Hotpoint WD64 Aquarius Spin Washer Dryer

...£650. I chose the hotpoint brand because it had the extra rinsing feature I wanted, and this seemed to be the case for all of its machines accross a price range of around £300 - £500. I decided to search for a WD63 model machine as it was the cheapest model.

Searching the net I found the WD63 for around £300 and the WD64 for around £350, until I stumbled accross a great deal on the comet website offering the WD64 for £300. I was sold.
...door a week later. The appearance of the machine was very much as i had expected from a plain white washer dryer. It has a large circular glass door in the middle, a drawer at the top left, and some buttons and dials to the top right. It is 60cm wide, standard width for an appliance.

The machine contained the pipes for the hot and cold water feeds, and an instruction sheet, as well as the information about the guarantee etc. The waste ... more

With three girls under the age of five my partner and I and frequent visits from my sister there is a lot of laundry to do in our household. I was doing at least one load a day and as I have no garden to speak of I had to hang the wet clothes around the house on airers or on the radiators to dry. This wasn't so bad when I had the central heating on, but when it was too warm to put the radiators on my washing was taking forever to dry. I was starting to run out of places to hang it up and if I stopped washing while I waited for more space then the mountain of dirty clothes kept growing and growing. I decided it was time for a dryer.

As I have no room in my kitchen for another appliance, I was limited to choosing a washer dryer as opposed to a seperate dryer. The positive side to this was that I could set the machine to do all the work then forget about it until the clothes were ready to be put away, although it would mean that I couldn't put a second load in to wash until the first load was dry.

The other thing I wanted from my new machine was an extra rinsing feature. My daughter has eczema and i always put the washing on to rinse again to make sure all the powder is removed and doesn't aggrevate the condition, however my current machine didn't have a setting for this so I had to do it myself when the main wash had finished.

I also wanted a white machine to go with my other white appliances. I wasn't interested in paying extra to have a silver washer for example.

With this info in mind I began to search through all my mail order catalogues and trawl several websites to get some information on different brands and prices.

I found several different machines available priced between around £250 and £650. I chose the hotpoint brand because it had the extra rinsing feature I wanted, and this seemed to be the case for all of its machines accross a price range of around £300 - £500. I decided to search for a WD63 model machine as it was the cheapest model.

Searching the net I found the WD63 for around £300 and the WD64 for around £350, until I stumbled accross a great deal on the comet website offering the WD64 for £300. I was sold.

Comet delivered the new machine to my door a week later. The appearance of the machine was very much as i had expected from a plain white washer dryer. It has a large circular glass door in the middle, a drawer at the top left, and some buttons and dials to the top right. It is 60cm wide, standard width for an appliance.

The machine contained the pipes for the hot and cold water feeds, and an instruction sheet, as well as the information about the guarantee etc. The waste pipe was attached to the rear of the machine as was the power cable.

Before we did anything to the machine we read the instructions. They were pretty basic, although they contained everything you needed to know about the machine including how to install it, what programs to use for different types of laundry, and some troubleshooting tips.

Before you install the washer you need to remove the transit supports from the drum. This entailed removing the lid and undoing some screws inside the machine. the instructions were very clear and although the screws were very tight it was easy enough.

Next the machine could be plumbed in. Connecting the pipes was very easy, red pipe to the hot water and blue pipe to the cold water under the sink, then connect them to the back of the machine by simply screwing them by hand. The waste pipe pushed onto the nozel under the sink, and the power cable had to be plugged in and switched on.

The instructions recommend running a wash cycle at 95 degrees with no laundry or powder to remove any residue from the washer. Consulting the list of programs printed on the front of the powder drawer I selected cycle C and sat back to wait for it to complete.

After a while I heard a strange noise and went into the kitchen to investigate. I was greeted by a large puddle and a washing machine spluttering water from the overflowing powder drawer. I switched the machine off and checked it had been installed correctly. When I was satisfied it wasn't a mistake of mine, we called Comet and they eventually replaced the machine a week later.

