The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a high-end 36-inch standard-depth French door refrigerator exclusively available at Lowe's. Its most prominent feature is a separate temperature-controlled pull-out drawer that you can configure as a soft freezer, deli drawer, or beverage chiller. The fridge features multiple split shelves, six door bins, and an ice and water dispenser located in the door. The freezer consists of two pull-out drawers. Other premium features include an inverter compressor and dual evaporators for cooling.
We've recently started testing refrigerators. We independently purchase each unit from major retailers, just like you, to keep our reviews free from manufacturer influence. Each refrigerator goes through the same tests to measure objective data for metrics like temperature uniformity, produce preservation, and actual storage capacity so you can easily compare the results.
Want to learn more about how we operate? Check out our about us page.
Our Verdict
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a great choice for everyday use. It performs impressively well in keeping produce fresh and crisp for a week or more. The fridge and freezer are uniformly well-cooled for the most part, except for the warm middle and lower refrigerator door bins. The refrigerator's capacity is very good, with deep door bins and split shelves that can be repositioned to store tall items like narrow-neck bottles. Rather than a single-function deli drawer, there's a separate temperature-controlled pull-out drawer that adds capacity and flexibility. The simple two-drawer freezer has a good capacity, enough for bags of vegetables, pizza boxes, meal prep containers, or value-sized boxes of burgers, chicken, or fish.
Great produce preservation performance.
Excellent temperature uniformity between the fridge shelves.
Incredible temperature uniformity in the freezer.
Good freezer capacity overall.
Separate pull-out drawer adds capacity and can act as a soft freezer or a chiller.
Middle and lower door bins are a lot warmer than the fridge shelves.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE offers great produce preservation performance. The dual evaporators keep humidity high in the fridge so that produce will stay fresh even outside the produce drawer. The seals on the crisper drawer retain humidity quite well inside the bin, resulting in impressive produce preservation. You'll be able to keep lettuce, celery, and carrots fresh and crisp for over a week.
Great produce preservation performance.
Dual evaporators keep fridge humidity high, preventing produce from drying out prematurely.
Produce bins seal well, retaining humidity and keeping produce crisp and fresh.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE delivers very good capacity in the refrigerator. There are multiple split shelves and deep door bins that make good use of the space. The left door has a very large ice chute, which cuts into the fridge space, but there are shallow wrap-around door bins that provide some storage here. You'll easily be able to store tall items like fresh herbs in water in a variety of locations. There's also a separate pull-out drawer between the fridge and the freezer that adds capacity, and you can adjust it to act as a soft freezer for thawing meats or softening ice cream, a deli drawer for meats and cheeses, or a wine and beverage cooler.
Multiple split shelves in the refrigerator provide clearance for tall items.
Deep door bins have good capacity.
Separate pull-out drawer adds capacity and can act as a soft freezer or a chiller.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE offers good capacity in the freezer. The freezer is simple, consisting of just two drawers with fixed dividers, but it's spacious enough for a family's needs. There's enough room in the top drawer for items like large bags of frozen peas or pizza boxes. The wide, deep, tall bottom drawer has lots of space for big family-sized boxes of preprepared dinner entrées.
Good freezer capacity overall.
Deep, wide, tall freezer bottom drawer provides a lot of space for large items.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE exhibits excellent temperature uniformity overall. Temperatures are very even between fridge shelves, so you don't need to be concerned about where you place temperature-sensitive items like milk. The freezer shows outstanding temperature uniformity, and you can rest assured that items will freeze quickly, remain perfectly frozen, and won't grow frost or suffer from freezer burn wherever you place them in the freezer. Unfortunately, the middle and lower refrigerator door bins are a lot warmer than the fridge shelves, so you should only use these as chillers for shelf-stable beverages or condiments.
Excellent temperature uniformity between the fridge shelves.
Incredible temperature uniformity in the freezer.
