Smeg may make beautiful ovens and sexy coffee machines, but should you go all out and fill your kitchen with everything Smeg?
Before you start deciding which Smeg colour you want to kit out your kitchen with, press pause for a moment: our rigorous testing shows not all of their products perform as well as you'd expect for the price you pay.
As much as a matchy-matchy kitchen might sound appealing, what you'll gain in aesthetics you may lose in performance. But if you choose carefully, you can have both beauty and function.
There's more to a kitchen accessory than just good looks
Kim Gilmour, CHOICE household testing
"There's more to a kitchen accessory than just good looks – our independent, comparative tests show that Smeg products aren't always recommended, despite their retro appeal," says Kim Gilmour, team leader of CHOICE's household testing.
And even when Smeg appliances do perform well, they're usually more expensive than some of the top scoring products, so you could spend less and still get an appliance that delivers the same (or even better) performance.
We look at which Smeg products rate best, and which leave something to be desired.
On this page:
- Fridges
- Kettles
- Toasters
- Stand mixer
- Coffee grinder
- Freestanding ovens
- Dishwashers
- Automatic espresso machine
- Microwave
- Cooktops
- Rangehoods
- Espresso machine
- Wall ovens
- Blender
The Smeg products to avoid
Fridges
Smeg has a reputation as a luxury brand, but it doesn't always deliver bang for your buck.
Its fridges are priced at the very upper end of the market, but they're made by the same company that produces Beko fridges, which fall at the lower end of the price scale and often don't perform well in our tests.
"The problem with buying a poor-performing fridge is that your food will go off faster, so you'll end up spending more money in the long run," says Ashley Iredale, CHOICE's whitegoods expert.
The FAB32RPB5AU: a $4000 fridge flop from Smeg.
Form over function?
"Retro appliances may look cool, but our advice is to defer to function over form, and choose products that perform well instead," says Ashley.
We've tested a few Smeg fridges over the years and while their retro design is certainly popular and eye-catching, we've found they can be all style and no substance.
First there was the Smeg FAB38RCRAU, AKA "the worst fridge we've ever tested", then the Smeg FAB32RRDNA1 retro-styled bottom-mount fridge, which had a price tag of over $3400 but failed its energy check. (They've both since been discontinued.)
And now there's the $4000 Smeg FAB32RPB5AU which scored a shocking 0% for temperature stability and earned a CHOICE Expert Rating of just 43%.
Smeg kettles: Not our cup of tea.
Kettles
They may look the business, but Smeg's 50s-style variable-temperature kettles didn't impress our testers.
They scored between 68% and 72% in our kettle reviews, cost a steep $199–$269, and boil at a noisy 60dB.
If you're after a kettle that does the job and won't burn a hole in your pocket, check out our kettle reviews.
This $300 Smeg toaster takes an agonising 4 min 25 sec per cycle.
Toasters
Two of Smeg's retro-styled toasters performed reasonably well across some of our toaster tests – but not quite well enough for us to recommend them, meaning they definitely aren't worth the price.
Breaking with tradition, these Smeg appliances left our experts pleasantly surprised by their ease of use; they're easy to operate and to clean.
But each of them delivered patchy performance, showing skill in some tests but underperforming on others.
They delivered patchy performance, showing skill in some tests but underperforming on others
One excelled in turning out consistently toasted bread cycle after cycle, but was let down by its long toasting time (4 min, 25 sec) and lack of skill toasting multigrain bread.
The other was particularly adept at cooking multigrain bread but delivered lacklustre performance toasting one slice of bread on its own. (Our experts rated it as 'Poor' for this test.) Neither of them were great at toasting frozen bread.
For their prices ($299 and $269), they're particularly expensive single-function appliances that aren't solid performers.
If you're not convinced about paying a premium price tag for a toaster, check our reviews to find the best toasters from our tests that won't deplete your bank account.
A $729 stand mixer outclassed by a $100 Kogan model? That's embarrassing.
Stand mixer
It may have the looks to rival a KitchenAid, but is its beauty mostly on the surface?
Smeg's $729-a-pop, 50s-style stand mixer didn't overly impress in a number of tests, including ease of use and beating, and our experts found it was only OK for mixing a cake batter with the flex edge beater.
It was even outclassed by a $100 Kogan stand mixer.
It's not the lowest scoring Smeg product we've ever seen, but for the same price (or even less!) you can pick up far better performers.
If you want a mixer that's functional, not just decorative, see our kitchen mixer reviews.
This Smeg coffee grinder is no match for a Breville model that's a fraction of its price.
Coffee grinder
Most of us are prepared to pay a little extra for a quality product, but paying extra only to get a poor performance?
Not our favourite thing.
In our recent coffee grinder testing, we were surprised to find that a $389 Smeg burr grinder failed to outperform a $65 Breville blade grinder.
That's a particularly embarrassing result considering that burr grinders almost always outperform blade grinders.
The Smeg products to buy with caution
Smeg freestanding ovens: Don't get burnt by the price tag, especially if it's an average performer.
Freestanding ovens
Smeg's freestanding ovens certainly aren't cheap: the models in our current review cost $3590 and $7890.
Although they didn't score high enough overall to be recommended by our experts, they scored reasonably well for baking, roasting and grilling – and not so well for ease of use.
Our suggestion? Before you spend over $3000 on a Smeg oven, check our reviews to see which models our experts rate as the best freestanding ovens to make sure you're spending your money wisely.
It may have the looks, but does this Smeg dishwasher have the touch?
Dishwashers
Another pricey product, Smeg's dishwashers tend to sit at the upper end of the price range.
