A washer dryer that saves on space

Design and Features

• Only as deep as a kitchen counter
• Compatible with ConnectLife
• High maximum capacity

The Hisense WD5I1045BWQ looks very similar to the Hisense WF5I1045BWQ washing machine. Both are the same 550mm depth, so they will sit flush with a kitchen counter, even with pipes and drainage behind them.

Both machines have the same sleek look, too, but the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ ups the game by also squeezing in drying alongside washing.

A Max Drum ensures that there’s the maximum amount of space inside. Stretching almost the full width of the machine, this drum can take 10.5kg of dry washing, and a reduced 6kg of wet washing for drying.

That drying capacity is similar to most other washer dryers, but a good way behind the capacity of most freestanding tumble dryers. That could mean you need to dry some loads in multiple batches, and you might struggle to dry some larger items.

I found that the drum was quite spacious, but not particularly deep. As a result, my 5kg load of test washing filled the drum, and I found that some wash cycles benefited from reduced loads.

I do like the internal light, which makes it easier to load the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ and to find any leftover items.

Control of the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ is via the 3.55-inch LCD and control dial. Using the dial, I could cycle through the wash cycles, with the screen showing the maximum load, run time and the default wash parameters.

For most cycles, the touch buttons on the side can be used to override the default settings, including the temperature and spin speed. And, most general cycles can be augmented by adding a drying cycle into the mix, so you can go from dirty clothes to clean, dry ones at the touch of a button.

All of the main wash cycles are accounted for, plus there’s a refresh steam cycle, auto mode, wool mode, and a fast 49-minute full load wash. Pick the 15-minute wash and add drying, and you can get 1kg of clothes ready to wear in just 49 minutes. There’s also a dedicated drying mode.

A lot of additional modes are available in the extras menu, which has to be navigated using the control dial and touch select button. Extras include the dry level (cupboard, iron, extra and time dry), the steam option and a stain removal option.

For the latter, you can select the stain type (grass, soil, wine, coffee, milk, juice, sweat, blood or oil), and the washer dryer automatically picks the best wash settings. For example, selecting wine as the stain type sets the Cotton wash to 20°C, and two rinses.

This washer dryer has an auto-dispenser for liquid detergent and fabric softener, although the softener department can also be used for additional detergent. I love this kind of system, as it makes it easier to quickly start a wash.

A button disables the auto dispenser if you’d prefer to use your own detergent, such as laundry powder.

Using the ConnectLife app, I could select any of the wash and dry cycles, plus use the wizard to help find the right settings for my type of washing. The app also gives more control over the dispenser drawers, letting me select whether I had loaded softener and detergent, doubled up on the same detergent or installed two different types of detergent (such as bio and no-bio). For the latter option, I could select which dispenser to use. That’s a huge amount of flexibility, even if you do have to dive into the app.

Performance

• Good washing running costs
• Some cycles benefit from reduced loads
• Decent stain removal

I put the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ through my normal tests, starting with the standard Eco 40-60 wash. I use a mixed load of clothing which weighs ~5kg. Putting the washing in the drum, I found that it was quite full.

With the same specs as the Hisense WF5I1045BWQ, the washer dryer had similar running costs, with this cycle costing just 17p to run. That’s one of the cheapest cycle costs that I’ve seen from any washing machine. 

I had a similar problem as with the washing machine and the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ left my clothes quite wet and foamy. Weighing them as they came out, I found that they came out 134.27% heavier than they went in through water retention, whereas I’d like to see a figure of 40% or less in ideal circumstances.

A rinse and additional spin did the job, but I found that I got better results when reducing the load size, using around 3 to 4kg of clothing instead, so that the drum wasn’t quite as packed. This reduced the running cost of the cycle to around 11p, although I would need to do more cycles, over a year, to wash the same amount of clothes.

Wash performance on the Eco 40-60 wash was very good. My stain strip has the following stains, from left to right, red wine, cooking oil, ketchup, orange juice, and gravy. As you can see from the images below, most of the stains were gone, bar the red wine stain (very faded) and the ketchup stain (solid particles had spread). Using a smaller load so that the stain strip didn’t bunch up as much did wonders for getting rid of all traces of ketchup.

Next, I moved to the Cotton 30° test. This increased the running costs to 30p, but this time my washing came out just 41.94% heavier. That’s a little over the ideal situation, but a normal result that meant I didn’t need to respin the clothing.

Wash performance was alright, but not as good as with the Eco- 40-60 wash. In particular, I noticed quite a bit of ketchup left behind.

There’s an Auto wash, where the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ senses the wash load and applies the best settings automatically. Here, the cycle cost 24p, which is low, although my clothes came out a touch too wet at 63.6% heavier. A slightly smaller load improved that.

This time around, the wash performance wasn’t that impressive: the ketchup stain was still largely there, and there was quite a lot of orange juice left behind. I’d use this wash cycle for mixed clothing that’s lightly stained only.

I tried the Red Wine stain removal option, which ran at 20°C. This cost 32p and my clothes were just 33.05% heavier than they went in. Stain removal was pretty good for all the stains, bar the red wine, which was still quite visible.

I tried a 20°C wash, which cost 28p to run, although my clothes were quite wet at the end at 64.6% heavier. Wash performance as this low temperature was good for most of the stains, but the stain strip got tangled, so the ketchup stain couldn’t be dispersed.

If you need clothes in a hurry, then there’s a 49-minute fast wash, which is good for lightly soiled items. Here, I found that this cost 13p to run, although my clothes came out 150% heavier. This is a wash cycle that I’d use with slightly smaller loads.

In general, whether or not my clothes were sopping wet or not seemed a bit random between wash cycles. Given the shallow depth of drum, I’d be more comfortable recommending this machine for slightly smaller loads, say a single person or a family of two.

As the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ is a tumble dryer, too, I tested its drying capability out. I started with the fast wash and dry option, which is for 1kg of clothing only. If you need some clothes in a hurry, then this cycle is good: it costs 28p. My clothes were slightly damp at the end (87.72% of water had been removed), so needed just a bit of airing time before they were ready to go.

For regular cycles, I used my standard washing load out. Washer dryers are more expensive to run than standalone heat pump tumble dryers, but the Hisense WD5I1045BWQ is impressive. Running the cupboard dry cycle, my clothes had 100% of the water removed and the cycle cost 63p – that’s 26p less per cycle for the same option on the Indesit BDE107625XWUKN.

Using the Hanging dry option, my clothes came out with 95.98% of the water removed (just about right), at a cost of 49p. Again, that’s a lower running cost than the direct competition.

With the steam only mode (10p to run), I could refresh clothes and have them odour-free and ready to wear – great for those items that have been in a cupboard for months.

Should you buy it?