A fridge, washing machine and wine fridge that are smart in at least two senses of the word. You okay, hOn?

By Duncan Bell published 19 December 21

Go back a few years and nobody expected kitchen appliances to be smart in any sense of the word. They just hung around dowdily in the background, keeping your milk cold, or washing your socks. Nowadays they have to be good-looking, intelligent (by fridge standards) and better connected than Boris Johnson’s mates. That’s what Haier delivers with its new range of smart appliances powered by the curiously-named hOn app .

Haier is the world’s number one appliance brand, largely by virtue of owning everyone from GE in the States to Hoover in Europe. This range, under its own name, has some of the high-end style of some of the swanky offerings of yet another of Haier's subsidiaries, Fisher & Paykel… but at a more affordable price. 

First up is the I-Pro Series 5. Queen of the Laundry Room, this cutting-edge washing machine comes in a choice of white or sexy, sexy graphite and promises ‘professional washing results at home.’ The ‘Direct Motion’ motor comes with a lifetime guarantee and hygiene fiends will be glad to know that there’s also bacteria-slaying built in as standard.

The  I-Pro Series 5 has an ‘A’ energy rating – and that’s on the new  energy-rating system, which has been made much tougher, in order to remove the need for the A++++++ ratings found on the old one.  The capacity is an impressively meaty 10kg.

The FD 83 series 7 is a hOn-enabled, frost-free fridge freezer with filtered water dispenser that is so smart, it can do everything short of cooking your dinner. Using the hOn app – no I have no idea why it’s called that – you can tell the fridge’s AI to start cooling before you get back from supermarket. It then continues to quick cool after you load the fridge, getting back to the correct temperature no less than ‘73% faster’.

Another neat little temperature trick is a ‘MyZone’ drawer that can be set to exactly the right temperature for specific foods, via the hOn app. There are also tweakable humidity zones, fast freezing and defrosting via a ‘special pad’ and a humungous, 537-litre capacity.

Last but by no means least, there’s the self explanatory Haier Wine Bank 50 Series 7. Available in 42- or 77-bottle versions, this is a great looking mini range of wine fridges that lets you catalogue your vino collection just by scanning the labels on the bottles, into the hOn app. The app also offers food pairing suggestions.

Of course humidity and temperature are controlled so your wine is in perfect condition when it comes to drinking time, and you can set different conditions for each of the two zones in the fridges. Elegant beech wood shelves minimise vibrations, to keep your wine sediment free, while the glass is uv-resistant, as wine does not enjoy the sunshine. Oh and the door is also lockable, which could be very handy in certain situations.

All these Haier appliances look suitably high-end and would grace any modern home, but how much do they cost? This much!

Washing machine: from £449 

Duncan has been writing about tech for almost 15 years and fitness ever since he became middle aged and realised he could no longer rely solely on his boyish good looks. He used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know." Pre-lockdown Duncan was widely regarded as the best-dressed man ever to work for T3 – admittedly not saying much. Post-lockdown he is looking forward to wearing clothes other than shorts and hoodies again very soon, assuming he can still fit into them. He currently writes about cycling, fitness tech that isn’t too heavy, and all things kitchen and home related. 

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