Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9

Verdict

An incredible bit of technology, the Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9 is a 75cm wide fridge freezer. That’s 15cm wider than a standard model, but the 538 litres of space isn’t far off what you’d get on an American-style model. With low running costs and excellent temperature control, this is a brilliant choice for those short on physical space.

Introduction

Can’t quite fit in an American-style fridge freezer but you don’t want to compromise too far and end up with a 60cm model? The Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9 may be for you.

Slightly wider than normal at 75cm, not to mention tall, this fridge freezer has almost as much space inside as a side-by-side. Very low running costs and incredible temperature control make this a brilliant buy for those looking for a bit more fridge and freezer space.

Design and features

• Tonnes of fridge space
• Clever organisation in fridge
• Includes ice maker.

At 75cm wide, the Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9 is 15cm wider than a standard fridge/freezer. That doesn’t sound like much, and it’s not actually much more space you need to allow, but it does make a huge difference to the internal space.

With a 370-litre fridge compartment and a 168-litre freezer compartment, this fridge-freezer has a total of 538-litres of storage space; that’s only a little behind the space inside the 562-litre Hisense RS694N4ICE.

It helps that the Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9 is so tall, maximising fridge space vertically, even if it does mean that items at the back of the top shelf can be hard to reach.

The other gains come from Samsung’s SpaceMax technology, which means thinner walls than on competitor’s products, allowing for more internal space with no degradation in cooling performance.

Space is neatly organised too. In the door there are three full-width pockets, each nice and deep so they can take larger items. The bottom pocket is ideal for milk containers and juice, with jars suitable for the top ones.

In the middle of the door are two split pockets which you can fit at different heights, depending on what you want to store below.

In the main fridge, the 75cm comes into full use with very wide shelves; wider than you get on most side-by-side models. There are four shelves to use, with the first one having a sliding-split, so you can push half the shelf out the way to have taller bottles standing below.

The other shelves are full width and have a good amount of headroom for regular bottles, cans and other food items.

I love the Multi Tray, which clips onto the top shelf and can be located horiztontally where you want it. Whether you want to store snacks in there or a couple of bottle of wines, it’s a neat, flexible bit of extra storage.

There are two boxes. The lower, larger Fresh Box is for fruits and salad items. It slides a long way out, so is easy to load and unload.

Above this is the Optimal Fresh+ drawer, which is designed to keep meat and fish at ideal temperatures, increasing their longevity.

Underneath is the standard freezer compartment. This has an open tray at the top, which is deep enough to take a standard frozen pizza.

There’s also an ice cube maker, which has a twist handle to dispense cubed ice into the holder below. It’s all a manual process, but it’s a nice addition to have.

Underneath are two standard freezer drawers, which are big enough for frozen pizzas, bags of chips and vegetables, ice cream tubs and so on.

There’s a standard control panel inside, which lets you set the fridge and freezer temperatures individually. However, this is also a smart fridge, connecting to SmartThings. From the app, I could set the fridge and freezer temperatures, plus there are some additional modes.

AI Energy can help save energy by monitoring how the fridge is used, and there’s control over the lighting too. You can pick the light brightness, how the light turns on, and turn on Night light, which reduces the brightness when it’s dark.

It’s nice to have this level of control over the excellent lighting, which makes it easy to see everything inside the fridge.

Performance

• Incredible temperature control
• Very low running costs
• Frost free

To test the Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9, I set the fridge to 4°C and the freezer to -18°C, and loaded the inside with freezer blocks to mimic food, and then loaded it up with temperature sensors, plus our automatic door opener.

I found that the average fridge temperature was a little warmer than set at 5.38°C, but standard deviation showed that most temperatures fluctuated from this average by just +/-0.19°C. Given that standard deviation of 1°C is good, that’s an incredible result. However, if I had this fridge, I may dial the temperature down by 1°C.

In the freezer, the average temperature was -17.53°C, with standard deviation showing that temperatures fluctuated by +/-0.3°C. Again, that’s an incredible result.

I measured power usage, and estimated that the Samsung Series 8 SpaceMax RB53DG706AS9 would cost just £27.66 a year to run, or 5p per litre of space. That’s really impressive and this fridge freezer clearly deserves its A energy rating. This model is frost free and I didn’t detect any frost build up over my time with it.

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