Verdict

Pros

• Enormous washing capacity
• Great choice of programmes
• Quiet and reliable Direct Drive inverter motor
• Top-notch spin efficiency

Cons

• Most economical modes not obvious
• Half load (albeit 6kg) most efficient
• Slightly noisier than its smaller brother

What is the LG F1495BDA?

With a 12kg capacity and 1400 spin speed, this top-of-the-range LG F1495BDA washing machine is perfect for large households who do a lot of washing. LG’s unique ‘6 Motions’ technology  uses a combination of washing motions for specific programmes, such as a scrubbing action for deep cleaning, a side-to-side swing for delicates and other modes to reduce noise, faster soaking and crease reduction. There is a separate crease care button to add the latter function to the end of any cycle.

Another key LG feature is the Direct Drive inverter motor, which does away with belts and pulleys in favour of a direct motor-to-drum connection that’s quieter and more efficient. LG includes a 10 year warranty on the motor and all its parts as standard as this type of motor is incredibly reliable. Useful programmes include a handy 30-minute quick wash for speedy laundry and a skin care wash for extra rinsing out any residual detergent.

LG’s Smart Diagnosis is standard in this machine, allowing customers to send fault code data directly to the service centre via their phone. If the fault is a simply filter blockage or an easy user-fix the system could eliminate waiting for an engineer to come out altogether.

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LG F1495BDA: What is it like to use?

The LG F1495BDA is all about making washing simpler, starting with its wide porthole that makes loading the biggest piles of washing easy. And if you have ever weighed washing you will know just how big a pile of dry washing this LG’s maximum 12kg load can be!

In addition to touch control buttons, the LCD display is crisp and clear, showing in detail wash programmes, temperature, spin speed and any other options have been chosen. The wash time is then calculated and shown as a both countdown time and percentage time through the wash LCD display, complete with a moving shirt graphic whose animation changes with each stage of the wash.

The graphic bubbles when washing, gently tumbles when rinsing and twirls around when spinning. It’s a nice touch and hours of fun for all the family, particularly the cat, we found. Once the cycle has ended the machine will play a short ditty to inform you that the end has been reached.

It’s generally very pleasant machine to use day in, day out, a fact helped by the fact the 6 Motion Direct Drive system gently rotates and then stops the drum to loosen your washing from the sides of the machine. This then helps the clothes emerge in a gentler, softer and less creased way than machines that don’t do this. It also stops missing errant socks stuck the drum.

LG F1495BDA: What programmes does it have?

There is an abundance of programmes to choose from and also a favourite option to customise your own wash method and temperature together with spin speed, time delay and even a pre wash function.

With the 14 pre-set programmes ranging from the standard cotton, easy care, mixed and woollen wash, there is also a baby care and skin care, which includes extra rinses to ensure all detergent residue is removed, a sports wear designed for today’s sport mixed fibres, a dark wash and a quick 30-minute or an intensive 60-minute wash for speedy results.

LG favourite function allows you to tailor a program and its options to your needs and save those parameters for one-click access next time. We really like this – it makes it super-easy to just dump your washing and get on with your life.

LG F1495BDA: How noisy is it?

With the current trend for top-end machines to use inverter motors for their low noise and high efficiency this LG was always going to be a quiet one. On the maximum spin in particular it peaked at just over LG’s claimed 70dB at 72dB, which is about the same volume as a quiet kitchen radio.

On the wash part of the cycle the sound crept up towards 58dB, against LG’s quoted 54dB, although this was largely due to the sound of the water and washing sloshing about rather than the motor noise. Some of LG’s direct completion, such as the Samsung WF90F7E6U6W Ecobubble, improve on this sound level a little, despite having traditional belts and pulley mechanisms, by employing a plastic second window over the porthole door.

Still, 50-something dB is really very quiet for a washing machine and if you are upgrading from an older model you won’t even realise the LG is running.

LG F1495BDA: How well does it wash?

We ran three different wash cycles for our tests; a 40-degree cotton wash with a 9.6kg (80%) full load at 1400 spin speed, a 40-degree normal cotton wash with a 4.8kg (40%) load at 1400 spin speed and then the same wash but this time in eco cotton mode.

