What's the Hotpoint BIWMHG81485UK Integrated Washing Machine like to use day-to-day?
I use the Eco 40-60 and Mixed cycles most regularly. The Anti-stain cycle was a little disappointing on upholstery covers. It may be that the stains were too embedded, but it didn’t seem to make much difference at all, even with lots of stain remover! The covers also came out much wetter than any wash cycle I had done previously.
I was also a little disappointed with the wool cycle as I put a jumper through that came out quite significantly shrunk. It has subsequently stretched back to more like its previous size, but I would hesitate to use it again for any expensive knitwear after that.
On a positive note, the Delicates and Whites cycles are very good. Everything I have put through from sheets to shirts has come out pristine. The bed and bath cycle is also very effective - towels come out smelling very fresh and don’t take long to dry after.
The washing machine is not particularly noisy. It can be left on overnight with the door shut to the kitchen without disturbing us, and we live in a small flat so that’s good going! It's much quieter than the previous washer dryer we had and runs a lot more smoothly.
I'm very pleased with how it cleans my laundry for the most part. Clothes come out smelling fresh and there’s no debris or tarnishing from the washing machine. Clothes also come out quite dry which is a massive plus given we are air drying our clothes and don’t have a tumble dryer. Gym clothes come out pretty much ready to use.
I would have liked a setting for an extra-hot sanitising wash. With things like dog beds and blankets you want to wash it at 90°C plus to really feel it has removed all bacteria and that isn’t possible with this one. But that’s just being picky!
While all the cycles are easy to access, you can’t do any custom settings. For example, you can’t turn the temperature up or down manually. It would be handy to be able to tinker with those settings.
There are a variety of cycles — varying from 30 minutes to 235 minutes. The short cycle is great — the longer cycle is possibly a bit too long unless it's being used overnight.
The rapid cycle works really well for day to day washes involving clothes that aren’t stained or massively dirty. I wouldn’t want to wash anything more substantially dirty on that cycle, like gym clothes or dog blankets because it’s not hot enough to feel that it really cleans things thoroughly. But it works well to refresh clothes that are not seriously dirty.
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