The engineer that looked at the spluttering excuse for a washign machine told me that the pressure sensor had gone, which meant the machine was unaware that it had overfilled, so it kept pumping water in. He told me that the hotpoints are usually very reliable, although whether this was true or simply a ploy to make me go for an exchange instead of a refund I don't know.

Having put so much effort into choosing this brand I was prepared to give it another go, afterall of the thousands of machines they make, they can't all be perfect right? So the second one arrived and I followed the same procedure as before, only this time the cycle completed without a problem.

I was satisfied that this one was working properly and i began to explore the features of my new appliance. There is an on/off button in the top right corner next to three dials and a further four buttons in the middleof the panel next to the powder drawer. The powder drawer has the usual three sections for prewash, main wash, and fabric softener.

Each wash program is represented on the first dial by a letter of the alphabet. A brief description of each program is printed on the front of the drawer along with the corresponding symbol you will find on the clothes labels. There are programs for 40, 60 and 95 degree washes, cycles for delicates, a quick wash for refreshing lightly soiled items, a wool wash and a prewash. You can also select just a spin, or just drying with this dial.

The next dial to the left is the drying dial. You can either leave it at 0 if you only wish to run the wash cycle, or set it to the required drying time choosing either ful heat or low heat. The machine will automatically start the drying program when the wash has finished.

The final left hand dial is the spin speed. You can select any speed up to a maximum of 1200 rpm, allowing you to reduce the speed for more delicate items so they don't get stretched.

The four buttons in the middle give further options for your washing cycles. There is the economy option for clothes that aren't very dirty, rinse hold to make the machine wait on the rinsing part of the cycle until you unpress the button, extra rinsing which just extends the rinsing part of the wash without requiring extra input from you, and a time saver option which cuts most wash cycles by about 25 minutes.

The final feature of the machine is the door locked indicator LED. this small red light illuminates to let you know when the door is locked. The door locks automatically at the start of any washing ar drying cycle until a few minutes after each cycle ends. This prevents you from accidentally flooding your kitchen by opening the door mid wash.

I generally use program E for all my washing which is a 40 degree wash. I use the extra rinsing button due to my daughters eczema, and follow this with a 60 minute full heat drying program. My clothes have all come out clean with no traces of powder residue. Depending on what I have put in the machine 60 minutes is often enough to produce bone dry clotheswhich are always a lot softer and fluffier than they used to be when I dried them on the airers and radiators. If the items are still wet then a further 30 minutes sorts them out.

The machine is easy to use, simply select the programs by turning the dials then press on, sit back and relax and wiat for the light to go out. The wash program tends to take around an hour depending on which options are selected then drying time obviously depends on the time you choose to set it for up to a maximum of 2 hours.

The only problems I have had with my washer dryer apart from the initial flooding have been these. The buttons are rather easy to press, although he confusing factor is that when pressed in they are off, and when pressed out they are on. This is a little bizzare although now I have got used to it I can see the benefit, which is the fact that you can easily notice which settings are on because the button sticks out.

The other downside to the machine is that the powder very quickly builds up underneath the drawer causing you to have to remove the drawer and wipe the excess powder away every few washes to prevent it becoming too clogged up.

Here are some boring technical bits in case you wanted to know:

Energy efficiency: C
Wash efficiency: A
Maximum wash load: 5kg
Maximum drying load: 2.5kg
Water consumption: 87litres on an average wash cycle.

Final points I just remembered, this machine has two wheels at the back to make it easier to move the machine, and it has two feet at the front which screw up or down to level the machine.

So to conclude then, I would say that if you overlook the problems with the first machine they sent us, this is a good appliances which does what it should do, washes and dries clothes, and does it to a satisfactory standard. With the exception of one jumper which shrank (my fault for putting a woolen jumper on a high temperature drying cycle!) all my clothes have come out of the machine soft and fluffy with no damage to them. The price was good, and i am pleased with my washer dryer, even if it does seem to take forever to finish washing. 

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