Hotpoint Ultima S-Line RPD10477DD review

The RPD 10447DD belongs to Hotpoint’s new Ultima S-Line washing machine range, which claims to remove over 100 stains at just 20 degrees thanks to Hotpoint’s direct injection technology. By pre-mixing the water and your detergent, Hotpoint says this eliminates any need for extended pre-treatment cycles or expensive stain removers, so it should save you money in both your weekly shop and when it comes to your overall energy bills.

As a result, the 10kg RPD 10477DD washing machine should, in theory, be a great fit for busy households, as its large capacity drum has more than enough space for a weekly wash, and you can comfortably load in larger items as well, such as duvets.

It should be noted, though, that Direct Injection isn’t available on every mode. Some modes have it turned on by default, such as the two Anti-Stain modes, but you can enable it for most of the others by pressing the big Direct Injection button to the right of the screen. Supported modes include Cotton, Synthetics, Ultra Delicates, Shirts, Baby, Anti-Allergy, and the Bed and Bath modes. Only Colour Care, Wool, Jeans, Duvet and the Fast 30 washes have to make do without it. Eco mode can only be enabled at 40C and 60C as well, so it can take some time to acquaint yourself with all the different mode combinations and how they interact with each other.

Otherwise, the RPD 10477DD is relatively easy to use. The big central dial doesn’t have many obvious picture markings apart from the Rinse and Spin & Pump Out modes, but the adjacent LED display tells you everything you need to know about each particular setting, including its temperature, spin speed and the length of the cycle. There’s also a slide-out panel in the detergent drawer that lists every mode and its corresponding number on the dial, but, personally, I found it easier and quicker to simply spin the sturdy dial to find the setting I wanted, reading the information from the screen. The RPD 10477DD has a delay timer and key lock buttons as well, so your kids can’t accidentally mess with the buttons if you want to set it going later in the day.

Water and electricity usage

To test a washing machine’s efficiency, we use the same 3kg load of washing in every machine we test. This creates a level playing field when it comes to testing machines with different sized drums, and it also allows for equal comparison across each machine’s various modes. I had high hopes for the RPD 10477DD, has it has an A+++ energy efficiency rating, but our tests showed it wasn’t quite as economical as Samsung’s slightly smaller Ecobubble WW6000 washing machine.

I started with a 30C Cotton wash, which used 39L of water and 0.39kWh of power, giving a very reasonable running cost of 16p per cycle, but when I increased the temperature to 40C on the Synthetics cycle, the power usage jumped up to 0.67kWh and used 45L of water, taking the running cost to 23p per cycle.

The 20C Anti Stain Power wash cycle wasn’t much cheaper, either, which is a shame considering this is one of its main Direct Injection modes. Here, it used 47L of water and 0.42kWh of power, creating a running cost of 20p per cycle. The 40C Synthetic Eco Energy wash, which also uses Direct Injection, was even worse, as, according to our water meter, it used a massive 73L of water, although power usage was just 0.43kWh, taking running costs to 27p per cycle.

We also use the EU Energy Label information to calculate average annual running costs. You can see our full test methodology in our How we test washing machines article, but these figures use the average UK wash size and take into account full loads. In other words, a 10kg washing machine can wash the same amount of clothes in fewer washes than an 8kg machine.

On the whole, the RPD 10477DD worked out reasonably well, as I worked out running costs of £20.99 for low-use, £31.49 for medium use and £41.98 for high use. This isn’t as low as Samsung’s 10kg WW9000, but that machine costs a lot more to buy.

Wash performance

Of course, running costs are only part of the overall picture, as a washing machine’s ability to actually clean your clothes is what’s really important. To test this, we use specially formulated stain strips that contain common laundry stains such as blood, red wine and ink to see how well it actually performs.

On the whole, the 40C Synthetic wash and 40C Synthetic Eco Energy wash consistently cleaned our stains most effectively, often producing more even, consistent results than the 30C Cotton wash and 20C Anti-Stain Power modes. Our cotton soiled with cocoa strip, for example, was very blotchy on 30C Cotton, but the Synthetics modes produced a much lighter, more even result.^ The 20C Anti-Stain Power wash was the worst performing cycle when it came to blood stains. Above is the original blood stain, while the result is underneath.

^ 30C Cotton handled our blood stain slightly better than the 20C Anti-Stain Power wash…

^ …but the 40C Synthetic wash definitely produced the cleanest and most even result.

Our 20C Anti-Stain Power wash results were particularly disappointing, as these results were almost always darker than the 30C Cotton and 40C Synthetics, with the cotton soiled with blood strip performing particularly badly. That said, they all cleaned our cotton soiled with red wine stain very well indeed, as all three cycles produced more or less identical results. The clothes came out reasonably dry, too, often retaining little more than 1.1kg of water on each cycle thanks to its spin speed of 1,400rpm.

Conclusion

The Hotpoint Ultima S-Line RPD10477DD is well-priced for a 10kg washing machine, with excellent wash performance at 30C and 40C, and very reasonable running costs. I’m not so impressed with the eco modes, but you largely don’t need them. If you want a large washing machine for big loads then this is great value; if you can get buy with a smaller-capacity machine you can get slightly better running costs. Check out the Expert Reviews best washing machine guide for more information.

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