We did not use the full 12kg load as using 80% is regarded as more realistic for day-to-day usage. We also included a test stain strip in the first wash, which was stained with dried on ketchup, coffee, blood, red wine and engine oil and washed using a non-biological detergent.

The timings for all the washes were very accurate with the first wash only overrunning by 10 minutes from the 2 hours 37 minutes initially indicated. The second wash was spot on 1 hour 33 minutes and the third wash actually finishing 3 minutes earlier than the 2 hours 17 minutes indicated.

This is an unusual result in that many of the LG’s peers tell you the wash will take ages in the first place and then take longer on top! As is fitting for a top-end machine the wash results were all visually identical across all washes, with all stains removed from our stain strip apart from the engine oil. This is proving a challenge for any machine without additional biological help.

In terms of energy efficiency the LG is great for its huge capacity, but that is not a statement without major caveat. The large 9.6kg wash (80% load) used just over 2KWh, which is pretty high for this level of machine. Yet with a half load 4.8kg of washing (what most people, would call a ‘normal’ load), the LG was very frugal indeed, using less than a quarter of the energy of a full load.

This result indicates half load is the way to go – but do not be tempted to engage the ‘Eco’ feature at half load. While this significantly reduces energy consumption at full load it is not optimised for half-loads, so actually uses twice as much energy as the a non-eco half load wash.

We contacted LG in the UK and Korea to confirm these findings and they pointed to the page in the manual that details just this anomaly and indicates not to use Eco mode with a half load. Quite why you should be able to engage Eco mode with a half load if this is the case, remains a mystery.

The take home message here is that the LG is at its most efficient with Eco-mode wash at full load and Normal wash at half load. Go figure. Indeed, we really think it would be better if LG detected which mode to use automatically, or least warned you that the load you’re using won’t be the most efficient – we’ve marked it down for ease of use here.

The water weight left in the first wash was a very solid result at 3.5kg (37%) from a 9.6kg dry starting weight. The second and third wash using a dry weight of 4.8kg left either 1.8kg (38%) or 1.9kg (40%) of water behind.

LG F1495BDA: How much will it cost to run?

Based on an average UK household use (200 x 40 degree 80% max load and 40 x 40 degree 40% half load with a 50/50 split on normal and eco programmes), the LG F1495BDA’s annual running cost is a quite an expensive £67.58. However, while these are our standard Trusted Reviews tests, if you were aware of the LG’s eccentricities you would always engage the ECO mode for full loads and normal mode for half loads (200 x 40 degree 80% max load ECO and 80 x 40 degree 40% load NORMAL).

This would put the LG right up there with the most energy efficient competition at this price point, particularly if you take into consideration the huge load capacity. Just be aware of the Eco/half load anomaly that actually doubles the running cost! Specific figures for power and water use are listed at the bottom of this review, with additional figures using LG’s most energy efficient modes.

Should I buy the LG F1495BDA?

This is a great looking machine with a huge capacity and would be able to tackle large loads from a very large household. It is packed with features, quiet and the 6 Motion drum rotation has lots of benefits. Its energy figure may not look as good as some on paper but take into consideration that monster load.

To put the figures in perspective, using our UK average household test this 12kg load machine would wash 2,112kg of a clothes a year. A 9kg model with the same washing regime would only have washed 1,584kg of clothes, so you’re getting a lot more washing for not a huge amount more actually cost.

The caveat is the issue of half-loads being more expensive in the eco mode than the normal mode, which is a slightly irritating and confusing issue LG needs to sort out. It’s the only reason we can’t recommend this machine outright, though provided you allow for this it’s still a very good machine.

Verdict

A very good machine for large households, but be wary of using the Eco mode on anything other than a full load.

Looking for an alternative? Consider the 10kg Panasonic NA-140VZ4

*Annual figure based on the average UK household running 200 x 40 degree 80% max loads and 40 x 40 degree 40% half loads (50/50 split normal & eco).

** Annual figures based on average UK household wash, 200 x 40 degree 80% max load ECO and 40 x 40 degree 40% half load NORMAL

Trusted Score