Beko DRCS68W

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Long
Noise	Low
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Able to dry indoors without needing a vent .
Disadvantages:	High energy consumption in comparison to more expensive dryers .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

British weather is always miserable, cold damp and wet for most of the year with a brief summer with a few warm days. It is never an easy task getting your laundry dry when the weather is so temperamental. There have been many days when I have hung the washing out and gone off to work and it would rain before I got home meaning I would still have wet washing!

I have lived in rented accommodation for the last 11 years for the first couple of years we would try to dry washing on the radiators or in front of the fire. This is never a good idea as it puts a lot of damp in the air causing condensation on the windows. The clothes wouldn't have that same fresh smell as what they did from coming in from the line. My house would always look like a laundrette with laundry hanging everywhere and piles of ironing. When my daughter started school I had a job to keep up with the laundry and on those typical wet days it was always a hard task to try and get her sports kit and uniform dry in time for school.

We saved up and finally purchased a tumble dryer, which was a brilliant help in keeping up with the laundry. Since then we have had a few tumble dryers that have never lasted all that long. Two years ago when we moved house I was pregnant with my son the house we are now living in is the smallest house we have lived in. We are so tight on space and the garden is a matchbox. We struggled to think where we could house a tumble dryer and couldn't see a suitable place one would fit where the hose would be able to reach to. We still needed a tumble dryer as we were soon to become a family of four and with a new baby on the way and my daughter is secondary school you can imagine the amount of washing that soon accumulates.

I started looking online for a suitable tumble dryer and to see what we could have in such a small kitchen and on a fairly tight budget. All of our money was going to be used on baby things so I had to have a good shop around and compare prices.

For the first couple of months we had to use our old tumble dryer and have it in front of the back door and every time we wanted to use it we had to have the door open and throw the hose outside. Not the best arrangement, and with the cold blowy weather lint would be blown back into the house along with cold air. I wasn't over keen on the tumble dryer we had previous to the one we have now as it had a clear plastic door that would always need clearing of lint from the clothes it did have a filter but didn't seem to be very effective it was also quite noisy and took quite a long time to dry a small load.

We have a 6kg washing machine so I wanted something that would hold the same load instead of having to dry it in two loads. After looking online I discovered the condenser tumble dryers which I wasn't aware that there was such a thing. After looking at several different models and comparing prices we decided on the Beko Condenser dryer. It was just over £200 and our budget could just stretch to that. We then went over to Comet to have a closer look at it before making a purchase. We then ordered it and with most places the delivery charge for a tumble dryer was quite high - £25. However we didn't have much choice. It comes with the usual 1 year manufacturer's guarantee and you can of course get extra cover at a price.

It came delivered in the usual plastic packaging with a protective layer of polystyrene. The only place we had to fit it was on a small work surface above the washing machine. But it fitted there perfectly!

It is not a top brand that I knew of but I had read a couple of reviews that were positive so I was fairly confident that it would be a good purchase. It is a fairly big machine (85.0x60.0x56.0 (H/W/D) cm) but looks good above the washing machine. It is nothing special to look at just a basic white dryer. Although I preferred this one to my previous as it has a lot more features.

It has a solid flat metal wide door that opens to a very wide angle making it easy to load and unload and when you open it there is a light that comes on - brilliant I can see my laundry! There is a lint filter at the front that pulls out easily. It is like a little basket that opens up and the lint is clumped together making it easy to take out and dispose of. It holds a 6 kg load so it is a generous size. At the top of the machine is a water tank that slides out easily it is quite big and fairly heavy once it is full of water. There are vents at the bottom of the machine that collect dust which are easy enough to wipe clean. The main filter is at the bottom and is enclosed behind a panel that is easy to open and take out for cleaning.

This machine has Energy C grade efficiency and uses 3.84kW energy consumption. Not the best but for the price I paid for it I can't expect everything especially since B grade tumble dryers are priced around the £300 mark and more which was well over the budget I wanted to work to.

It comes with an instruction manual which I have never had to refer to as the machine is simple to use and the settings are clear to see. I have to say that I generally use the same two setting for everything I dry. Some people may make use of the other settings and find them handy.

