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WASH PERFORMANCE
To find out how good the LG F1495BD is at cleaning clothes, we put it through a series of tests using our stain strips. View our gallery to see all of the cleaning examples: dirty cloth is at the top of each sample; the clean one is at the bottom.
Wash performance was generally very good, with both the Cotton 30C and Cotton 40C cycles producing similar results. We slightly preferred the 40C wash, which made a better job of dealing with our red wine stain strip, as well as the carbon black/olive oil staining.
At 30C we were pleased with the cleaning action on our blood stain strip, with the F1495BD doing a good job of reducing the staining.
It might have used more power in our tests, but we were pleased with the quality of the 40C EasyCare clean. It did the best job overall with all types of stains, noticeably cleaning up most of the red wine and doing an excellent job with the carbon black/olive oil stain strip.
Blood removal was mostly very good, too, although there’s a noticeable blemish of cloth that wasn’t quite cleaned thoroughly. Cocoa removal was very good, though, and we were pleased with how much of the staining the washing machine cleaned up.
EASE OF USE AND FEATURES
There’s no denying that this washing machine has a heap of features. It’s also very easy to use, thanks to the simple controls. For the main wash selection all you have to do is select the wash type using the dial. This has all of the standard washes, but also modes for delicates and wool, so you can wash practically anything in this washing machine.
Once you’ve chosen your mode, you can select additional wash modes. Steam wash is one of the most useful, as it performs two useful purposes. First, it helps soften clothing fibres and reducing creasing, so you’ll spend less time ironing. Secondly, it also refreshes clothes: using the refresh cycle you can put musty-smelling items in and have them coming out feeling like new.
You can override any of the default settings, too, including choosing the temperature (cold, 20C, 30C, 40C, 60C and 95C), as well as the spin speed. You can save your favourite settings into your own programme, so you can quickly recall them when you want to wash your clothes. To make sure that you’re in when the washing has finished, so that your clothes aren’t left to sit there damp, you can select a start delay timer.
Everything is displayed neatly on the LCD screen, making it obvious exactly which features you’ve selected. The remaining wash time is displayed on the screen, so you can quickly see at a glance how long the remaining wash is going to be.
We really like the SmartDiagnosis feature, too. If the washing machine has a problem, all you do is call the help line, hold the phone up to it and press the SmartDiagnosis button. This plays a fax-like sound down the phone, which tells the LG support people the exact error with your machine, so that they can either help you immediately or ensure that an engineer has the right parts when they visit.
The LG F1495BD is extremely well build and everything feels reliably-made and tough. It’s rated at 54dB for the wash cycle, which is about the same noise level as other machines; however, at 64dB for the spin cycle this is one of the quietest washing machines around. We noticed this in our tests, with the direct-drive motor proving to be very quiet in operation.
CONCLUSION
There’s a lot to like about this washing machine, from its huge capacity and array of impressive washing features to comparatively low running costs for low loads in our Cotton wash cycle tests. However, going by the EU figures, yearly running costs can be quite high.
This washing machine is also comparatively expensive and the Samsung Ecobubble WF1124XAC is cheaper to buy and cheaper to run according to the EU Energy Label. Unless you really need the steam feature, that is the 12kg washing machine to buy.
