The day of the new dryer

[aquacycle]

Well, as some of you may know, I've been arguing a fair bit with my old Hoover Electron recently (pictured below). When this beauty worked, it was the best dryer I've ever owned. However, of late, it's been taking longer and longer to dry and getting louder. I'm no repair man, so I decided maybe it was time to purchase a new machine.

My initial choice was the Zanussi ZDC67560W, however I received a call from Appliances Online to tell me that it was unavailable until further notice and I had no choice but to select an "alternative".

 

[aquacycle]

So what was the alternative? I reluctantly opted for a Hotpoint Aqualtis AQCF952BI. It was the only model with all the spec that made me choose the Zanussi and at £285, was slightly cheaper.

It arrived this morning and so far, has had 2 loads through it.

I'm more impressed with it than I first thought I would be. It's quiet, quick and the condenser works incredibly well - only cool air is blown from the machine and no condensation has appeared on my cellar walls. The sensor didn't work so well the first time I used it, but has got better on subsequent cycles - I think maybe it needed that one time to adjust to the environment it's in.

The drum is MASSIVE. Seriously, you could fit ME in it! Overall, I am still disappointed that the Zanussi was unavailable, but the Aqualtis has impressed me more than I thought it would.

Incidentally, I have been on the website this morning and noticed that my original choice is showing as 5 in stock with 2-3 days delivery. A carefully worded e-mail of complaint is required, I think .

 

[paulc]

Congratulations

Chris, your new dryer looks great. I hope it serves you well.

 

[aquacycle]

It has five hundred million different cycles. Most of which are pointless. I mean REALLY how many cycles does a dryer need!? 2 - hot and hotter. Bed and Bath, Baby Clothes, Lingerie - all are just different names for "cottons" and "synthetics".

Also, the sensor on certain cycles appears to be...wonky. For example, the sensor seemed to think that a full 6kg load of towels on "Bed and Bath" would be dry in 38 minutes - RUBBISH! Of all the cycles, I'm probably going to use 3 of them.

 

[aquacycle]

right, so having done 4 cycles in it now, I feel I can review this properly.

The build quality is great, I have to say. It seems very sturdy and well made. The big drum is a bonus. One of my issues with the Electron was that my washing load was always significantly larger than my dryer capacity, but now I can do 1 drying load for every 2 wash loads. It's nice and quiet - after using my neighbours Ultima dryer, which is louder than his washer and can be heard all over the house, I was worried that it was going to be a problem, but it's not at all. As I've already said, the condenser is brilliant - only cool air is blown out of the machine and no condensation on the walls.

Now to the actual drying. I really don't understand why this dryer needs so many cycles! Most of them are pointless. The earlier issues with the sensor not being so great have now been ironed out (no pun intended) and it seems to be drying things according to the setting now, thankfully.

 

[pierreandreply4]

base on my duet dryer

i think that some of the cycles if i base my self on my whirlpool duet dryer are auto cycle and some cycle might also be low heat or extra low heat if you have a delicate cycle on your dryer as well as some dryer have an auto cycle thats set to use medium heat but this depends on the company making the dryer as well on my dryer i mostly use the high heat heavy cycle since my dryer is neart an outside wall in my home.

 

[aquacycle]

That's probably true, but why not just have 3 sensor cycles and 3 heat settings to select from rather than all these silly names for the same thing? Seems pointless to me

 

[pierreandreply4]

or an auto cycle with a sensor that would adjust the heat depeinding on the load thats trying

like for exemple a load of bulky towels drying heat high

T-shirts and 100% cotton items medium heat and so but congratulation on your new dryer

 

[dascot]

They look quite decent when I've seen them in the shops, and feel better made than some of the other ones. I wonder, does the sensor have adjustment based on water hardness? If the sensor goes funny again, it could be due to that, I guess Be interesting to hear how it does after a couple of weeks of adjusting itself to its location.

 

[dave886]

i have the same dryer as you, and i have to say its a good dryer all round i always use the cotton, bed & bath & delicate cycles.

 

[aquacycle]

Dave, does your bed and bath cycle actually work? I put a full load of towels in mine today on Bed and bath and the bloomin' thing insisted on telling me it would be dry in 38 minutes. I don't think so.

 

[dyson2drums]

Hey Chris

Congratulations on your new purchase, hope it serves you well

I have a hotpoint ultima ctd80 which i'm very happy with as it more or less takes the full load from my LG however the sensor on mine just doesn't dry to perfection. I always end up putting it back on for atleast 20mins, if it's a larger load then 40mins. This isn't something we want to put up with so we just use timed dry and that gives excellent results. Other than that it's a good dryer and it's relatively quiet too

Your machine looks sleek and probably hotpoint has sorted out the glitches from previous hotpoint dryers so wouldn't mind getting another in the future

 

[appnut]

As far as the sensor and the various cycles are concerned (with the aforementioned 38 minutes you said it thought it would dry towels in), that's simply based upon factory programme guessing.  Actual execution of the cycle will vary depending up9on load size and weight/density of fabrics.  As for U.s. Whirlpool type products and comments about the various cycles and temp levels nad degrees of dryness, I totally ignore what the "label" of the cycle is.  I simply look for the sensor cycle with the temperature I want the load to dry at and adjust the degree of dryness if I so choose.  I could care less what the label says.  If I wanna dry towels on low or medium rather than high, I will!!

 

[DADoES]

 
Sensor cycles on U.S. dryers are typically labeled for fabric type ... which means temperature. The temp usually can't be changed from the programming except by selecting a different fabric/cycle choice. Timed drying allows any choice of temp.

As Bob says, one can simply select the 'wrong' fabric to sensor-dry at a different temp.

 

[dave886]

@aquacycle

overall all my dryer works really well (better than my last zanussi condenser dryer), there are some pointless cycle such as lingerie, really? but aqualtis dryer is very specific on what fabric you are drying as for the load is measured by wetness well as weight so if you put a load of towels on cotton cycle you are going to get poor results of half dried towels (i don't know why?) well as if you put them on bed and bath your results well be improved by far as for i have done this before, but i find that when i drying bedding on bed and bath it ends up in the ball so i am having to stop and reshape and continue the cycle. have you used the half load button or the post care option since you have owned it?