No more dishpan hands for me! (Hotpoint FDW60)

Name: Coxy1974

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Hotpoint FDW60
Date:	30.01.07 (705 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable, easy to use, looks good, energy efficient

Disadvantages: None (at the moment)

I've had the dishwasher since 2005 when I first moved into my new home. The main reason I chose it was colour and the price. It cost me £226 from Tesco with free delivery and because I ordered my washing machine at the same time and spent £500 I got 10,000 extra clubcard points.

I suppose that I am lucky to have a kitchen large enough to take a dishwasher of this size - we certainly wouldn't have gotten one of these in our old kitchen as there wasn't even room for the washing machine there either! The builders had left a standard size gap either side of the kitchen sink so that the washing machine and dishwasher could slot straight in.

My kitchen colour scheme is black, white, chrome and red so I wanted a dishwasher in silver or grey to at least go some way to matching the colour scheme. What annoyed me the most when shopping around at places like Argos, Curry's and Comet was that you'd pay around £30 more for any appliance in silver than you would for the standard white one. Why?? But anyway, Tesco was the cheapest for this dishwasher by about £50.

So why do I like it?

Well, aside from the obvious benefit of clearing away is so much easier after a meal these days I like the features and the look. I also like the fact that it is energy efficient and that it uses less water than other models that I looked at. (This is an important consideration when you pay over £1.50 per cubic metre of water on a meter).

When I looked inside the dishwasher the tablet holder is located on the inside of the door at the top. You just place the tablet in and fold the flap back up until you feel it click and that's it. It's easy to top up the salt too as you just pull out the bottom tray, lift up the cover and pour in. A green light also displays on the front panel when you need to top up so you don't have to remember. A green light will also warn when rinse aid is low but as I use tablets that already have this in then I ignore this light but it can be annoying!

The dishwasher has 6 settings ranging from half load, Eco to full load and you can also do a pre wash if you want to and also you can delay the start of the wash if you want to but I haven't used that function yet.

The racks inside are adjustable height wise so if the top rack is too near the top of the dishwasher you can just take it out and slot it back in a little lower down. I did this with mine to allow me to get my pint glasses in.

It takes 12 places settings and has a cutlery tray on the bottom rack. It also has a useful rack on the top tray to lay things such as egg slices and other utensils on. The plate rack on the bottom rack also fold down so if you don't need to stack as many plates in the dishwasher but need to put a roasting pan in there then you can by just folding down the plate rack.

I tend to use the Eco wash most often and with a 24 place dinner service I tend to only need to put the washer on once or twice a week on average.

One word of warning though - I put a wooden chopping board in there and apprently this is not good. I didn't know because I hadn't read the instructions properly. The board came out with a split down the centre and a friend of mine said that putting wooden utensils in hers had damaged her dishwasher.

Specifications

Technical

Energy efficiency class 'A'
Energy consumption 1.05kWh/cycle
Cleaning performance class 'A'
Drying performance class 'A'
Water consumption 18 litres
Estimated annual energy consumption 231kWh/year
Estimated annual water consumption 3,960 litres

Other Specifications

Size (H)85, (W)60, (D)60cm
Maximum number of place settings 12
6 programmes including: Quick wash, Eco wash, Normal wash, Intensive wash, Prewash, Delicate wash.
5 temperature settings
Half load top basket
Height adjustable top basket
Fold down plate racks
Salt and rinse aid refill indicators
Water softener
Water hardness adjuster
Residual drying
Wash phase indicator lights
Up to 12 hour delayed timer
2 in 1 tablets can be used in this appliance
3 in 1 tablets can be used in this appliance
Noise level 49dB

Price range - £235 - £290

Available from - Argos, Tesco, Comet, Currys

Summary: Excellent value for money

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Cleaning/Maintenance:
warm up/cool down: