My husband bought this for me a few weeks ago. When I say he bought it for me, it was more for him at the time. Whilst I was recovering from my hysterectomy I wasn't allowed to hang washing out, and as my husband didn't have time what with work, to do it each da. Fed up with hanging wet washing all around the house, he decided to take the plunge and buy this tumble dryer for us.
Firstly there was the choice between white and silver finishes. There was also nearly a £50 difference between the two. Fair enough if you are going to position this in your kitchen and you want it to match the rest of your appliances, but for us we opted for the white, which was £209. The main reason being that we were going to put it into our garage, as we hadn't the room to place it in our shoebox kitchen.
To begin with the measurements, especially handy if you have a certain sized gap to fit it into. It measures 60cm wide (600mm) x 58 cm depth (580mm) x 85cm high (850mm).
This tumble dryer is a free-standing condenser dryer, I never really understood all this gumph, so now I know I'll explain it. A Condenser Dryer means that you can literally position it anywhere you want to. It does not need any vents as all the condensed water from your washing is collected into a container within your tumble dryer, which you just empty when needed. This means like me you can put it in the garage, in a shed, under the stairs, literally anywhere. If I had really known all the concept of these, I would have purchased one years ago, but I always assumed they had large pipes coming out of them to release the steam, and as I said previously my kitchen is tiny and the thought of having to pay to have outlets and vents added turned me off the idea, and to be honest I never really looked more into the concept. I wish I had earlier.
The dryer holds approx 6kg of washing and has a reverse action which enables the drying to be more even. It has a high and low setting, the high setting is generally used for cottons, towels etc and the low setting is aimed at the more delicate items like woolens.
The tumble dryer is front loading and has an extremely large door, brilliant if you want to put a duvet in. The door opens by using a simple button and it can be altered to be either left or right opening. You work it by using a timer control, ie. if you want it to be dried for 20 minutes, you just turn it to 20. There is no rocket science involved at all in this dryer, everything is straighforward and simple (just the way I like it). There is a indicator light to show you when the water-tank is full and needs emptying, so no need to worry if you forget to empty it each time. The water tank holds a maximum of 3.8 litres of stored water. Saying that I would try to remember to empty it, as there is nothing worse than stagnant water hanging around.
The timer controls goes up to 150 minutes of drying time, there is a display which gives you a rough calculation of drying times for different loads, but as you go along you estimate that yourself from your own experience.
Well my tumble dryer has been tested out with everything washed over the past few weeks and I must say it is totally brill. I sound like a little kid but I havn't had one before and I am amazed at it's drying power. Jeans have gone in and come out bone dry and practically crease free, towels are dried brillantly, and even the kiddies duvets have had a whirl and again totally brilliance, although I did air these out for while for obvious reasons. It iis also remarkably quiet, and obviously has a safety lock on the door.
I honestly do not know how I have coped with two children for all these years without one, they are a godsend, and something now I would never be without.
Just a last bit of technical data, it's Energy rating is C and it runs at 4.37kwh/cycle.
I think this is a brilliant appliance and I wouldn't be without it now, I do think the £50.00 jump from white to silver is a bit steep, but if I knew then what I knw now, the £50 would not make a difference if it was going to be on show.
Highly recommend it for a basic but brilliant tumble dryer.