Middle and lower door bins are a lot warmer than the fridge shelves.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE delivers mediocre ice-making performance. The ice maker's production rate is inadequate for a small family or even a couple. The ice tray has an unremarkable capacity when full; it's barely enough for a small family dinner, so you'll have to buy bags of ice for parties or backyard barbecues.
Low ice production rate.
Low ice tray capacity.
Performance Usages
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
There's only one version of the Hisense HRM260N6TSE, and it's available in stainless steel. Here's our unit's label.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The Lowe's exclusive Hisense HRM260N6TSE has plenty of features and competes well with similarly configured high-end fridges costing much more. Its closest comparable alternative is the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS, which also has an in-door water dispenser, dual evaporators, and a separate temperature-controlled drawer. The Hisense offers better produce preservation since the humidity in the fridge compartment rises quickly and doesn't vary as much. The GE Profile has much worse temperature uniformity in the fridge and a little worse in the freezer. These two fridges have nearly identical capacities. The GE Profile's shortfalls are rectified in the much more expensive Café CGE29DP2TS1, which is a better fridge overall than the Hisense, but not by much. The Hisense also can't quite match the performance of the class-leading Bosch 500 Series B36FD52SNS despite the advantage of dual evaporators; it doesn't exceed the produce preservation performance due to the superlative produce bin seals in the Bosch, and it falls just a bit short on refrigerator capacity as well.
Note that there are multiple Reddit comments that are skeptical of Hisense's quality, warranty, and service network. While you'll find negative comments about any refrigerator manufacturer, it's still important to draw attention to these issues since this fridge performed so well in our tests.
For more recommendations, be sure to check out the best French door refrigerators, the best refrigerator brands, and our picks for the best refrigerators overall.
The Bosch 500 Series B36FD52SNS is a better fridge than the Hisense HRM260N6TSE. Despite the Hisense's dual evaporators versus the Bosch's single evaporator, the Bosch still offers better produce preservation performance than the Hisense due to its excellent produce bin seal. The Bosch also has a higher capacity in the fridge, but the same capacity in the freezer. Additionally, the Bosch produces and stores more ice than the Hisense. However, the Hisense does have better temperature uniformity in the fridge than the Bosch, despite its warm door bins.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a somewhat better fridge than the similarly priced LG LRFLC2706S. The dual evaporator Hisense handily beats the single evaporator LG in produce preservation performance, as well as refrigerator capacity, since the Hisense is standard depth while the LG is counter depth. However, the LG matches the Hisense in freezer capacity, which is notable for a counter-depth freezer. The LG also offers better refrigerator temperature uniformity since it doesn't suffer from the Hisense's warm door bins, and it can make and store much more ice than the Hisense can.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a better fridge than the similar GE Profile PGE29BYTFS. The Hisense's produce preservation is notably better, even though both fridges have dual evaporators and decent produce drawer seals. The Hisense also has a larger freezer since there's no ice tray taking up space there. The Hisense's separate temperature-controlled drawer is more fully featured than the GE's corresponding drawer because you can configure the Hisense's drawer as a soft freezer. However, the GE produces and stores far more ice than the Hisense, and its refrigerator door bins are better cooled. As well, the GE uses a compact water dispenser pitcher inside the fridge instead of a bulky ice and water dispenser in the door, so it has more fridge capacity.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a better fridge than the nearly identical GE Profile PVD28BYNFS. The Hisense has better produce preservation than the GE, and the Hisense's separate temperature-controlled drawer is more capable than the GE's because you can configure it as a mild freezer. The Hisense also has better temperature uniformity in the fridge and freezer. All other aspects of these two fridges are just about identical, though the GE's ice maker has a faster production rate, and its ice tray has a higher capacity.
Test Results
This refrigerator offers very good capacity in the fridge section. Despite the large ice maker box in the upper left corner and the deep, angled chute leading to the ice dispenser in the left door, there's still plenty of storage space available. There are four height-adjustable split shelves. One of these folds away to allow clearance for tall items at the front of the fridge, and another is narrow to accommodate the ice maker yet still provide some versatility. At the bottom are three deep bins: two crisper drawers and a narrower middle bin, suitable for storing items like soda cans.
