Liebherr CBNsda 575i

Verdict

Yes, the 60cm Liebherr CBNsda 575i costs a lot of money, but it justifies this in multiple ways. First, it has a large capacity (259-litre fridge, 103-litre freezer). Secondly, it has some brilliant design touches, including the soft opening doors, and rail-mounted drawers. Thirdly, it maintains temperatures brilliantly and has the lowest running costs that I’ve seen. If you want the best, this is it.

Introduction

The Liebherr CBNsda 575i is certainly not cheap for a fridge freezer, but rather than just being expensive because it looks nice, it’s built a cut above the competition.

From its smart handles, to the drawers on rails and the impressive low running costs, this is a premium fridge freezer for those that demand the best.

Design and Features

• Solid construction with clever handles
• Soft-close drawers on rails
• Flexible interior space

From the moment it is unboxed, the Liebherr CBNsda 575i looks every bit the high-end fridge freezer it is. Its tough metal exterior exudes class and quality.

Unpacking and removing all of the film is a little fiddly, and the raised lettering on the door requires special attention to remove all traces of blue protective film, but that’s a once-only job.

The traces of brilliance start to show the moment you go to open the fridge or freezer. Rather than having a basic door handle or pull, the Liebherr CBNsda 575i has large, chunky handles.

They’re not just for effect. Grab one, and it hinges forward, pushing against the door frame to gently break the seal so that the door opens effortlessly. It’s truly a brilliant design that sets this model apart from the competition.

When the doors are pushed shut, they automatically close, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving them open.

Inside, is a treat. The fridge has a large 259-litres of space, putting the Liebherr CBNsda 575i towards the larger end of the 60cm wide range of fridge freezers. The space has been brilliantly designed, too.

At the bottom of the fridge are two pull-out Biofresh drawers (one for fruits and vegetables, and one for cheese, meat and fish), which run at 0°C. By keeping fresh food just at freezing temperature, they extend the life of food without ruining its texture or consistency.

Pull out a drawer, and the Liebherr CBNsda 575i shows something special: each is mounted on runners, and can extend fully, so it’s easy to reach items whether they’re at the front or back of the drawer.

They’re soft-close drawers, too: a gentle push is all that’s needed to see a drawer slide back into its housing and close up fully. I’ve not seen these kinds of drawers on a fridge freezer before, but wish every model had this option.

The flexibility doesn’t stop there. There’s a third drawer in the middle of the fridge, which is handy for smaller items that can get lost on a shelf, leaving three shelves for food. The middle shelf has plenty of room between it and the top shelf for taller items.

However, the top shelf has a split in it, so you can slide it back halfway to give room for standing up much taller items. And the bottom shelf can have the glass removed, leaving a ridged surface for bottles, preventing them rolling around.

Rather than the normal lighting, Liebherr has integrated LEDs into the side of the fridge’s cavity, so that it’s always easy to see everything, no matter how full the fridge is.

In the door, storage is similarly as clever. There’s a bottom door pocket that’s large enough for even the biggest milk containers, and has a handy sliding divider.

There’s a top door pocket, which can be mounted at various heights, and is ideal for condiments. It has two slide out containers, too, adding to the versatility.

Given how tall the fridge is, you might want to move the top pocket down a little (I had it on the highest setting), so that items are easier to reach.

Liebherr provides an egg tray and storage box as standard.

Open the door to the 103 litre freezer space, and the storage is a little more basic, with three drawers. The middle one has an integrated ice maker: fill up the tank of water and insert it into the holder, and the ice cube tray is filled. Just twist the handle to fill up the pull-out drawer.

It’s a little more work to remember to make ice than with the Hisense RS818N4TIC, which has a larger water tank for dispensing water and automatically making ice. However, the Hisense is a much larger American-style model, which takes up a lot more room.

Otherwise, the drawers are standard pull-out models, which are deep enough to take a standard frozen pizza.

Liebherr also provides two ice packs, which you can use in a coolbox when you go on a picnic.

Control of the fridge freezer is via the LCD at the top. It’s touch-sensitive, so easy to operate, and it glows red and shows a warning if you leave the fridge door open.

As well as letting me set the fridge and freezer temperatures, the screen has additional options, including VarioTemp, which let me set a freezer temperature between -2°C and 14°C, so this compartment can be used as additional cooling space – handy for parties.

There are also options to turn on SuperCool and SuperFrost, where the Liebherr CBNsda 575i increases its fridge and freezer cooling performance, respectively, which is handy when you’re loading up with fresh food. Holiday mode helps save energy, increasing the fridge temperature to 15°C, which is cold enough to prevent odours.

There’s also an app that gives remote control of the Liebherr CBNsda 575i once it’s connected to Wi-Fi. As well as providing a quick way to adjust settings and activate the features above, it also has a BottleTimer. Drop a bottle in the freezer section, turn the timer on and SuperFrost is enabled, with a reminder after 41 minutes to take the bottle out. I also like the notifications, such as reminders if the fridge or freezer doors have been left open.

This model is frost-free, and I didn’t see any ice build-up during testing.

Performance

• Excellent temperature control
• Extremely power efficient

I loaded the Liebherr CBNsda 575i up with ice packs to simulate food, and set the fridge to 4°C and the freezer to -18°C. I then used temperature sensors throughout the fridge and freezer, using our automatic door openers to open and close the fridge door on a schedule.

I found that the fridge was, on average, 4.37°C, which is just 0.37°C above the target temperature. I measured standard deviation, which showed that most temperatures fluctuated just +/-0.38°C from the average, which is excellent. This shows that temperatures are rock solid and don’t bounce up and down much.

I found that the fridge’s top was slightly warmer than the middle and bottom, but that’s normal for most models.

Moving to the freezer, the average temperature was -18.18°C, which is just 0.18°C colder than the target temperature. Again, standard deviation was excellent, showing that the majority of temperatures fluctuated +/-0.3°C from the average. In other words, temperatures are incredibly stable with little fluctuation.

The Liebherr CBNsda 575i is one of the few A-rated fridge freezers. I measured temperature consumption and estimated that this fridge freezer would cost just £23.02 a year to run, assuming a price of 24.5p per kWh. That’s incredible, and shows a running cost of 6p per litre: the lowest that I have seen on any fridge freezer.

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