Beko WM5100S

In addition to breaking the fridge, the tenants who rented my mother’s house for a few years also wrecked the washing machine, or, as they would put it, it broke. This model I’m telling you about now was the replacement the dubious letting agency sourced and invoiced us for. For once, they actually did something decent, and we’re pleased with this (though of course not as pleased as we would have been had we not had to buy a new one).

I returned to the UK like a student returning from uni, bags full of laundry. In my defence it wasn’t that I’d begrudged paying to use the washing machine in a hall of residence, or that I’d been too lazy to do so. Where I was living we didn’t have much water, so tried to reserve what we had for washing us rather than our clothes. Try washing and rinsing a week’s clothes using only a bucket and a half of water, and you’ll soon see why I felt everything needed to be re-washed in a machine, even if it was ‘clean’ by African definitions. Normally I do a wash once a week, but this machine was running almost constantly for the 3 weeks I was at home, so I’ve had a lot of time to get to know it.

Design

This is a front loading model, meaning there is a round door on the front that you open to get the clothes in or out. I’ve always somehow thought that top loaders and more efficient, robust machines, and they were what I used at uni and in my first apartment, but perhaps they’re just better for industrial-style usage. According to wiki 90% of machines in Europe are front loaders, compared with just 35% in the US. The most common problem I have encountered with front loaders is that the door seal can sometimes go over time. So far this has not been a problem with the Beko. Fingers crossed it stays that way. One of the main advantages of a front loader is that you don’t need to be able to access the top, so you can sit it under a countertop, or stack a dryer on top without any problems.

This washing machine comes in either silver or white, and is a pretty standard size. At 84cm x 60cm x 45cm it is virtually identical to the one I have at my house which is a different brand and model. Like with fridges, washing machines come with a stated capacity that can be a little hard to visualise, but is useful for comparisons. The WM5100 has a capacity of 5kg which is standard for small machines. If you’re not doing sheets and towels it can easily cope with a few days clothes from a few people or a week’s worth if you’re on your own and don’t spill stuff on your clothes at every meal.

If you’re not using tabs or a roller ball filled with liquid, there is a detergent drawer with separate compartments for pre-wash, main wash and softeners. I don’t like these as they get mucky quickly and this one is no exception. It’s a fiddle to clean, so I don’t tend to bother with it.

Programmes

The choice of programmes on this model is a little like the choice of tea bags in a supermarket. There are lots of options but most people tend to find the one they like and stick to it.

The manual splits the programmes into “main” and “additional” but amusingly ranks our most used one as the latter, implying that they think it’s an occasional rather than every day choice. We tend to use the Mini cycle. This is the shortest cycle and is the second lowest in terms of water consumption. Running this on 30 C may be the coolest and quickest of all the options, but has never resulted in insufficiently cleaned clothes, and quickly shifted age old dirt from my African clobber.

The other options range from a hand-wash to ones specifically for cottons, synthetics, delicates and woollens. Some fabrics have several sub-options within them. For example cottons can be done on 40, 60 or 90 degrees, for different durations, and with or without a pre-wash and extra rinse. Both the manual and the quick start guide show all the options in an easy to read table. In addition to the energy consumption column, the water consumption column is especially useful for those of us who have water meters as there is a notable difference between the least (32 litres) and most (52 litres) watery options.

I’m not sure anyone would use all the cycles, and I think really there are too many and most are too long. Seriously, who has 2 hours to spend waiting for their laundry to be done? I know you can leave it and do something else, but it’s the idea of it beavering away, using up your electricity for such a long time. Maybe I’m just bitter after living somewhere where if we had 4 hours electricity at a time one day we were chuffed to bits, but it seems daft to have something switched on for 133 minutes when you could get near enough the same results in just 30 minutes.

Performance & Efficiency

I am very impressed with how dry the washing is when it comes out. It still needs to be hung out or stuck in the tumble dryer, of course, but not for long which saves time and energy. I used to have a washing machine that left things so wet they would need an hour and a half in the dryer to sort them out, which ended up costing me a lot. Tumble dryers typically cost more to run for the same amount of time than a washer does, so it’s something to think about.

I used to use powdery tabs but switched to liquid and gels after a few problems with the former leaving white gunk on my clothes when I lived in Germany (surely a land where they should have excellent washing machines, no?) This Beko has only been tested by us with liquid detergents but it works well with them, and I’ve no reason to believe it would be any worse than average with powders. The rinse feature works well too – I found hand washing in Africa that my tops stayed soapy after my attempt at rinsing, but with the machine they come out so clean and soap free they almost squeak.