Once you have loaded your wet laundry into the machine you can set the dial to your preferred setting and press start - simple as that! It has an inbuilt sensor so it will finish the drying cycle once your clothes are dry. It assesses the moisture level meaning that your clothes will not be over dried which saves energy consumption. There are two lights that indicate when the water tank is full and the other that indicates when the filter needs to be emptied. The machine will come to a stop until the necessary emptying of the tank or filter has been done then you can continue drying the clothes. There is a buzzer that is optional however I don't use this feature anymore as I found it to be irritating. I'm always in and out of the kitchen so I have no need to use the buzzer, some people that live in a larger house may find this a handy feature.

It has a reverse drying action which is said to reduce your clothes from becoming tangled and creased, and it also finishes the drying with a cooling cycle which makes it easier to handle the clothes once they are dry, and also makes it easier to iron the clothes.

There is a large white dial at the top of the machine for the different program settings which are:

Time programs: You can select either 10 minutes/20minutes.40 minutes/60 minutes.

Synthetics: Ready to wear/Ready to iron.

Cottons: Extra dry/ Ready to wear/ Ready to iron/ Delicates/ Freshen up.

There are quite a few setting but they are clearly labelled on the machine making it easy to select the desired setting.

As I said before I hardly use many of the settings, I have only needed to use the synthetic cycle a couple of times. I mainly use the cotton ready to wear cycle, or the timed cycles. It is handy to have a few different settings even if they get minimal use as you never know if you have something more delicate to dry.

The machine has the added bonus that it is a condenser dryer so you can literally put it anywhere you want. You don't need to worry about the venting hose which is a definite advantage for me. The water tank does usually fill up after each heavy load and requires emptying when the indicator light shows that it is full. It is best to empty it after use if you don't intend on doing any laundry again for a few days. You can wait for the tank to fill up before emptying however some people may find this heavy an awkward to empty or you can empty it as frequently as you like.

The clothes are always dry by the end of the cycle but sometimes not completely aired so if you want to use them right away you can of course give them a bit longer on one of the timed programs. You can of course stop the machine at any time. I hate to waste my time with ironing and have never really ironed anything in the past unless I can't get away with it. Once my clothes have come to the end of the drying cycle and are ready to take out I simply shake and fold each item and smooth out the clothes with my hands so my clothes never need ironing! Of course apart from the odd school shirts which take no time what so ever.

The wide door and the light makes it easy to find something if you need to get something out without having to struggle or empty the entire machine. The clothes are hardly ever tangled the only thing that gets tangled up is things such as tights.

All tumble dryers are noisy and some can be more so than others thankfully this one has to be the quietest I have owned. The lounge is next to the kitchen and once the door is shut it really doesn't bother me. I can even sleep with it on! And I'm a very light sleeper and would usually have to turn of my previous machine.

The machine needs little maintenance to keep her running smoothly all you need to do is keep the lint filter clean and empty the water tank. Occasionally you will need to clean out the main filter which is simple enough to do.

The machine has been going strong for the last 2 years with regular use from a family of four. The only problem we have had with it is that the belt has snapped three times in that time - maybe we exceeded the 6kg weight limit or put in bulkier items. We have learnt to not abuse her as much as replacing the belt is a nightmare! It took the two of us and a good 45 minutes to fit a new one not the easiest job! There are a few places where you can order spare parts should you need to repair her as it is cheaper to fix it yourself and far cheaper than replacing it. I purchased all of our spare belts from eBay as I found this to be the cheapest place.

I think I have covered everything if not then feel free to ask anything.

I am pleased with this machine it has had plenty of use and has been the best one that I have used.

It is more affordable than higher brands that do the same thing. It has all the features you need and is simple for anyone to use. Being a condenser is also another advantage as you never need worry about when you move finding a suitable place to house it.

I would recommend this machine to anyone on a budget and families that need a robust machine to handle all the laundry demands.

If you wish to examine the dryers' exact specifications you can visit their web page for this product at:

http://www.beko.co.uk/ProductDetails-109-Tumble-Dryers-DRCS68.aspx

Published on other review sites under the same author name