Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE Review

[squirrel make=”Candy” model=”ROW4964DWMCE”]

Although not the most efficient machines, washer dryers offer a convenient and time-saving way to wash and dry your clothes. The Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE does a good job of offering decent wash running costs and a sizeable capacity. If you’re tight on space and are unlikely to need to tumble dry a lot of clothes, this Wi-Fi-connected machine is a decent choice.

Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE design – A futuristic-looking washer and dryer

• Fiddly transport bolts
• Looks cool with the buttons around the door
• Feels tough and robust

Candy has upped its design game. As seen on its recent models, the company has shifted the control buttons from the front panel to around the top of the porthole. It completely changes the look of the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE, making it look far more stylish than a bog-standard washer dryer.

There’s a slight practical benefit to this button layout, too: you can clearly see the buttons when you’re standing up looking down at the washing machine. Otherwise, it’s largely business as usual, with a standard LCD showing the washing time and a programme dial for selecting the washing and drying options.

Build quality here is also generally very good. It feels tough and robust. The appliance is a good size, only 580mm deep, and so will fit into a smaller space than many washing machines. There’s a large enough porthole that swings open wide to provide access to the 9kg drum, which can take 6kg of wet washing. That’s a decent amount for a washer dryer, although some way behind what a standalone tumble dryer could hold.

A standard detergent drawer pulls out from the top left, providing space for detergent, fabric softener and pre-wash. It slightly obstructs the porthole, so it’ best to close it before opening the door to load in the washing.

If I have one complaint about the build, it’s the transport bolts. I was able to remove the first three easily enough, but the plastic part of the bolts dropped inside the washing machine, so I had to take off the rear-access panel to get them out. The final bolt had been overtightened, with the soft bolt head becoming rounded while using a spanner on it, making it even more difficult to remove.

This may be a one-off job that either you, or an installer has to do, but it proved unnecessarily fiddly.

Elsewhere, set up was simple: cold water in and used water out. Since this is a washer dryer, water extracted during the drying process is flushed out of the same drain pipe.

Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE features – Plenty of programmes and there’s Wi-Fi, too

• Fast washing programmes
• Wash and dry at lower capacities
• Wi-Fi connection and app control

A programme dial on the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE allows you to choose your desired wash cycle. The icons denoting the various cycles aren’t always obvious, so you’ll want to keep the manual to hand whilst you become familiar. Fortunately, you get an English description of the wash cycle on the LCD, so you can more easily see what you’ve selected.

All of the basics are covered, plus there’s a wash option for wool clothes and dedicated drying programmes that include wool, too. Since this is a Rapidó model, you’ll find several quick-washing programmes included on the menu. For regularly-soiled clothing, the Rapid 39’ wash will complete a half-load wash in just 39 minutes.

With each wash, you can override the default settings such as wash temperature, spin speed and level of soiling to fine-tune the wash cycle. You can also set the tumble dry options, which comprise cupboard, iron and extra dry. Just make sure that you don’t exceed the maximum drying capacity of 6kg for the load.

Still, this is where washer dryers come into their own: you can load them up and return to a completed wash that’s dry, too, and ready to put away. It’s great for towels and bedsheets, where you may want to reuse items straight away.

Alongside the front panel controls, you can also hook up the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE to Wi-Fi to work it via the Candy simply-Fi app. The app will display the current run-time, but if you want remote control then you’ll need to put the machine into Wi-Fi mode first.

The app feels a touch under-designed, but it covers the basics well enough – although it does have a quirk: add the washer dryer and you can’t add any other Candy washing machines or tumble dryers into your account. This may not be a problem in one household, but if you later decide to add a tumble dryer, or you have a second property, you’re out of luck.

The app lets you select the wash programme you want but offers some extras, too, including special programmes for face masks, bedding and the Wash and Dry 59 Min programme, which can take up to 1.5kg of clothes and wash and dry them in under an hour. That’s really handy if you need a fast turnaround of lightly soiled items.

