A great little machine! (Hoover HNWL7146)

Member Name: Chaos-Theory

Product:	Hoover HNWL7146
Date:	01/08/08 (601 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Combined washer and dryer, two machines in one!

Disadvantages: Difficult to know how long a cycle has left to run.

When my tumble dryer packed up, as it would happen it was roughly the same time that my washing machine packed up. It never rains but it pours! Well, I've always been against the idea of a combined washer/dryer as opposed to a separate washer and dryer. Two main reasons...

1 - If you have a washer/dryer and it breaks, then you're stuck without a washer or a dryer (mind you, if the washer is broken there's not much point in having a dryer anyway!)

2 - I wash a LOT. So when the first load of washing is finished I want to be able to put another load of washing in straight away - and not have to wait an hour or whatever while the first load goes through the drying cycle. So for me, separate machines are best.

Anyway, given my requirements of lots of washing and only occasional use of a dryer - basically because it's too expensive to use a dryer every day, as things were, the washing machine was being used two or three times a day while the dryer sat there doing nothing. I decided to get a washing machine, just as I always had. But I would also get, not a dryer, but a washer/dryer. This way I can do two loads of washing at once, and if needs be, I have the option of using a dryer.

Inspired, eh? Well, I haven't exactly been overwhelmed by friends raving about how clever I was to think of this - but I've been operating this system for just over a year now, and I find it works very well for me.

The washer/dryer I chose was the Hoover HNWL 7146. I bought it from Tesco online and it cost me £334.82 including £4.85 delivery charge. This was in June 2007, so prices have probably come down a bit now.

The control panel is pretty good - nice chunky dials to turn. I like that - much better than the digital display I have on my washing machine, which tends to make its own mind up what setting to use!

There are about 14 different wash programmes, but of course I only ever use two or three. I use the 40 degree non-colourfast wash, which takes around an hour and a half to run. One downside with this is that it's hard to tell how long a programme is going to take. When you set the cycle running a little light comes on under the heading 60', which means it will be at least 60 minutes. The light is supposed to move down the scale to 30' then 15' then Stop. In practice I find it very vague on the length of the cycle. I run it alongside my Bosch washing machine. That takes 1 hour 15 mins for a standard 40 degree wash, and the Hoover takes approximately fifteen minutes longer. Every now and then, though, for no apparent reason, it finishes before the Bosch. I have no idea why, and it does worry me a bit that maybe it hasn't done the full wash cycle.

The other wash programmes I use are the delicate or woollens. These each take around 45 minutes.

One of the reasons I chose this machine was because it has a 'pause' button - but I've never figured out how to use it! Perhaps it doesn't do what I thought. I had expected it would mean I could actually pause the cycle half-way through - for example so I could go in the shower and still have hot water. However, it doesn't appear to do this. I won't say it definitely doesn't do it - because according to the instruction manual it does, so maybe it's just me doing something wrong.

The machine can be set to go straight into the drying cycle as soon as the wash cycle is finished. I've never used this feature because I prefer to save money and dry as much as possible on the washing line. I only use the dryer for small amounts of clothing, certainly not towels, but that's just my preference.

Downsides with the dryer are that you can't just open the door part way through to see how it's going. On older machines you could do that - just open the door and it would automatically stop the cycle. With this, you can stop it but then you have to wait a couple of minutes before the door is released, then start a gain if the washing isn't dry enough.

The machine takes a maximum of 4kg dry washing, and 6kgs wet. Maximum spin speed is 1400. The powder tray is a bit diffcult to get out - on some machines you press down on the blue part and that releases it, but there doesn't seem to be anything like that on this machine - you just pull, and I always feel like I'm going to break something. Once it's out, though, it's fairly easy to clean, both the tray and the tray cavity in the machine.

Summary: So far, very pleased with Hoover.

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