In the right door, there are three deep door bins, and you can mount the middle bin at two heights. The three left door bins are fixed and either shallow or oddly shaped to fit around the ice maker and the ice chute, but the shallow middle and bottom bins provide some space for small items like tubes of tomato paste or hot sauce bottles.
You can convert the separate temperature-controlled pull-out 'VersaTemp' drawer below the refrigerator compartment from a soft freezer for gentle thawing or softening ice cream to a deli drawer for meats and cheeses to a chiller for wine or beverages. On repeated presses of the VersaTemp button just above the ice dispenser, you can cycle through the following temperature settings:
- 29 °F (-1 °C)
- 28 °F (-2 °C)
- 27 °F (-3 °C)
- 41 °F (5 °C)
- 40 °F (4 °C)
- 39 °F (3 °C)
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE offers good capacity in the freezer. The arrangement is fairly simple: just two pull-out drawers with fixed dividers. The divider in the top drawer is off-center, and the 0.5 cu ft section it creates looks like it would contain an ice tray in a different model with an ice maker in the freezer. There's enough space in the top drawer to store bags of frozen vegetables, small meal prep containers, or a pizza box or two. The wide, deep, tall bottom drawer has enough space for large family-sized boxes of burgers, chicken, or fish, with capacity left over for tubs of ice cream or other frozen treats.
This unit has dual evaporators and a single inverter compressor. The dual evaporators permit finer temperature and humidity control since each compartment is sealed from the other, allowing each evaporator to cool a smaller volume of air. This ensures low humidity in the freezer to prevent excessive frost formation on the evaporator, and high humidity in the fridge to prevent delicate produce from drying out, increasing produce preservation performance. Since each compartment is sealed from the other, there's no odor transfer between the fridge and the freezer.
An inverter compressor can modulate its speed based on cooling load, as opposed to an older fixed-speed compressor that has to cycle on and off to maintain a temperature setpoint. Inverter compressors are theoretically more efficient and lead to finer temperature control. Unfortunately, this design introduces another complex failure point, the inverter controller board.
The ice maker and ice tray sit in a large box in the upper left corner of the refrigerator. This arrangement requires special ducting, dampers, and insulation to direct air from the freezer evaporator to this area, forming a freezing microclimate in the refrigerator compartment. This design introduces a greater number of potential failure points than an ice maker in the freezer.
The ice maker is an ejector-type. With an ejector-type ice maker, a nozzle directs water into a metal mold. Once the water freezes into ice, a heater attached to the mold melts the ice touching the mold, detaching the formed ice cubes. A motor then rotates a plastic rake, ejecting the ice into the tray beneath. This is more robust than a twist-tray ice maker, which uses a motor to twist ice out of a plastic mold. The plastic can get brittle and break as it's subjected to repeated thermal and mechanical stresses.
Note that Hisense uses a cooling fan on the ice maker motor housing. This is very unusual.
You can activate the in-door ice and water dispenser by holding a glass against a large button. The dispenser will then drop ice, crushed ice, or water into the container. The crushed ice function isn't very effective, inconsistently breaking the crescent-shaped ice cubes.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE shows good temperature uniformity in the refrigerator. The shelves have amazingly uniform temperatures, so you shouldn't be concerned about placing temperature-sensitive items like milk wherever there's room. However, the middle and lower door bins are a lot warmer than the shelves. You might want to reserve the middle and lower bins for cooling less perishable beverages and condiments, and place temperature-sensitive items like milk and butter in the upper door bins that don't show this big temperature difference.
The freezer has superb temperature uniformity. Temperatures are remarkably consistent throughout the freezer. You can store meat or ice cream anywhere in the freezer and don't have to be concerned about inconsistent freezing, frost formation, or freezer burn.
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE offers great produce preservation performance. The dedicated fridge evaporator keeps humidity high in the fridge, and the produce bin seal is effective at retaining moisture in the bin. Delicate produce, like lettuce, celery, and carrots, will stay fresh and crisp for over a week.
