Hi guys, just thought i'd post a thread about these two washers, The Zanussi Zwf1431 (Current) and the Samsung B145s. Ive throughly used both of these washers and gotten to know there strengths and weaknesses.
ive washed the same duvet in both washers. And thought it'd make an intrestin topic to compare how they handle them. Anyway here goes LOL.

Zanussi washing duvet

(Appologies for the size of the images, they dont usually blow up to double size like that!) lol

Vid of samsung washing duvet

Zanussi washing the duvet

Hi Richard

Thanks for the vids. What do you think washes better? Are they both sturdy on spin?

Rob

I think the zanussi is more sturdy overall, it tumbles more agressively and spins without fail. On the otherhand the suspension on the samsung was far too springy and it 99.999999% of the time had problems spinning, from what Richard told me it had a stupidly senisitve OOB sensor, therefore a 30 min quickwash could easily become a 1hour wash due to spin problems.
I hope this helped, sorry for the poor spelling.

P.S Love your Zanni Richard :-D

Take Care Dan

Yeah i agree with you there, the Samsung was increibly springy and moved to the slightest touch lol And as Dan correctly said (thanx :) it would hardly ever manage to spin., ill have to dig the video out where it refuses to spin one Dry T-shirt.

Overall i think the Zanussi peformed better with the duvet as it seemedtumble it more effectivly and move it around the drum, rather than going around in a huge bll (as the Samsung did) anyway thats just my view lol. More comments welcome!!! :)

Richard

Ok maybe I’m being biased here… being a proud Zanussi owner and all that…hehe. But I think on analysis that the Zanussi does a superior job of washing that duvet compared to the techno looking Samsung. What with the more thorough tumbling action which makes the one article spread over the area of the drum quite nicely. Cool vids though Richard… Thanks for posting.

A few of a foamy splashy Duvet wash in the Insight :)

It was only 90ml odd of Ariel Essential concentrated powder honest!!!

Its a 60deg Cottons btw

I've found that the Jetsystems were quite bad for sudsing when washing duvets... when I used to wash duvets in the AEG 86741 it would often overfoam even if you used a small amount of powder! That jet really does help with bulky items though - plus the constant tumbling.

BTW, the Delicates 60*C cycle is great for duvets on the Miele... high level but high temperature wash! A rare feature nowadays.

Mum's has a "Pillows" cycle - 40/50/60*C - and that spins before it fills, apparently it's to take all the air out of duvets. Does anybody know if the Duvet cycle on John Lewis machines is similar?

Jon

I can’t say that I have noticed the Jetsystem on my Zanussi contributing to any excess foaming with duvets or any other type of fabric or article. I find in certain circumstances that the flat spray of the Jetsystem on the model I have contributes to good foam suppression especially on high temperature washes.

Jon, furthermore, many modern duvets are made from very resilient materials, purely a matter of opinion here but in such circumstances I would feel that low level fill on the wash phase for a duvet would contribute to better agitation due to high level fill washes having a cushioning effect. However this would depend of course on the soil levels of the individual duvet as to the level of wash intensity required.

An acquaintance has just renewed her late 80’s Zanussi with a John Lewis own brand machine, the duvet cycle on that machine in terms of water level fill is somewhere in between the cottons and the delicates fill level, wash agitation is the same of that on the cottons cycle.

Regards to all

Saj

"Does anybody know if the Duvet cycle on John Lewis machines is similar?"

No, it just fills through the main wash compartment and begins to tumble.

Duvet Cycle
40°C
700 rpm
82 minutes
0.6 kWh
80 liters

Both the "Stuffed Animals - ..." and the "Pillow - ..." vids (on page 2 of my Washing Machines Playlist) show the Duvet cycle.

Alex :)

Logixx - interesting videos! I didn't realise your privileg had a similar cycle... I notice it has no Jetsystem though?

Saj - only speaking from experience with the AEG (which had a stronger jet than most Zanussi's), but the amount of suds it used to whip up was crazy... you would have hardly any suds until the jet came on. I can't really remember how mum's was, so I'll take your word for it about the Zanussi jet... after all, the jet on the Zanussi is more of a fine spray than an actual jet of water. Anyway - have attached a pic of what the suds levels tend to be like after a 95*C wash with the jetsystem on the recently retired (or holidaying shall we say) AEG - bear in mind that is my usual dose of powder (hell knows which one I used when I took the picture), which doesn't usually give me problems in other machines.

Cottons cycles work fine on duvets too - but I prefer the 60*C delicates cycle simply cos the duvets are bulky and that they truly get saturated with teh deep level. With a bulky item there isn't really that much of a cushioning effect, if anythign more of a "flushing" effect which I imagine would clean equally as good. Have always had good results whichever cycle I've used anyway - but then duvet's don't really get dirty. Unless you're my sister, then you sleep in sheets that were last washed in June and have no pillow or duvet covers... but I will leave that pleasant tidbit at that :-).

