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The LG1495BD is a beast of a washing machine, with a huge 12kg wash capacity. That may exceed the average wash load of most households, but it means you can easily do a week’s load of washing in one go, plus you’ve got the capacity for large items, such as a king-size duvet.
This model also has a direct-drive motor, which turns the drum without a belt. It should be more reliable, quieter and more efficient. Top this off with steam for refreshing clothes and reducing ironing effort and the F1495BD looks like a great all-round machine.
POWER AND WATER USAGE
The benefits of the direct-drive motor can be seen from the low energy usage in both the Cotton 30C and Cotton 40C cycles we used to test. At 30C we measured just 0.37kW of power, while water was kept to just 42L. With a spin speed of 1,400rpm our clothes came out holding just over 1kg of water, which is impressive. We calculated a wash cost of 17p, which is low for 3kg of washing.
We saw similar results from the 40C wash, which used just 0.4kW of power and 44L. Again, our test clothing was comparatively dry, retaining just over 1kg of water. We calculated that this was cost 18p, which again is excellent.
A direct-drive drum is efficient and more reliable than a belt-driven one
Turning that big drum and performing a more complicated wash cycle soon puts the running costs up, as we found out when we ran the 40C EasyCare cycle. Water usage increased slightly to 56L, but power went up to 1.34kW. We calculated a running cost of 21p per cycle, which is quite a bit higher than for the Cotton cycles.
While those cycle costs let us see how efficient the washing machine is and how changing modes affects the cost, it’s through yearly running costs that we can compare different washing machines. To arrive at our figures we use the information on the EU Energy Label (see how we test washing machines for more information).
We worked out that this machine costs £63.90 for high usage, £47.93 for medium usage and £31.95 for low usage. For a 12kg machine this is fairly expensive and you can save even more on running costs by switching down to an 8kg washing machine.
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.
We found that the 40C Cotton wash (bottom) produced slightly better results with red wine stains than the 30C Cotton wash (top)
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.
The 30C Cotton wash did well with our blood stain strip
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.
Carbon black/olive oil stain removal was very good using the 40C EasyCare cycle
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.
The LCD control panel makes it easy to use this washing machine and easy to see what’s going on
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.
