Verdict

Pros

• Huge capacity
• Excellent drying results
• Super-low running costs
• Easy to use
• Excellent Mixed Load system
• Plumbed-in waste option
• Easy fluff cleaning
• Quiet operation

Cons

• Nothing we can think of

What is the Samsung DV90M5000IW?

Samsung’s latest batch of Heatpump tumble dryers promises incredible energy efficiency and super-accurate sensor-based drying. The DV90M5000IW is a huge 9kg capacity model with 14 programmes, drum light, shoe rack and a single fluff filter to ease cleaning.

This tumble dryer simply blew us away. It offers excellent drying results across all dryness setting, great features and the lowest energy consumption per load we’ve ever tested. Samsung’s DV90M5000IW is an outstanding all-round dryer.

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Samsung DV90M5000IW – Design and features

Samsung likes to push the boundaries of technology. While Heatpump technology for tumble dryers has been around a while, there’s always room for improvement. Enter the snappily titled DV90M5000IW. By increasing airflow, optimising the drying cycle and reducing heat losses, this model aims to make tumble drying much more energy efficient.

As such, this model comes to the TrustedReviews test bench with an exceptional A++ rating for energy efficiency. Moreover, that efficiency is achieved across a truly whopping 9kg load capacity, promising the most efficient tumble drying per kilo of clothing you can buy.

Mind you, there’s no point in a machine being super-efficient if it looks like a dog’s dinner or is difficult to operate. Samsung has worked hard on both the styling and ergonomics, and we reckon the Korean giant has got it spot on.

Huge drum: tick; wide opening porthole: tick; glass door and interior light so you can see what’s going on: tick; anti-crease/wrinkle prevention: tick; simple rotary programme selector: tick; and crisp display with obvious options buttons: tick.

That’s all the bases covered. Samsung goes on to add some real flair to the design and operation too. At the risk of suggesting that often the best ideas are the simplest, the simple sight glass on the drawer front instantly lets you know when the water container needs emptying. Genius. This machine offers full Smart Control from a phone app, allowing you replicate most of the main features, create macros, save custom programmes and even monitor energy usage over time.

Needless to say, this premium machine is packed full of sensors that monitor every aspect of the drying system. Billed as Optimal Dry, it uses moisture, heat and heat-exchanger cleaning sensors to continuously adjust the drying time on the fly. This should again reduce energy and protect delicate clothes by eliminating over drying.

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If emptying the water container is too onerous, the water outlet can be plumbed into a sink or washing machine waste plumbing.

Samsung has also reduced the fluff filter count to just a single unit, easily accessible from the door. Getting rid of the filter in front of the heat exchanger is a top idea since they’re usually a complete pain to clean. The two-layer mesh in the door filter means all the lint is collected in the one filter that pulls out and splits in two for easy emptying.

The heat exchanger will need a vacuum out every month or so (about 25 cycles), and there’s a gentle warning alarm when it requires this maintenance.

Wrap up this impressive package with 14 programmes, three drying levels and a shoe rack that fits in the drum, and the DV90M5000IW goes a long way to justify its price, even before we have started testing it.

Samsung DV90M5000IW – What’s it like to use?

For basic drying the DV90M5000IW is beautifully straightforward, thanks largely to its fully sensor-based automatic drying and huge capacity.

The clear, double-glazed door opens wide to reveal a huge opening and a large drum illuminated by a white LED light. This goes off after a minute or so, or when drying, but you can bring it back on at any time using the lamp button on the control panel. The drum swallowed a huge 7.2kg (dry weight) of wet washing, although the lack of extra space after that fill suggested drying across items in the drum might be a bit variable. Buy hey, as it turned out, what do we know.

From there you select load type and dryness level, press start and let the machine do the rest. When the load reaches the required levels of dryness, the machine stops (or goes into wrinkle prevention, if selected), sounds a long and irritatingly joyful jingle, and pings your mobile phone if you’ve set up the Smart Control.

Unloading is just as easy thanks to the large porthole. The filter managed to keep all the fluff inside its frame so none of it transferred to the clothes on removal. The filter itself pulls out and pops open to clean. Down at the heat exchanger, there were no signs of it needing a clean after eight loads.

It’s only when you get into some of Samsung’s more advanced features that you’ll need to reference the manual, and even then only the once. We had to look up what the Mixed Load Bell was and when you might need an Air Wash. Both features, it transpires, are very handy indeed.

The knob, door release and touch control have a light yet robust feel, and the latter never missed a press. The water container is of a very good size – as benefits such a huge-capacity machine – so when full it does weigh quite a bit for carrying to the sink. Since a plumb-in waste kit is supplied, we’d certainly recommend that option.

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Samsung DV90M5000IW – How noisy is it?

Tumble dryer sound measurements on the energy label are always something of mystery to us. The reality is almost always higher than that quoted, and often by quite a margin. So with the DV90M5000IW label suggesting a fairly serious 65dB operational noise, we had the ear defenders on standby.

Not need, it turns out. The Samsung produced a very consistent 57-58dB measured at 1m away from the door in open space. Not only is that much quieter than stated, the sound produced is very smooth and consistent. That makes it something of a soft drone that you quickly forget rather than the stop-start noises of other machines.

While there have been a couple of dryers we’ve tested that are even quieter through parts of their cycle, few are as peaceful throughout their entire operation. Top marks. Mind you, that jingle at the end of the cycle can judder you back to audio reality. Thankfully, there’s a big button on the front fascia to turn it off.

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Samsung DV90M5000IW – What programmes does it have?