Once the app is sorted, you can use Alexa or Google Assistant to control your machine. It’s handy for receiving updates on how long the wash cycle will take to complete – but trying to set the right programme via voice command isn’t as easy as using the app or the control panel on the front of the appliance.

Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE performance – Excellent wash performance, but tumble drying can be expensive

• Good stain removal at low temperatures
• Decent running costs for washing
• Drying is quite expensive

I put the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE through my standard set of tests to see how well it performs. I started out with a 30ºC wash, which used 0.48kWh of power and 36.4 litres of water. That’s very competitive.

With a spin speed of 1400rpm, the washing came out 37.4% heavier than it went in, which is an excellent result. The less water there is in the clothes at the end of a cycle, the easier and faster it will be to dry.

Stain removal was decent at this temperature, too, as you can see from the test strip of (left to right) red wine, olive oil, ketchup, orange juice and gravy stains. At 30ºC, there was a block of ketchup left behind and the faint outline of red wine, but it’s still impressive stain removal nonetheless.

Upping to the 40-60 Eco programme, power usage and water consumption remained similar at 0.46kWh and 39.6 litres; I’d expect a heavier power reduction. Clothes came out weighing 36.6% more than at dry, which is another good result.

Stain removal performance was pretty decent here, too, as you can see below. This time around, the oil stain is quite visible and there’s a hint of red wine remaining – but the context of performance for the price, the Candy impresses. You’d have to pay a fair bit more for better results.

Next, I tested the drying capability. Running the Cupboard Dry setting on the test clothes fresh from the washing, I saw power usage of 1.44kWh and water consumption of 18.4 litres. That’s almost three times the power usage of a heat-pump tumble dryer.

Here, the clothes came out weighing 0.04kg heavier than when dry, showing that the cycle didn’t quite extract all of the water. As a result, I calculated that 95.65% of water was removed: not bad for a washer dryer, but you’ll get better results in a regular tumble dryer.

To work out costs on a level playing field, I take the energy label figures to work out the average cost per full load. Then, to compare it across all washing machines, I start by calculating the total amount of washing (in kg) that the average UK household produces per year, assuming 274 loads and load amounts of 6kg (high), 4kg (medium) and low (3.5kg). That’s a total washing amount of 1644kg (high), 1233kg (medium) and 822kg (low) per year.

Then, assuming full loads, I can work out how many loads the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE would require to fulfil each load of washing. For example, here the large(ish) capacity of 9kg means that just 182.67 loads are required for high use, down from 274. As you can see, with larger-capacity machines, part of the efficiency is derived from using them at full load.

With the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE, this amounted to running costs of £34.39 per year for high usage, £25.79 for medium and £17.20 for low. This is an A-rated appliance, so those running costs are competitive and lower than the standalone Hoover H-Wash 500, for example.

Next, I worked out running costs for the tumble dryer, although the UK average is 160 loads per year. Here, then, it would take 160 cycles for high use (6kg loads), 120 for medium (4kg loads) and 80 cycles for low (3.5kg). This, combined with relatively high electricity costs and water costs (standalone tumble dryers don’t need water) gives us running costs of £57.23 (high), £42.92 (medium) and £28.61 (low). These costs explain the D-class rating for drying.

Buy a standalone tumble dryer, such as the Hoover H-Dry 500, and you’ll benefit from a larger 10kg capacity. This reduces the number of loads you have to run per year, thus electricity costs will go down. Expect running costs to be at least half.

This isn’t a criticism of the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE as such, since high tumble drying costs are a trade-off for the convenience of an all-in-one appliance. On balance, the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE’s tumble drying costs are okay for a washer dryer.

Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE conclusion

Well built, cool-looking and offering excellent stain removal and decent running costs for the washing cycles, the Candy Rapidó ROW4964DWMCE is a good washing machine in its own right, as you can see by comparing it to other models in our roundup of best buy washing machines. Having a tumble dryer built-in adds convenience, although running costs can be high. As such, this model is a good choice if you need occasional drying or a lack of space means you can’t fit in one of our recommended tumble dryers side-by-side.

[squirrel make=”Candy” model=”ROW4964DWMCE”]