My wonderful wash-day friend
Written: Oct 22 '05 (Updated Oct 24 '05)
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Pros: Very quiet, intelligent & useful program cycles, and, most importantly, reliable!
Cons: None. This baby's been a real wash-day friend.
The Bottom Line: Zanussi has really lived up to its reputation for quality products with this combined washer-dryer
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| filmfanuk's Full Review: Zanussi WJD1667W Front Load All-in-One Washer / Dr... |
I purchased my Zanussi WJD1667 washer-dryer 3 years ago and it's still going strong without any repairs.
Item description:
This white washer-dryer is front-loading, with the door hinge on the left of the machine as you look at it. The door opens fully on its 180 degree hinge, and it has an extra-large viewing porthole.
It can cater with a 6kg wash load, and 3kg of items for drying. It has an 'A' wash performance rating and a 'B' energy efficiency rating. There's no need for a vent pipe for the drying cycle as the steam is condensed within the machine itself. In other words, plug it into the cold water & drainage pipes and away you go.
Features:
It's got a number of useful features, including:
- Pre-Wash (not selectable for Wool and Hand wash cycles)
- Quick Wash, for lightly-soiled items
- AA40, for extended-length wash at 40 degrees which delivers 'A' rated energy efficiency and wash performance
- Delicate, Wool, and Hand Wash options, for laundering of delicate fabrics
- Night Wash (where the washing cycle is done overnight and then paused. The final rinse & spin cycle is then resumed by you in the morning)
- Delayed start (for when you want the machine to turn on at a particular time, up to 24 hours later)
- Variable temperate settings, from 30 to 90 degrees
- Variable spin speed, depending on the material being washed. Spin speeds range from 700rpm (for Delicates/Wool/Hand washes), up to a maximum of 1600 rpm for cotton goods
- Spin-only and Drying-only options.
What I was looking for:
I wanted a combined washer-dryer, with a condenser-type dryer so that I wouldn't need to have an outlet pipe to handle the steam. The machine should use cold water rather than hot for its start-up, and have sufficient capacity to cope with a reasonable wash load. (In this 6kg capacity machine, at a pinch it can take a cotton double duvet cover, undersheet & pillowcases in one go.) And I wanted a machine which was energy efficient.
I decided to opt for a Zanussi because their name is associated with quality goods. This particular model had virtually everything on my wish list. The only exception was that it was 'B' rather than 'A' rated for energy efficiency.
My own experience:
I've had this machine for 3 years, using it on average twice a week. It's super-quiet in operation, is easy to clean and maintain, and is my wash-day friend! I'm very impressed that I've never yet had to have it repaired, and it looks as good as it did when I first bought it. Even though it's positioned beside a window, it hasn't shown any signs of turning that nasty creamy colour that some white goods do.
Wash/spin/dry cycles:
Wash: The available Wash options are: Cottons, Synthetics, Delicates, Wool, and Hand Wash.
The different wash options are intelligent as the machine automatically selects the correct spin speed and temperature depending on the type of material you've selected to be washed, thereby taking the guesswork out of your laundry.
You can change the automatically-selected spin speed & temperature setting if you wish to. Even so, the machine restricts how much you can override its selection. For example, for 'Delicates' you can only choose either a 30 or 40 degree wash temperature, and it will only allow the selection of a 700rpm spin speed. The 'Cottons' wash setting pre-selects a 1600rpm spin with a wash temperature of 40 degrees, but you can change this all the way up to 90 degrees.
Spin: Spin cycles are very quiet and efficient except for the occasional burst of drumming during the maximum 1600 rpm setting. The machine can vibrate quite loudly for short periods during this ultra-fast spin cycle, but not to the point of dancing around the room! In general I find that the machine balances its load very well; I only recall a couple of times when I've had to pause the machine to manually re-balance the load during spinning.
