Hisense HV623D15UK Silver

Is the Hisense HV623D15UK Silver worth buying?

Yes, the Hisense HV623D15UK Silver is worth buying at £299 if you need 14 place settings and want the fixing kit for the cabinet door to arrive with the machine rather than be sourced separately. It works out at £21.36 a place setting, uses 0.79 kWh and 11 litres of water a cycle, and carries a 2 year manufacturer warranty. The one number that should give you pause is the 3.2 average from 14 owners, which is thin compared with the COMFEE' machines in the same price band.

It suits a family of four who cook most evenings, and it suits anyone fitting a new kitchen who wants a quiet, plain front rather than a machine on show. It is less suited to a two person household, who will run 14 covers half empty, and to anyone who wants to start a wash from a phone, because the controls are push buttons on the panel and there is no app pairing among its features.

What do 14 place settings and 0.79 kWh a cycle mean in practice?

Fourteen place settings means 14 full covers: a plate, a bowl, a glass, a cup and the cutlery for each person, which is a Sunday roast plus the pans from it in one load. Divide £299 by 14 and each cover costs £21.36, which is £1.64 below the £23.00 a cover on the 13 setting Hisense HV642E90UK at the same price, and £1.43 above the £19.93 a cover on the 14 setting Candy at £279.

A cycle draws 0.79 kWh and 11 litres of water, which is 0.13 kWh below the 0.92 kWh the Hisense HV642E90UK takes. Run the Economy programme on a full basket and that figure holds; run Intensive on six plates and you pay full cycle price for a quarter of the load, which is what the half load option is there to prevent.

What comes in the box and what do you buy separately?

The body measures 59.8 cm wide, 81.5 cm high and 55 cm deep, so it slides into a standard 60 cm housing under the worktop with roughly 2 cm of width to spare for levelling. The fixed door fixing kit is part of this model, and a user manual comes with it. The cabinet door front and its handle come from your kitchen, not from Hisense, so allow for those in the budget.

It weighs 34 kg, so lift it into the housing with two people and take the baskets out first. The machine is finished in silver, runs on 240 volts, and the Aqua Protect anti-flood system cuts the water feed if a leak develops, which is the feature you hope never to need and are glad to have above a wooden floor.

Where does the Hisense HV623D15UK Silver fall short?

Only 14 owners have rated it and they average 3.2, which is the lowest owner score among the 14 place setting machines in its price bracket. A sample of 14 is small, but it is the sample a buyer has, and it sits a long way from the 161 ratings behind the COMFEE' 14 Place Settings Wi-Fi.

It carries a D energy rating, so it is thirstier than the better rated machines even though 0.79 kWh a cycle is competitive in cash terms. The 47 dB wash is also audible from the next room in an open plan kitchen, and there is no wireless control and no light on the floor to tell you a cycle is running.

How does the Hisense HV623D15UK Silver compare with the Hisense HV642E90UK and the Candy?

The Hisense HV642E90UK costs the same £299 and holds 13 settings, so each cover runs to £23.00 against £21.36 here. In exchange it adds a built-in water softener for hard water areas and a foldable bottom basket, but it draws 0.92 kWh a cycle instead of 0.79 kWh. Buy the HV623D15UK Silver for the lower running cost and the larger basket; buy the HV642E90UK if limescale is the enemy in your kitchen.

The Candy is £20 cheaper at £279, holds the same 14 settings and opens its own door at the end of a cycle to help drying, which brings it to £19.93 a cover. Its owner base is even thinner at 7 ratings averaging 4.0. Choose the Hisense HV623D15UK Silver when the fixing kit in the box, the 2 year warranty and low energy use matter most; choose the Candy to save £20; choose the Hisense HV642E90UK if water hardness is your problem.