Jon

Well, our previous privileg, which was actually made by AEG in Nürnberg, had the Jetsystem- but this new machine (made by uhm... Merloni?) dosen't have one. :(

Alex

Alex - your Privileg is an Electrolux :-)

Yes definitly an E'Lux!!! The distribution before spin is identical to that of mine and Richards, and the trusty light on the door...classic E'Lux style!

Aha! Well, you never know these days ;)

Thanks :)

Just thought I'd post this as you dont see the machine in full in the vid, so here it is :):)

(appologies in advance if it comes out too big lol)

Richard

Richard....

The shot of your Zanussi there is fantastic...the silver makes it look so...."designer"

Mine may have the LCD display but looks such a poor relation in comparison! Pic below!

Hi guys

Well...last week was Richard's turn to wash a duvet in his sexy looking Silver Zanussi. Prompted the idea then this weekend to run through a duvet in my ever so faithful Zanussi....The ugly sister if you like!!!!

I've overlooked some video's and it seems to me that the zanussi is spinning counterclockwise while mostly a frontloader spins clockwise or is this out of the question?

The direction in which a machine spins varies from make to make, as a general rule all Electrolux made machines spin counterclockwise as do all Bosch/Siemens etc. Traditionally Hotpoints, Hoovers and Miele's have always spun in a clockwise direction. Merloni made machines used to spin in an anticlockwise fashion however I believe this has recently changed.

Saj

Hey Saj, just watched your video of the Duvet Wash, your machine handles it well, giving some really good action with such a large item, which I think is great! One thing ive got to say though, Why cant mine have the 7kg Drum!!! lol anyway im just being greedy lol Thanx for posting!!!!:D

Richard

While you may lack the slightly (and I mean very slightly) larger drum Richard...remember you do have the funky modern silver colour which always looks great. And after all I do have the top of the range model! (Head begins to not fit through door as escapes from slapped face!)

Richard - Saj is right, the 7 kilo drum on my Zanussi wasn't really any bigger than the 6 kilo one on the AEG... if anythign was slightly different and the only real difference was the paddles - the 7 kilo drum has the paddles that run from front to back with more or less no gaps, whereas my AEG has about 3cm or so between the paddle and the front/back of the drum.

Spin directions - AEG's and Bosch machines used to be clockwise too until about 2000 or so - AEG machines went anti clockwise when they switched to the Elux design tubs, Bosch machines went anti clockwise with the Maxx series.

Jon

... But when you first got that washer, you said that it was huge and couldnt belive how much you could fit into it, not being rude or anythin so i dont want u to take offence but I think your a bit contradictive when it comes to washers.

Richard

Yeah - it was a large capacity... larger than the 6kg but really not that significant a difference in the scheme of things. Sorta like the difference between 5 and 6kg, if you know what I mean...

Jon

Personally I see the advantage of the 7kg drum on mine when it comes to standard loads but when it coms to single large items in my opinion the situation is indifferent.

Saj

I have to say the paddles were great on the 7 kilo drum, not sure if it was me but the paddles seemed deeper too. They showered a lot more water down on the load too than the 6kilo AEG - but then I believe the 7 kilo paddles have more holes in the paddles.

Though - correct me if I'm wrong Saj - aren't some of the holes on the 7kg paddles "duff" - i.e. Hotpoint WMA back of drum style?

Jon

Jon indeed you have a point in the fact that the paddles are for want of a better phrase "partially blanked" but on my example at least it's no big deal due to the widespread and thorough action of the jetsystem.

True true... just wanted to know if it was me imagining things or not :-).

Jon

In fairness to Jon, it is quite difficult at times to compare drum capacities, especially across different manufacturers and even across one company’s products – Electrolux, for example.

A 6kg drum from, say, Electrolux (Zanussi, AEG and Electrolux brands, etc.) cannot necessarily be compared with, say, one from Miele. The reason for this is that the capacity in terms of weight, expressed here in kilograms of course, ignores the other measurement for capacity – volume. Volume in these cases is measured in litres, and I know that the two tumble dryers I was recently looking at – a Miele and a Zanussi – both has 6kg drums. However, this did not tell the whole story – the Miele had a drum with a larger volume!

The problem with comparing drum capacities is that not all drums are created equal. The Hotpoint WD860 washer dryer we had until recently suggested it had a 6kg wash load (cottons of course) and a 5kg drying load (cottons again). Now, I would say the latter figure is ridiculous – there is no way that machine was capable of drying 6kg of cottons in the same was my 6kg Miele could. Yes, there is a vast difference in price. However, the Hotpoint was completely incapable of drying a full 6kg of cottons in such a drum – tumble dryers needs to have larger drums and better designed drums in order to minimise creasing.