Dry: You can choose to add on a drying cycle to the end of the 'Cottons' and 'Synthetics' wash cycles only. Drying options available for the 'Cotton' wash cycle are: Iron Dry, Store Dry and Extra Dry. The 'Synthetics' wash has its own 'Synthetics Store Dry' setting which can't be changed. The machine won't permit you to select a Drying option for the 'Delicates', 'Wool' or 'Hand Wash' cycles. If you want these items dried you have to run a separate Drying-only cycle once the wash cycle has finished.
I've found that the drying part of the cycle adds over an hour to the wash programme but tends to leave the items rather damp, so I usually run at least one extra Drying-only cycle afterwards. This is possibly my own fault, since I probably wash from 3-5 kg of laundry at once whereas the dryer is only designed to cater for 3kg of material.
Drying-only option:
The Drying-only function works very well, allowing you to chose up to 100 minutes of drying time. (I've never tried more than 40 minutes at a time, since I need 'dry' rather than 'crisp'!) My only minor quibble is that the dryer usually seems to run for less time than I've selected (eg if I select 30 minutes of drying time, I find that it finishes in about 20 minutes).
General observations:
I've never personally used either the 'Night Wash' or 'Delayed Start' options, but I've no reason to think that these might be problematic. I use the AA40 programme for all my cotton washes to increase the energy efficiency of the machine.
Safety features:
- Between washes you can temporarily disable the closing mechanism on the door, to prevent small children from being trapped inside the machine. When ready to do a wash you must enable the closure button again.
- It's not possible to open the door during a wash, rinse or drying cycle until the light goes out. You can pause the machine at any stage but it's only possible to open the door in certain conditions (eg during the spin phase). The door won't open if the water level in the machine is above the bottom of the door.
Cleaning and maintenance: This is a doddle.
- The detergent dispenser drawer pulls out completely for regular cleaning, and I use a damp cloth to clean out any detergent residue that's built up in the cavity where the drawer fits.
- The filter can be reached through an access flap at the bottom front of the machine and the filter comes out completely for cleaning. This should be done after every wash. There's always some standing water in the sump where the filter fits but this doesn't seem to do the machine any harm.
- Zanussi recommend that you periodically run a 90 degree wash cycle using a normal measure of powder detergent and an empty load to clear out any residue build-up. I must admit I've only done this a couple of times!
- The exterior of the machine should be washed with soapy water when required.
I have the misfortune of having very high levels of calcium in my water supply. I always use Calgon tablets in every wash to help cut down on limescale build up. So far I've never had the washdrum removed, so I don't know how bad the build-up might be. My machine keeps running anyway! Zanussi recommend that you periodically run the machine empty with a calcium-reduction tablet to help keep the machine clear. (I've never done this until now, when I was writing up this review!)
The instruction manual: The instruction book which comes with the machine is reasonably brief (29 pages) and densely packed. It does cover everything you need to know, although in the beginning I found it all a little confusing. (My previous machine was very basic!) After reading the manual through a couple of times whilst standing in front of the machine, all the information finally sunk in and made sense.
The Cons:
In all this time I've only encountered one problem. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, it stops and flashes up an "Unable to drain" error message. I've always managed to overcome this by opening up the filter at the base of the machine, clearing out any standing water into a bowl, and then trying again. It's only happened 3 or 4 times, which is pretty good going, and I've never been forced to empty the entire machine of soapy water.
The only other down-sides are that it doesn't offer a Half-load wash option, and its energy efficiency rating is 'B' rather than 'A'. You can, however, achieve an 'A' energy rating for Cotton washes by using the 'AA40' setting.
Conclusion: This is an older model now but it's still available to buy from retailers. My machine's worked reliably week in, week out for 3 years and counting. Admittedly I do treat it with respect, cleaning it regularly and not overloading it. In my opinion it's an exceptionally quiet, well-put-together machine from a quality manufacturer and I'll definitely choose a Zanussi again when the time comes to replace it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 800
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Epinions.com ID:
filmfanuk
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Reviews written: 3
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