We have an outside utility room. We also have an outside loo. This is the grim north after all. But anyway, the utility room it outside and has no heating which can be problematic when it gets very cold. I’m sure it’s not designed for such temperatures, but the machine impressed me by continuing to work without issue, even when it was below zero in that room. As long as the pipes were still flowing, the machine was still spinning. Though the washing comes out dry-ish, it does not come out warm. I went out to empty the machine at lunch time yesterday and the clothes were icy cold, which makes me doubly surprised that the machine keeps working well at that temperature.

As per EU regulations, this washer came with an efficiency label. It is rated A with a consumption of 0.95 kWh per cycle. This is only really useful for comparisons, because it assumes a longer and hotter setting than we ever use (in the EU, washing machines are tested for energy consumption based on a standard 60 C cotton cycle) and therefore can’t really be used to work out how much it costs to run a wash, though you can work this out if you read the manual for a breakdown.

It is rated A for washing performance but only C for spin drying performance as the rpm doesn’t go beyond 1000. This surprises me since, as stated above, the clothes come out quite dry from this machine, drier than I’ve experienced with other models. Something I didn’t know until I read the manual, though, was that the 1000 rpm is the fastest the machine will reach, but on some fabric settings there is an automatic lower maximum – 800rpm for synthetics, and 600 rpm for woollens. I’ve never used this next function, but apparently it is also possible to switch programmes after it starts, by pausing the cycle and selecting your new option. Because there are no children in the house (except me...) we’ve also not used the child proof lock that is available, to stop inquisitive hands pressing the buttons and interrupting the cycle in progress.

The maximum load of 5kg doesn’t apply to all programmes, and the manual includes a ‘helpful’ guide on how much items weigh so you can guestimate when you’re putting the washing on, whether you’ve too much for a quick / small cycle. The hand-wash and woollens cycles have a maximum weight of 1kg and 1.5kg respectively, so it’s a big difference from how much you can stuff in on the 90 degree 2 hour cottons loads.

The move towards more energy and water efficient machines has led to longer cycles in some models, as it takes more time to ensure clothes are thoroughly cleaned and rinsed. It’s interesting to note, however, that if you don’t mind the extra faff it’s twice as quick and almost 5 times more economical in terms of energy to do two 2.5kg Mini loads than a single 5kg longer one. Just another useful titbit from the user manual. I don’t tend to read these things, but I’m surprised by how informative the Beko’s one is.

Usage

The machine is easy to use. The door handle is wide and easy to grip, and well hinged so it just clicks shut with a slight push. The door locks when the machine is in use, so there’s no risk of children finding their way inside, or opening the door and flooding the room. It also stays sealed shut for 2 minutes after the cycle finishes, to ensure the drum has completely drained. The only thing that confused me initially was the number of buttons and lights on the control panel. On my own washer you just turn the dial, set the temperature and press go. This model turned out not to be too complex because I realised that I could just ignore most of them.

The lights tell you where it’s up to (pre-wash, rinse etc) and the only buttons you need for most cycles are the initial on/off, and then the start. My machine at home flashes once it’s finished, but this one stays lit up so your only way to know is by checking the drum has stopped spinning and seeing if the door lock is off.

It is easy to switch between programmes on this model as there is a dial which clicks round. This also means you know it’s been set correctly, and cannot be nudged out of place. The cycles are all marked in words so you don’t have to decipher any symbols, and they’re separated by fabric rather than temperature.

In the good old days (or at least in Hollywood’s portrayal of them), washing machines induced great giddiness in those who, for unknown and/or blatantly obvious reasons, chose to sit on them while they were in use. Sadly this is not a machine that vibrates energetically, even when in the fast final spin, so you’re going to have to get your happys in other ways. It’s not the quietest of machines, but the sound comes more from the speed at which the drum is rotating, rather than from it bouncing back and forth over the floor.

Verdict

I read one study that said washing machines (and particularly washer/dryers) are the white goods most likely to break down. Depending on your views, this could mean you should buy the cheapest on offer since it won’t last long anyway, or a super expensive one to try to prolong its life. I tend to favour the former, so this is the sort of machine I would have picked anyway. Personally I would always choose separate washers and dryers rather than a combined model, but I know we’re lucky in that in both my house and my mother’s, we have the space to have one of each.

In the first year that I had my Indesit at my house, they came to repair it 3 times. In comparison, this machine has worked perfectly since we acquired it, and I’m sure if the tenants had had any problems, they wouldn’t have kept quiet about them. That makes it well over 2 years and still going strong, and for the price and how much it’s been used, that’s quite a feat. It’s not the fanciest machine on the market but it gets the job done, and it’s proved to be reliable. So, if I return to my house in summer and find MY tenants have wrecked the one I left, this is a brand I’ll certainly consider replacing it with. Two thumbs up.

Current retail prices as of 2.3.2011 include:

Tesco £174.97 (but out of stock)
Argos £209.95 (down over £10 since a month ago)