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Panasonic NH-P80S1 review

Panasonic NH-P80S1
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £749
inc VAT

Excellent performance and extremely low running costs make this a Best Buy

The Panasonic NH-P80S1 tumble dryer would rarely be described as a looker, but look deeper than the surface and you’ll find that looks aren’t always everything. During our testing, the figures did all the talking, proving that what this machine lacks in style it certainly makes up for in performance.

An A-class energy efficient machine, this Panasonic uses a heat pump to efficiently heat and recycle the hot air required for drying. In addition, it has an inverter, which lets it optimise power for the drying process, saving on electricity. Panasonic even boldly claims that this particular dryer is 60 per cent more efficient than a standard A-rated dryer.

POWER AND WATER RETENTION

The NH-P80S1 has a twin-drying sensor that continually measures the amount of residual moisture within a load. This means that it efficiently detects when the load has reached the expected drying level and accordingly adjusts the temperature and drying time. In effect, this means that it only ever runs as long as is needed and never for longer, meaning you shouldn’t ever be wasting energy, and therefore money.

We couldn’t fault the NH-P80S1. Our first test load went through the Cupboard Dry cycle, and retained just 7g of water – by far the lowest amount so far in our tests – and used 0.63kW of power. While it wasn’t the cheapest to run at 10p per cycle (3p more per cycle on Cupboard Dry than the cheapest to run), we felt that its drying performance outweighed that fact; its closest rival to date in terms of water retention retained 70g more water. Our laundry also fared well with only lots of small wrinkles and no deep creases.

Moving on to the Iron Dry function, clothes retained more water as we’d expect it to. For this cycle, we only add the items to the drum that in real terms would need ironing; jeans, tops and a bedsheet. The NH-P80S1 retained 137g of water, which was far from damp and, in our view, was sufficiently dry for ironing. Power was recorded at 0.25kW, equating to a cost per cycle of just 4p. Clothes came out again with lots of small wrinkles but no deep creases.

Next we moved onto the Steam Dry function. This was the most expensive in terms of cycle cost – 14p – but again the efficiency in the drying was far better in comparison to other tumble dryers we have tested. The total water retained in the jeans, tops and bedsheet was just 7g, and the power usage was recorded at 0.83kW, costing 13p per cycle. The interesting thing to note here was that a steam programme should be kinder on clothes, resulting in less wrinkles. In fact, we found that clothes had some deeper wrinkles after this cycle.

To let us compare different tumble dryers, we also work out yearly costs based on the EU Energy Label (see how we test tumble dryers for more information). We found that this machine costs £22.53 for high usage, £16.50 for medium usage and £11.27 for low usage. These are the cheapest figures we’ve seen so far, so another thumbs up to this tumble dryer.

EASE OF USE AND FEATURES

The NH-P80S1 is well equipped. It has 16 programmes including those for drying and steaming clothes (including those steam functions to refresh garments too), Cotton Colours, Easy-Care, Timed Programmes, Outdoor Sports, Wool and a Rapid 40 setting for those times when you need to dry quickly. Panasonic says the standard cotton programme is the most efficient programme.

You also get settings for Gentle Drying, Anti-crease, a speed mode, which can save up to 25 minutes’ drying time, a time delay, a choice of spin speeds and a remaining time indicator. The simple dial and LCD are far from flashy, but they do the job well enough – the layout is logical and easy to understand. This machine has a sturdy opaque door and solid drawer – while it looks a little plasticky compared to other tumble dryers we’ve tested, it felt well made.

CONCLUSION

On looks alone, this wouldn’t have been our first choice of tumble dryer, but with the test results in, it was clear that this wasn’t a tumble dryer to be dismissed. Make no mistake: this tumble dryer places heavy emphasis on its performance and energy efficiency, and for that, it wins a Best Buy award.

Specifications

Drying Capacity (wet clothes in kg)8kg
Dryer Typeheat pump
Typefreestanding
Rated efficiencyA+
Size (HxWxD)597x582x845mm

Benchmarks

Cupboard Dry timeN/A
Cupboard Dry energy use0.63kWh
Iron Dry timeN/A
Iron Dry energy use0.25kWh
Fully Dry timeN/A
Average yearly running costs£22.53

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