Verdict

Tumble dryers can be expensive to run but thanks to its heat pump technology the Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 is exceptionally frugal. With its large 11kg drum, it's capable of handling very large loads, too. The downside is that while running costs are low, drying times are very long and if you need dry clothes faster, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Pros

• Lots of programs
• Very large drum
• Super efficient

Cons

• Very slow

Need to dry a lot of clothes often? The 11kg Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 could well be the tumble dryer for you. It’s also very efficient, using a heat pump for drying, although that does mean that this machine is considerably slower than many traditional condenser tumble dyers. Even so, if running costs are your priority, this is a great machine.

Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 – What you need to know

• Features and programs – Lots of programs to choose from including a wool option. It’s nice to see the option of draining water through a hose, too.
• Drying performance – Got our clothes dry without shedding too much additional weight through fibre loss, although this machine is very slow.

Related: Best tumble dryer

Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 Design and Features – Funky design and plenty of program options

With its silver-trimmed door inlaid with the Hoover logo, the DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 has a certain 50s style to it. I quite like this look, as it makes the dryer stick out for all of the right reasons.

There’s a very simple control panel, with a dial to select the type of items that you want, including some to catch all types (mix, whites, cottons) and some special programs, including for wool and to revitalise waterproof garments.

There’s also an LCD screen, which shows you how long is left on the drying cycle, with options to adjust features. For each program, you can adjust how dry you want your clothes, from a selection of iron dry, hanger dry, cupboard dry and extra dry. There’s an option for Rapids, which increases the pressure of the heat pump, increasing drying time at the expense of efficiency.

This model is a One-Fi Extra one, which means that it can connect to your Wi-Fi and be controlled via the Hoover Wizard App. Via the app you can control the tumble dryer cycle, starting it remotely, and you get a few extra indicators for maintenance tasks. Is it worth it? No, not really, as tumble drying typically needs to be done immediately, so it’s easier to load and use the controls on the front.

As this tumble dryer has an 11kg capacity, the drum is huge. Fortunately, there’s a massive door too, so it’s easy to shove in loads of washing when you need to. The medium and max loads are placed on markers in the porthole so that you can make sure that you don’t overload the machine.

Inside the door is the used water container, which simply lifts up and out for easy pouring; alternatively, you can use the provided hose to output water to a drain, so that you never need empty the container.

After each drying session, you do have to clean the filter, which simply lifts out from the bottom of the door.

Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 Performance – Slow but cheap to run

I ran the Hoover Dynamic Next DXWH11A2TCEXM-80 through our standard test load, opting for the regular cotton cycle. It’s a lengthy process, taking over two hours to complete the drying cycle when set to cupboard dry, all thanks to that heat pump.

The washing was neatly tumbled throughout the wash but the downside was that a sock got pushed out onto the top of the filter, which meant that it didn’t dry properly. Aside from that, our clothes came out dry to the touch. After weighing them, I found that they had lost 104.08% of water they went through. It’s common to lose a bit more weight, as the clothes shed fibres that appears as fluff in the door. An additional 4% loss isn’t particularly high.

Using this program, our 3.4kg of washing took almost two hours to dry, which is incredibly slow. However, the trade-off is that I measured the system as using just 0.74kWh of power, which is exceptionally low.

To work out running costs for a year on a level playing field, I used the EU energy label, which shows that this tumble dryer uses 236kWh of energy per year. Assuming 160 cycles per year, this works out at 1.475kWh per cycle, or a cost of 23p.

For yearly costs, I worked out the total amount of washing per year, assuming 160 loads at high (6kg), medium (4.5kg) and low (3kg) usage. Once I had the total, I could work out how many full loads this tumble dryer would take, which gives the most efficient answer, and lets us compare tumble dryers of different sizes. This gave me running costs of £20.27 a year for high usage, £15.21 for medium and £10.14 for low. That’s very low for a tumble dryer and justifies the A++ efficiency rating.

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