CHiQ 515L Top Mount Fridge CTM515NW

This is a review for the later-model CTM515NW4. My experience is nothing like Jamie B's; I do not recommend this product. I am downgrading my review to one star, due to the fact that neither Chiq nor Appliances Online have corrected their advertising after a month! Read on to find out which features they are advertising, without including. I had previously purchased a dented CTM512SSE, which I found to be too warm and an unstable temperature. I assumed this was a result of the same accident that caused the denting, so I returned it and bought this NW4 brand-new. The temperature is unpredictable for this class of refrigerator in this brand. I had it on the coldest possible setting for nearly a week, and the fridge averaged about 6 degrees C overnight. I read advice that food in the fridge will keep the temperature more stable, so I loaded it. Two days in, the ice cream half-melted. Another day and the milk went sour. The strange thing is that the temperatures got cooler when I lowered it away from the "Coldest" setting on the dial. I now have it on 4.5/7 (like Jamie B.) which seems to give much more stability.

More issues with temperature: Whenever I open the freezer door, even for just a few seconds, the temperature shoots up above freezing; I believe this is due to the fans continuing to run while the door is open, evacuating tremendous gusts of cold air into the room. This is the design of it, not technically a fault. Complicating this are vents from the freezer to the refrigerator, located at the very bottom of the freezer on the vertical back wall. The result of this is that any reasonable person will eventually push food back that will block those vents. While the temperature varies too much at the best of times (perhaps implying poor insulation), it is especially bad during the rather aggressive defrost cycle; when it was empty of food, a defrost raised the air temperature inside the freezer to over +30C! Even full of food, a defrost raises temperature by 12C, and if we load some groceries just before a defrost, the temperature rises drastically: again, melting the ice cream or worse. A defrost cycle seems to take place every 8-9 hours, but not predictably. I would hate to think what would happen if the power failed with that level of heat in the freezer.

Sadly, temperature is not the only problem. Before my purchase, Chiq's website, and thus AO's, advertised features on this fridge that do not exist: there is no freezer light, digital control, door alarm, nor fast-cooling mode, in particular. To their credit, Chiq acknowledged all of their incorrectly advertised features, and offered to arrange a return for me (but only for a store credit.) An Appliances Online manager agreed to either a return for full refund, or a partial refund for the missing features, with me keeping the unit. While this was commendable, it took days of my time, effort and documentation to make it happen. I accepted the partial refund, which I now regret; I would be better off with my nice, cold old fridge, possible energy inefficiencies be damned.

A final problem with this unit is the design of the shelving; there are very few brackets upon which to move shelves, and they are either too close together or too far apart. Although the capacity is technically larger than my old fridge, I could not transfer everything into it, due to the arrangement. The freezer cavity is especially narrow and short, with most of the capacity in depth, making food difficult to find and reach. The Meat Keeper is useless; yes, it traps some colder air, but that robs refrigeration from the other shelves. It might have been added to discourage customers from piling food too high near the back vents, again subtracting some of the unit's advertised capacity.

So, if you like a big, sometimes warm fridge that you cannot fit much inside, and without a surprise bag of missing features, this might be the model for you. At the time of this writing, the missing features are still advertised on both websites.; this is one month after I reported the problem! Be aware that you are buying a fridge without a fast-cooling mode, without a digital control, without a freezer light and without a door alarm. I do believe both companies made honest mistakes, but for now the advertising remains misleading.

Chiq staff were helpful (other than some long delays in responding).

CHiQ 515L Top Mount Fridge CTM515NW4 This review is about the latest updated model currently being sold (Feb 2026). We had checked out the previous model CTM515NW, I had rung the company to find out what the differences are in the latest model thats for sale in the shops, as being new and January there was no stock available to view. I was told by a technician they had used stronger smokier glass shelving. After purchasing one through a store we discovered that the fridge interior is quite dark, and there's only a led light strip at the front which doesn't light the fridge interior properly. We then rang Chiq in Mt Waverley in Melbourne and the female customer service person said sorry we can't help you with this problem you need to contact the store you bought it from. The customer service person said after asking the staff at Chiq that they don't have a lighting solution for this problem. I asked that she pass on our feedback to the relevant staff and she said she would do this. I had hoped for more assistance from Chiq and a higher care factor. On doing some online researching we found out its very important for fridge interiors to be well lit for a lot of very good reasons. We have contacted the store we bought it from and they are trying to see what fridge lights are available that you can attach inside, our store cared genuinely about our problem and were grateful to have this feedback about this new model. We have looked online but are yet to solve this problem with the right fridge lights that you can attach easily and work as a motion sensor light. So at this stage this problem is not resolved. I would like to let people know its best to see this fridge first and plugged in and in normal household lighting to see that its not too dark for their needs. There is also no light in the freezer. Apart from this we do like the fridge. The two fruit and veg keepers have a gap in the middle so are not air tight at all. So currently you can still buy the previous model online at Appliances Online and some other stores for a good price if you shop around. I would not recommend this fridge to anyone until they fix up the lighting issue. We were told very good things about Chiq fridges and the company and that is why we bought this brand as it was recommended. We hope for the best possible outcome for this new fridge purchase and its lighting.

New model CTM515nw4 from Bing Lee. Great fridge so far, Quiet compressor, lots of space, It took three days to work out the best settings for my use of the space. Freezer set the dial all the way to the left. -18c to -20c. Fridge dial set at 4.5. Meat keeper 0c to 2c. Top self 2c to 4c. Middle shelf 0c to 2c. Bottom shelf -1c to 2c. The recorded temperatures in the fridge are early morning after overnight. During the day with door opening and closing the average sits around 3c. These temperatures are perfect and will keep everything fresh and cold. Bonus 3yr warranty by registering online 5 yr total warranty now. $791, delivered by Bing Lee with old fridge and packaging removed. No complaints.