller items in the fridge. The VersaTemp Zone was a big bonus to many reviewers who liked how they could adjust the temperature to their needs. A few noted that the ice maker is small and that the handles took some getting used to, but these were small drawbacks.
Should you buy the Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator?
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How does the Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator compare?
Hisense offers a slightly larger refrigerator in the Hisense 26.6 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator. It lacks a VersaTemp Zone and smart features which is why it’s about $400 less. For a few hundred dollars more, you could consider the LG Craft Ice Smart WiFi Enabled 27.8 cu. ft. 4-Door Smart French Door Refrigerator. It has the same design as the Hisense I tested, though I prefer the recessed handles of the Hisense. The biggest difference lies in the fact that the LG has the ability to produce ice cubes, crushed ice, and slow-melting round craft ice. Samsung also has a Smart refrigerator — the Mega Capacity 31.5 cu. ft. Smart French Door Refrigerator. While it doesn’t have a VersaTemp Zone drawer, it does dispense filtered water and has a built-in AutoFill Water Pitcher that automatically refills and can be infused with a flavor.
How I tested the Hisense Smart French 4-Door Refrigerator
This was the first refrigerator that I’ve ever tested. Testing took two weeks and involved utilizing the Smart features and app, filling the fridge with different food items, monitoring the temperatures, connecting the water line, and more. All of this led to me being able to provide in-depth review.
Find out more about how we test.
- First reviewed: 5th March 2024
