Reviews

Update 9th July 2019 – So it has been over 5 years since I received this machine, the quality of my writing has improved (marginally) since writing the original content so I apologise if it is poor. This week I started to experience some serious issues with it. At first, it wouldn't spin properly then the entire inner drum appeared to come away scraping against the outer drum. It turns out this is a common issue with Samsung machines, they use a different metal for the spider which mounts the drum in place compared to the drum itself. The water and detergent then rot away the spider until it completely shatters. Fixing this is regarded as uneconomical, I believe Samsung doesn't sell Spiders but the entire drum unit as one.

I wouldn't normally update a tech review after 5 years, I would just chalk it up as bad look, but you expect washing machines to last longer than that, and then there is always that paranoid belief that manufacturers conveniently design goods to the break just outside of the warranty. If it had been a £400-500 washing machine, I wouldn't have minded so much, but this used to sell for £1700 making it one of the most expensive pieces of tech I have reviewed, and for that price, you would hope for a premium build quality.

The below video shows exactly what happens to many Samsung machines. I am not experienced enough in washing machine technology to know if this is a common problem throughout the industry.

Following our initial review of the Samsung WW9000 washing machine, we have done a more extensive review of it to see if it lives up to the hype.

If you didn't see our initial impressions and are wondering what the fuss is about then you might be wondering what all the fuss is about? The Samsung WW9000 is a front-loading washing machine with a difference, it is a WIFI enabled machine that you can control from your phone and has various other smart functions such as auto dispensing and sensors to automatically detect the optimal wash settings.

These fancy features come at a price though, the WW9000 is currently available via Samsung or John Lewis for £1700 and if you buy it from Samsung you can claim a free Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. This obviously makes the washing machine far more expensive than most people's budgets but you tend to pay a premium for flagship products and we hope many of these features will trickle down into cheaper models over the next few years.

The machine itself is about as good looking as a washing machine is going to get, the door is very large and opens up to expose the entire drum making filling the washing machine very easy, it can take a 10KG load which is on the upper end of capacities on the market, only a few other machines can handle 11-12KG. It is more than enough for most families. The rest of the machine is quite minimalist looking with an attractive 5inch colour touch display and just 2 buttons on the front.

The machine does not have a detergent drawer like normal machines, instead, you fill up a tank which slots inside the machine when you open the door. The machine will then automatically detect the amount of liquid to use for each cycle, and you can select if you want to use low, medium or high amounts. So far we have found this to be excellent, previous we would just use the maximum amount of detergent regardless of the size of the load, hence wasting a lot. The machine can take powder though you need to use the pebbles supplied with the machine and physically place it in the wash. Looking online we found the cost of liquid per wash to be the same if not cheaper than powder so moving over to liquid only has not been an issue for us.

The interface used to set up the washes is fantastic, you can use the auto optimal wash which will use the sensors inside the machine to work out the amount for the detergent to use, the length of cycle, temperature etc. We have used this several times and been very happy with the results.

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If you do not want to use the auto optimal wash settings there are dozens of other options to choose from including cotton, denim, darks, super speed, super eco, outdoor care, baby care, cooking & dining, and gardening, plus more! Each wash can also be customized by temperature, rinse and spin. The temperature can go from cold all the way up to 95 degrees, rinse settings go from 0 to 5 and spin can go from no spin to 1600.

We like to use the eco settings as we find little improvement in the quality of wash using a cold cycle compared to a hot one (regardless of the washing machine used), it is gentler on the clothes and saves a lot of money running the machine. The super eco setting on this machine runs for 2 hours and we found even heavily soiled clothes came out both clean and very soft. With the higher spin cycles, the clothes came out almost dry too. The only downside is the length of the cycle, our cheapo Bosch used to do an eco cycle in 45 minutes, so 2 hours is a big jump, however, the quality of the wash does seem a lot better and have nearly dry clothes is a major bonus.

If time is an issue the super speed wash will do a cycle in 60 minutes, and if you tweak the settings you can get some cycles down to sub 30 minutes.

The washing machine is A+++ and according to Expert Reviews, it is extremely cheap to run. A 30-degree cotton wash costs just 22p per cycle with the super eco mode costing 16p per cycle making it one of the cheapest machines on the market to run. Combine that with efficient detergent use you will save quite a bit of money during its lifespan.

The noise level of the machine is fantastic, Samsung rate it at 46dB during wash and 72dB during spin. We found that it was barely noticeable during the wash and only the quick spins did we notice some noise and vibrations.

One of the biggest selling points of this machine has been the ability to connect via WIFI and control it using your Smartphone. Setting it up is relatively simple, you need the smart home app, and then you will need to download a plug-in for the washing machine itself. From our use it is a nice feature to have but it is probably the least impressive feature about it. To actually control the washing machine remotely you need to set the smart control to on, which locks the drum and the touch screen, you can then control it via your phone. The problem with this is that it seems like more work than just starting the machine via the touch interface. The main benefit to the app was being notified when a wash is complete. So you can potter about around the house doing jobs and rather than being notified by an annoying beep from the washing machine, you phone will notify you.

Overall it is the best washing machine we have every used, it performs fantastically and we love all the technology that is inside it. It is a little hard to justify the price tag but if you are well off and hate washing as much as we do then it simplifies the already easy process even more and performs better than your average washing machine.

You can buy the Samsung WW9000 washing machine now from Samsung and John Lewis