Also, I would not say that my 5kg Miele washer’s drum is considerably smaller than the 6kg Hotpoint one. I have not actually looked at the figures in any case. I would hazard, at a guess, that the Miele drum would be something like a 5.5kg Hotpoint one. That’s a daft way of putting it, perhaps, but it may go some way to explain that drum capacities, sizes, whatever are not necessarily comparable. The wash action and design of the drums themselves play a major part in determining the effectiveness of washing, rinsing and spinning in a washer. Also, remember that the maximum load for synthetics is usually half that of cottons.

Other factors to consider are of course the detergent used, the cycle, local water conditions and the types of fabrics in each load.

Not wishing to go over into vacuum cleaner territory – I know that is for another place – but a similar issue applies when it comes down to motor wattage. The wattage of a motor does not automatically determine the cleaner’s overall power – the air watts measured do. How the air watts are sustained over a given period, depending on a bag or bagless system, determines the cleaner’s overall power.

Again, this also applies to hi-fi, which is another of my interests. The correct way to measure a hi-fi’s power output is to measure it in watts RMS. However, this alone is not enough – very similar to the drum capacities above! The impedance (ohms) of the electrical signal is important, too. If the hi-fi (its amplifier, specifically) is rated at, say, 50W per channel (each speaker providing 50W each, totalling 100W) the real ‘loudness’ of the hi-fi depends on what impedance this power output is given. I’ll explain more later! :-)

Carl :-)

I meant to say that the Hotpoint we had could not dry 5kg of cottons, not 6kg! Grr! ;-)

Miele 5kg = 49 litres
Miele 6kg = 54 litres
Hotpoint 6kg = 53 litres
Bosch/Siemens 6kg = 53 litres
Zanussi 6kg = 46 litres
Zanussi 7kg = 56 litres
Hoover 8kg = 56 litres

Thanks, sadose. :)

I was actually referring to the volume in litres in tumble dryers between Zanussi and Miele, not washers. :-) The Miele dryer had a drum with a larger volume than the equivalent Zanussi despite both being 6kg machines.

In any case, I would take figures from manufacturers like Hotpoint with a pinch of salt these days. Unless these were measured independently – including Miele – I would assume a Miele drum would be larger. If not, a modern Miele drum is possibly going to be more efficient than a modern Hotpoint drum due to its being, quite simply, of a higher standard.

And that is not me being snobbish – I like modern Zanussis, AEGs, 1980s and 1990s Hotpoints, Hoover New Waves, etc. :-) I actually like modern Hotpoints, if only they were not so unreliable for some!

Regards,

Carl :-)

sadose,

I hope I didn’t come across as snappy in my previous message. :-)

I wasn’t being nasty or anything. :-)

Regards,

Carl :-)

No worries mate. And i agree that if Merloni made strives in quality then Hotpoint's would be fantastic machines. I had a WF430 aquarius 1300 (Merloni made) prior to the Zanussi, it only lasted 9 months before is started shredding laundry with the green paddles coming off during the wash. Very interesting machines though in terms of cycles. Zanussi is now almost 14 months old and so far so good considering until recently it was doing upwards of 30 or 40 loads a week.

Oh, while I'm at it, I know somebody mentioned it but can't remember who! I have just started using my new Siemens' dryer with the wavy paddles in, I tried it on sheets and I can safely say that the lack of reverse action with those paddles doesn't contribute to tangling, the method is very effective!

Saj

Saj - I think that was me asking lastnight about the dryer paddles :-). Having used unidirectional dryers before and experiencing tangled sheets I was skeptical of BSH's new dryer system. I guess though the big drum in those BSH dryers helps a lot.

Still wouldn't seem right without it reversing though to me! :-).

In terms of drum volume Carl is right - for example mum's old Bosch machine had a 53 litre drum however due to it's stingy use of water you couldn't wash much in it without there being a compromise on washing & rinsing results. Whereas I can just get as much laundry if not more into my theoretically smaller 5 kilo Miele, and due to better programming/water levels etc actually washes a fully loaded drum to perfection.

BTW - My AEG 86741's 6kilo drum was 56l - at least according to 7what it says in the user manual & brochure for my 6 kilo 86741. Mind you Zanussi have messed around with capacities in recent years - their 6kg drums used to be 53l, but they were 5kg under the AEG label... then the 56l drums became 6kg and Zanussi's 53l drums became 5kg... now the 53l drums are being rated as 6 kilos again - is all a big game of swings and roundabouts!

Jon