LG RC9042AQ3Z TrueSteam review

The LG RC9042AQ3Z tumble dryer is everything we’ve come to expect from LG: it’s sleek and stylish, feels robust and certainly like a high-end dryer. At over £800 we’d expect nothing else and were expecting good things from it.

It’s not just a basic tumble dryer, either, as this model also has built-in a steam mode, which you can use to freshen clothes, as well as providing a hygienic method of drying.

POWER AND WATER RETENTION

As an A-rated tumble dryer, we expect it to be efficient, and it certainly is cheap to run on certain cycles. It has a heat pump, which has a cold side that condenses the water vaper and a hot side that reheats the air for re-use. It’s considerably more efficient than the older condenser models, which means these tumble dryers are also cheaper to run.

A sensor within the dryer claims to sense how much moisture is in the load by measuring the humidity in the tub, allowing it to dry clothes perfectly every time depending on the programme selected.

We started with the Cupboard Dry cycle: it retained 77g of water on this cycle,and clothes felt quite dry; certainly dry enough to fold and put away. Creasing wasn’t bad either. There were a lot of small wrinkles, but no deep ones to speak of. This cycle used 0.71kW of power, which equated to a cycle cost of 11p.

When we moved to the Iron Dry cycle, water retention was high and our laundry felt a little too damp. In fact, water retention was greater than any of the other models that we’ve tested so far, at 296g. Cost-wise, this was a good thing, with a cycle costing just 4p, but we did feel our laundry would have benefitted from a longer drying time. Again, there were lots of small wrinkles, but no big, significant creases.

Our final cycle was the Steam function. LG TrueSteam uses steam power to hygienically dry your clothes while minimising creases. As well as drying, it can also be used to refresh once-worn clothes in just 20 minutes. However, our test revealed that it retained a hefty amount of water, with 591g still in the clothes. . That’s more than we’d expect and our clothes felt wet. With just a 3p cycle cost, though, it did prove very cheap to run.

We also calculated running costs based on the EU Energy Label, which gives you annual electricity consumption figures for a year’s use, based on 160 loads using a variety of programmed cycles. From this we can work out the average cost of a drying cycle.

Yearly running costs are a great way to compare machines, so we work out this figure using the EU Energy Label (see how we test tumble dryers for more information). This gave us running costs of £24.47 for high usage, £18.35 for medium usage and £12.23 for low usage. These costs include electricity based on the UK average. That’s pretty competitive for costs, although we have seen tumble dryers that are slightly cheaper to run.

EASE OF USE AND FEATURES

LG has really got a lot of things right when it comes to styling. Buttons and dials are well laid out and easy to use, and the LCD screen is clear and easy to navigate and understand.

The programme menu is simple and includes the basics of what you need – covering every programme any household is likely to need. You’ve got your regular cottons and mixed fabric programmes, Easy Care, Bulky Items, as well as Sports Wear, Delicates, and of course Steam, amongst others. Also included is a rack for drying, so that your delicate items, shoes and cuddly toys can lay flat during the drying cycle, and stop certain items from becoming tangled while you dry.

The RC9042AQ3Z also comes with Smart Diagnosis that syncs with your smartphone to alert you to any problems with the tumble dryer and inform you when it needs some TLC. This clever technology should mean a longer life for your tumble dryer as you can deal with problems before they become a major issue.

CONCLUSION

There were a lot of plusses with this tumble dryer; good drying on the Cupboard Dry setting, great styling and low costs to run certain cycles. We weren’t that impressed with the steam drying setting and we felt that the cupboard dry setting could have gotten our clothes a bit dryer. That’s not to say this is a bad dryer, far from it, it’s just that the Panasonic NH-P80S1 gives you dryer clothes for less.