But do they deliver?
Well, they're certainly not terrible but (as with most Smeg products), for the price you could do better.
In fact, we found that an $800 dishwasher performed very similarly to a $1390 Smeg in our dishwasher lab testing.
See how Smeg compares with other brands in our dishwasher reviews.
The Smeg automatic espresso machine we tested was short on both features and taste.
Automatic espresso machine
At $1349, Smeg's automatic espresso machine sits towards the cheaper end of the price range for automatic espresso machines.
(Yes, automatic machines really are that expensive!)
And it doesn't perform too badly, delivering coffee that's even in temperature and frothing milk well via its manual steamer.
But it lacks many features that you'd expect as standard on an automatic espresso machine.
You can't change the amount of coffee grinds used for each espresso shot (the strength) and you can't change the water temperature.
It also lacks a display screen, which makes coffee-making more complicated than it ought to be and requires multiple readings of the instructions.
Its worst sin, though, is that it doesn't actually make great-tasting coffee
Its worst sin, though, is that it doesn't actually make great-tasting coffee (our experts rated it as only 'OK' for taste). And even though it's not super expensive relative to other automatic machines, you can still pick up far better-performing machines with more features for less money.
If you're looking for a machine that'll deliver your caffeine hit perfectly, check our automatic espresso machine reviews.
The Smeg SA34MX microwave: Decent performer, but still overpriced.
Microwave
At $430, the Smeg SA34MX microwave is at the pricier end of the scale. But does the cost translate to good performance?
Not really.
It's not so much that it's terrible; it actually scored pretty well on some of our tests.
It's more that for the price, you can do much better.
It's not so much that it's terrible; it's more that for the price, you can do much better
Or you could even spend less and still get better performance: seven of the 14 microwaves recommended by our experts cost less than $300.
Instead of paying $430 for a Smeg microwave, you could take out a 12-month CHOICE membership for $83.95, pick up a CHOICE recommended microwave for $300 and still come out ahead.
It's the same story with Smeg's convection microwave: it's $890, but you could pick up a hot performer for hundreds of dollars less.
For microwaves that won't drain your bank balance, check our microwave reviews before you buy.
Cooktops
In news that will surprise nobody, Smeg's gas cooktops sit at the more expensive end of the price range, from $1650 to $2490.
The gas cooktops didn't wow us but they weren't terrible either – our experts rated them 'Very good' or 'Excellent' across a range of tests, and overall they were rated as 'Good'.
It's a similar story with Smeg's 60cm induction cooktop. It's not the most expensive cooktop of the lot, but at $2790 it's still pretty pricey, and costs more than some larger cooktops.
And Smeg's $1490 4-element ceramic cooktop is one of the more expensive for its size, but also has the lowest CHOICE Expert Rating of all the ceramic cooktops in our review.
Plenty of cooktops that cost about the same or even less outperformed the Smeg products
Plenty of cooktops that cost about the same or even less outperformed the Smeg products across all three cooktop types.
So before you rush out and buy one, do your research – you could pick up a much better performer for the price of a Smeg, or even save yourself some serious money on a higher-scoring model.
See our expert cooktop reviews to find out.
Smeg rangehoods: A bit hit and miss, so be careful which model you choose.
Rangehoods
Rangehoods are another hit-and-miss category for Smeg.
We've tested three models that range in price from $1250 to $1890.
Somewhat surprisingly, the most expensive model is the worst performing, scoring just 64% overall in our expert tests. Other models perform quite well, but you can get similar (or even better) performance for a lot less money.
To stop your money going up in smoke, check our rangehood reviews first.
The Smeg products that are worth considering
The ECF01PBEU espresso machine: Earns the CHOICE tick of approval.
Espresso machine
Smeg's ECF01PBEU espresso machine gets the CHOICE tick of approval.
This model did well in our coffee machine test, scoring 100% on coffee temperature consistency and 80% for milk frothing. It also scored well on the taste test.
It didn't quite score highly enough to be recommended by our experts, but it still achieved a respectable score.
At $549 it's a good price, too, and held its own against products that cost several times more.
Smeg wall ovens: The three models we tested performed well.
Wall ovens
Ranging in price from $1750 to $2290, Smeg's wall ovens certainly aren't the cheapest on the market, but compared to some of the high-end products that cost $4000+, they seem almost affordable!
The models we tested in our wall oven reviews scored well for baking, roasting and overall performance, but were marked down for ease of use.
They didn't make the cut to be recommended by our experts, but they're still decent performers.
The BLF01CRAU blender wowed us with its green smoothie and kale-blitzing.
Blender
Another retro-styled appliance that performed quite well, the Smeg BLF01CRAU blender makes a pretty darn good green smoothie and absolutely blitzes kale (it scored 95% on the kale test).
Sure, it's no Vitamix, but at $329 it's a fraction of the price.
It's not the highest scoring blender in our blender reviews, but if you absolutely must have a pretty blender in your kitchen, this is a decent option.
What about the stick blender?
While the blender is a good buy, the Smeg stick blender isn't as impressive. Priced at $259, the Smeg stick blender comes with a range of attachments to help you chop, process, whip and blend.
Our expert says it's good overall, but only OK for ease of use. However, it scored well in many of our other tests like chopping and processing.
For the price (or even less), you could buy a stick blender with attachments that's not as pretty but performs better. And let's face it, a stick blender isn't exactly something you're going to show off on the kitchen bench when you're not using it, is it?
You can see how the Smeg model stacks up in our stick blender reviews.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
