Smeg may make beautiful toasters and sexy coffee machines, but should you go all out and fill your home 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 matchy-matchy appliances might sound appealing, what you'll gain in aesthetics you may lose in performance. The good news, though, is that if you choose carefully, you can have both beauty and function.

There's more to a kitchen appliance than just good looks

Kim Gilmour, CHOICE appliance expert

"There's more to a kitchen appliance than just good looks – our independent, comparative tests show that Smeg products aren't always recommended, despite their retro appeal," says CHOICE appliance expert Kim Gilmour.

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 on a different brand 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
• Coffee grinder
• Personal blender
• Kettles
• Toasters
• Stand mixer
• Microwave
• Dishwasher
• Cooktops
• Rangehoods
• Wall ovens
• Freestanding 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 FAB32RPB5AU: a $4000 fridge flop from Smeg.

"Looks aren't everything, and considering that your fridge is a core kitchen appliance, you really need it to do its job well," says CHOICE whitegoods expert Denis Gallagher.

"Choosing a smart-looking fridge over a high-performing one can leave you with big power bills and food that goes off before it should – and perhaps worst of all, ice cream that's melted or become icy from defrosting and refreezing."

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%. 

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 coffee grinder testing, we were surprised to find that the $389 Smeg burr grinder failed to outperform a $65 Breville blade grinder. (In fact, it actually failed to outperform almost every other grinder we tested, coming in second-last place.)

That's a particularly embarrassing result considering that burr grinders almost always outperform blade grinders.

Personal blender

Are you a green smoothie lover who wants to blend in style? We suggest you don't buy this $199 Smeg number.

Despite its smooth looks, the Smeg will leave you lumped with lumpy drinks. 

To test their ability to make a green smoothie that's actually smooth, our experts use each personal blender to blitz up fruit and vegetables, then pass it through a fine sieve to see how well it's done its job. 

The Smeg's attempt left so many chunks that our experts scored it just 50% – the lowest green smoothie score of all the personal blenders we tested. (And lower even than a $69 Kmart personal blender!)

Not only that, but it's also the lowest scoring personal blender overall, sharing the wooden spoon with two $50 models. It's four times the price of these basic blenders, which just shows how overpriced it is for the performance it delivers (or rather doesn't).

Smeg kettles: Not our cup of tea.

Kettles

They may look the business, but the three 50s-style Smeg kettles we looked at didn't impress our testers. 

Despite their steep cost – $199 for an 800mL 'mini' kettle up to $269 for the larger models – they only managed to score between 68% and 72% in our kettle reviews, and even the quietest boils 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 may not be worth their relatively high price tags.

But each of them delivered patchy performance, showing skill in some tests but underperforming on others.

The recently released $329 four-slice Smeg toaster left our testers cold, delivering unevenly-toasted slices and struggling with multigrain and frozen bread.

However, they all left our experts pleasantly surprised by how easy they are to operate and to clean. 

They delivered patchy performance, showing skill in some tests but underperforming on others

For their prices ($269, $299 and $329), 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

Smeg's $729-a-pop, 50s-style stand mixer may have the looks to rival a KitchenAid, but is its beauty mostly on the surface?

In short, yes. It didn't 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.

The Smeg products to buy with caution

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 actually scored pretty well on some of our tests, but for the price, you can do much better. 

It scored pretty well on some tests, but for the price, you can do much better

Or you could even spend less and still get better performance: seven of the 16 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. 

It may have the looks, but does this Smeg dishwasher have the touch?

Dishwasher

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 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. 

Cooktops

In news that will surprise nobody, Smeg's gas cooktops sit at the more expensive end of the price range, from $1790 to $2590. 

The gas cooktops didn't wow us but they weren't terrible either – our experts rated them 'Very good' or 'Excellent' across a number 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

Smeg wall ovens: The three models we tested performed well.

Wall ovens

Ranging in price from $1790 to $2790, 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. However, you can pick up better-performing ovens for less, so we suggest you look at other brands as well.

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 (or far more!) 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. 

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 quite as impressive. Priced at $259, it 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.

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