Samsung Ecobubble WF1124XAC review

While the average washing load is far below the capacity of the 12kg Samsung EcoBubble WF1124XAC washing machine, its cavernous drum can be of immense use. For starters, you can let your washing basket fill and then do the entire load in a single wash. Alternatively, a 12kg drum means that you’ll easily be able to fit in a king-size duvet, saving a trip to the laundrette.

This model is the largest in Samsung’s range to use Ecobubble technology, which uses air injected into the water to create bubbles that more efficiently dissolve detergent and improve cleaning performance at low temperatures.

POWER AND WATER USAGE

The Samsung Ecobubble WF1124XAC is an A+++ appliance, but it’s the actual figures that make for more interesting reading. In particular, the Super Eco Wash at 15C is incredibly efficient. For our 3kg test load the washing machine used just 0.19kW of power and 45L. This worked out at 15p per wash, which is the cheapest we’ve seen from any machine. This mode reduces the spin speed to 1,200rpm, so our test clothes retain 1,5kg of water, which is quite a bit.

Running our standard 30C Cotton test saw power usage jump up to 0.53kW, while water consumption moved to 67L. With a 1,400rpm spin speed our clothes retained just 1.1kg of water, although costs to 27p per cycle. Increasing temperature to 40C Cotton increased power consumption a little to 0.65kW, although water usage and retention were similar at 64L and 1.1kg respectively. Costs worked out at 28p per wash. This is pretty competitive, although we’ve seen cheaper machines for these washes.

Despite the massive drum, the 15C Super Eco Wash means this washing machine can be cheap to run

The 40C Synthetic wash is one of the most interesting, as fine control of the drum usually results in higher energy consumption, particularly with a big drum like this one. Energy usage jumped to 0.81kW, although water consumption stayed level at 71L. This increased the cost of the cycle to 32p, which still is competitive for the size of the drum. The spin speed is reduced to 1,200rpm, which resulted in our clothes retaining 1.3kg of water.

To let us compare different washing machines we work out yearly costs based on the EU Energy Label (see how we test washing machines for more information). This gave us costs of £54.27 for high usage, £40.70 for medium usage and £27.13 for low usage. For a 12kg machine they’re reasonable costs and the 15C wash is very cost-effective, but you can get 8kg washing machines that are cheaper to run.

WASH PERFORMANCE

To find out how good the Ecobubble WF1124XAC 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.

The Super Eco Wash 15C cycle is the one that Samsung’s keen to promote with its Eco Bubble technology and we have to say that we’re impressed. While the 40C Cotton wash managed a bit better in our tests, the results were incredibly close. In fact, you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference in the red wine test at all.

The 15C Super Eco Wash (top) produced similar results to the Cotton 40C wash (bottom) in our tests

Blood and cocoa removal was also very good at 15C, matching the higher-temperature washes. We have seen slightly better performance from some other washing machines at high temperatures, though. While other manufacturers usually state that their low-temperature washes are for lightly soiled garments, Samsung’s Ecobubble means you can use the Super Eco Wash for pretty much everything. It’s one limitation is that Samsung recommends a wash load of 6kg of less for this mode.

Blood/milk/ink combined staining proved to be a slightly easier job for the 40C Cotton cycle than the 30C Cotton cycle

Switching up to 30C and 40C cotton washes produced very similar results. However, the blood/milk/ink test strip came up slightly cleaner at the higher temperature, as was carbon black/olive oil.

The Synthtic cycle at 40C wasn’t so good and the strips here came out noticeable more stained. In particular, our blood-stained strip was still fairly dirty. Performance was better with cocoa and red wine. However, the Super Eco Wash gave better results with less energy.

Our cocoa-stained strip wasn’t that clean after the Synthetic 40C wash – the Super Eco Wash is much better[/a]

EASE OF USE AND FEATURES

As we’ve come to expect from Samsung, build quality was excellent and the Ecobubble WF1124XAC felt very well made. The door felt tough and secure, while the detergent tray operated smoothly. This model comes with an LCD screen, showing you your wash options, so it’s easy to see what’s going on.

The dial lets you quickly select the type of wash you want

A simple dial lets you quickly select a pre-set wash cycle, with options for all of the usual types, plus Wool and Hand Wash for delicate items. For each wash you can also control the spin speed (400, 800, 1,000, 1,200 and 1,400rpm), choose the temperature (20C, 30C, 40C, 60C and 90C).

This clear LCD screen lets you see exactly which wash options you’ve chosen and how much time is left

In addition there are specific wash options that you can add including an Easy Iron mode, which reduces the spin speed to 800 and controls the drum movement to reduce creasing. There’s also an option to delay the start of the wash, so you can ensure that you’ll be around when the cycle has finished to prevent your wet washing sitting in the machine for too long. If you’ve got a set of favourite options, these can all be saved to the My Cycle, so you can recall them quickly for use.

Noise is rated at 52dB for the wash and 72dB for the spin cycle, which is about what we’d expect. More importantly, the Ecobubble WF1124XAC was smooth in operation and didn’t wobble or shudder during testing, so it was fairly unobtrusive.

CONCLUSION

The current price for the WF1124XAC is excellent, particularly for a 12kg washing machine. We love the Ecobubble mode, which truly did an excellent job at just 15C. At this mode it’s also incredibly cheap to run.

However, across all wash cycles and based on the EU energy label figures, the 8kg Panasonic NA-168VG4 is cheaper to run overall and has marginally better performance based on our stain strips. That said, if you want the biggest capacity possible, the Ecobubble WF1124XAC is the washing machine to buy.