This Samsung has a core of fully automatic programmes that are all material specific and self-explanatory. We’re talking Cottons, Delicates, Synthetics, Wool, Towels, Outdoor Care and Bedding. There’s also a catch-all Mixed Load programme. On many machines that option would risk over-drying fine synthetics – such as cycling lycra in our house  and/or leaving heavier materials such as denim still damp.

Samsung’s clever Mixed Load Bell constantly monitors the load dryness and pings a warning bell when it feels any materials in the load achieve the selected level of dryness. You pause the cycle, have a rummage around and pull out the dry items. You then let the cycle continue to dry the rest of the load.

In practice, it worked remarkably well – even though rummaging around a full load of 7.2kg or more of clothing meant taking it all out of the drum to sort. That said, it really does offer the option of genuine mixed material drying, allowing you to better fill the machine and make the whole tumble-drying process more efficient.

You get four completely manual drying options, covering warm air drying, cool air drying, a timed dry and Quick Dry 35, which aims to dry a 1.2kg load of synthetics and light cottons (about four shirts) in just 35 minutes.

With four levels of drying available, we had to question the Iron Dry programme. In practice, there wasn’t much difference between it and a normal load on the minimum dryness level – clothes emerging hot, moist and ideal for ironing on both counts.

Samsung’s Air Wash programme is a ‘freshen-up’ style programme used for dry clothing that could simply do with a liven-up, or aren’t really dirty but have odours. These might be summer clothes when you take them out of winter storage, or if you’ve been in a smoky environment. Boosting the feature with three levels of Air Wash intensity depending on odour levels, the cycle aims to reduce odours by up to 40%.

Samsung DV90M5000IW – How well does it dry?

Using our normal 80% of claimed max capacity in real-world clothes, we filled the Samsung with 7.2kg of dry clothes, soaking wet fresh out of a 1400 spin washing machine… so the load actually weighed 9.3kg. That’s a huge amount of washing. It was a bit tight; 6.5kg dry would probably be a little more efficient, but it does show you just how much you can get into the DV90M5000IW.

We set the programme selector to Cottons and the mid-dry setting. We’d expect this to be cupboard-dry; almost dry with just a hint of moisture remaining to reduce creasing and allow the final dry in the cupboard.

The screen showed a drying time of three hours initially, as well as letting us know it was analysing the load. A few minutes later, the drying time dropped to a relatively speedy 2hrs 10mins once the machine had worked the remaining moisture and materials.

The chirpy jingle signalled the end of the cycle. If we’d engaged the wrinkle-prevention feature, this keeps the drum turning intermittently for up to three hours or until you remove the load to prevent creasing.

We weren’t expecting miracles considering the size of the load, but the overall drying was extremely impressive. On feel alone we’d say that the load was perfectly cupboard dry; and rummaging through clothes, none had escaped the Samsung’s drying abilities. Our electricity meter must have gone wrong because it was reading just 1.2kWh.

Round two was an identical test with a different power meter and the results were almost identical. A superb mid-dry level throughout, the clothes emerged warm and ideal for hanging. The power meter was indicating just over 1.2kWh. That’s one of the most efficient 7kg mid-dry results we’ve ever seen.

Reducing the load to 6kg dry and the DV90M5000IW was no less impressive or efficient. Repeated tests on this load on all three drying settings came in with very good iron dry damp (lowest setting), cupboard dry (mid-setting) and close to fully dry/extra dry on the highest setting.

On the latter, the first run on the highest dry setting did leave about 50g of moisture in the load. That’s under 1%, so still very dry. Better still, even on this setting the clothes didn’t feel crunchy or crispy, which is usually the result of over-drying. We ran the dry load on a second, extra-dry cycle, and 15 minutes later the jingle indicated it was perfectly dry. Exactly 0% moisture by weight, in fact.

Halving the load to 3.4kg saw equally stellar drying results and (usually) a near commensurate drop in electricity consumption. On the mid-dry setting, the Cottons cycle used an average of 0.65 kWh. It’s still a little more energy efficient to use a full load, but not by enough to worry about collecting a huge pile of wet clothes before you start drying.

For its flexibility of drying, genuinely huge capacity, consistent drying throughout the load and exceptionally low electricity costs, the DV90M5000IW was rapidly establishing itself as our favourite Heatpump tumble dryer to date.

Samsung DV90M5000IW – How much will it cost to run?

Not all Heatpump tumble dryers are created equal. We’ve tested many, and the implementation of the system is as important as the technology itself in keeping running costs low. On top of its fabulous test results, Samsung’s Heatpump technology implementation is the best we’ve tested to date. It will easily halve the running costs of a traditional heater-element tumble dryer – even one with half the capacity.

If you used this machine 150 times per year at 100 full loads (80% or 7.2kg to replicate real-world use) and 50 small loads up to 3.4kg on the Cottons programme, it would use just 152kWh or so of electricity per year. Not only is that the lowest running costs we’ve ever seen in a 9kg dryer… it’s the lowest we’ve tested to date at any capacity!

That 152kWh will set you back around £22.85 at an average 15p/kWh. Considering that will have dried over 900kg of clothing over the course of the year, the DV50M5000IW proves that Heatpump technology tumble dryers have come of age. You could probably spend more than that a year on replacement washing lines and lost clothes’ pegs!

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Should I but the Samsung DV90M5000IW?

Samsung’s stunning DV90M5000IW offers huge capacity, easy operation, excellent drying results and spectacularly low running costs. Add to that list of goodness its handy features – such as the water sight glass, drum light, Air Wash programme and Mixed Load Bell – and this tumble dryer more than justifies it’s not inconsiderable price ticket.

Verdict

The DV90M5000IW combines great features with excellent drying results – and the lowest running costs we’ve ever seen.

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