diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
index e478f46a7345f..219281ac00840 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
@@ -226,24 +226,24 @@ def test_api(self):
             _maybe_remove(store,'df')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[:10],append=True,format='table')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[10:],append=True,format='table')
-            assert_frame_equal(read_hdf(path,'df'),df)
+            assert_frame_equal(store.select('df'),df)
 
             # append to False
             _maybe_remove(store,'df')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[:10],append=False,format='table')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[10:],append=True,format='table')
-            assert_frame_equal(read_hdf(path,'df'),df)
+            assert_frame_equal(store.select('df'),df)
 
             # formats
             _maybe_remove(store,'df')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[:10],append=False,format='table')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[10:],append=True,format='table')
-            assert_frame_equal(read_hdf(path,'df'),df)
+            assert_frame_equal(store.select('df'),df)
 
             _maybe_remove(store,'df')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[:10],append=False,format='table')
             store.append('df',df.iloc[10:],append=True,format=None)
-            assert_frame_equal(read_hdf(path,'df'),df)
+            assert_frame_equal(store.select('df'),df)
 
         with ensure_clean_path(self.path) as path: