Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK Review
A high-quality washer dryer
Verdict
The Hotpoint Anti-Stain NDB 9635 W UK is a washer dryer with decent capacity (9kg wash, 6kg dry) that doesn’t sacrifice on wash performance. Excellent stain removal at low temperatures, and even better on the Eco 40-60 wash, this is a great washing machine in its own right, with the added advantage that it can also dry clothes. Decent running costs for a combined machine make this a great value choice. My only criticism is the slightly mysterious way that drying programmes are presented.
Pros
- Excellent stain removal
- Sophisticated range of programmes
- Low running costs for washing
Cons
- Drying costs are expensive
- Slightly confusing dry-only options
Availability
- UKRRP: £440
Key Features
- TypeThis is a freestanding washer dryer.
- CapacityThis machine can take 9kg of washing and 6kg for drying.
- Energy ratingThis machine has a D rating for washing and drying and a B rating for washing.
Introduction
As convenient as washer-dryers are, they tend to be a lot more expensive to run than standalone appliances and don’t have quite as many programmes. It’s nice to see the Hotpoint Anti-Stain NDB 9635 W UK push back on that.
Sure, it’s more expensive and has less capacity than a regular tumble dryer, but it’s a fully featured washing machine, with a decent B-class energy rating, and a load of features.
For the price, it’s an excellent choice if you want a tumble dryer but you don’t have space for separates.
Design and features
- Looks fantastic
- Steam, Anti Stain and fast wash options
- Decent washing capacity
Hotpoint laundry devices have been through a nice design shift recently, and the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK is no exception. With its two-tone dial, and neat control panel and porthole, this is a nice-looking appliance. That is, it will blend into most rooms without dominating.
Inside, there’s a 9kg drum, which has a fairly wide opening to it. I didn’t have any trouble loading in our test washing. For drying, this machine can take 6kg of wet clothes, which works out to around 5kg of dry washing, give or take.
For a washer dryer, 6kg of drying is about as big as you’ll get; if you want to tackle more drying in one go, you’ll need to buy a dedicated tumble dryer instead.
Control of the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK is via the smart dial on the front. This has all of the programmes written clearly in English, so there are no funny icons to decipher. At the top of the dial are the dedicated wash and dry programmes, which take between 1kg and 5kg of dry washing.
However, drying programmes can be added to the standard wash programmes, too: just make sure that you don’t exceed the maximum drying load if you want to wash and dry in one go.
There are the standard wash programmes that I’d expect, including Cotton, Synthetics and Eco 40-60 washes.
In addition, Hotpoint has loaded this washer dryer with some special programmes. There’s a Wool mode, approved by Woolmark, a Steam Refresh programme for freshening clothes fast, a 20°C washing programme for energy saving, plus the special Anti Stain programme, designed to remove stains without pre-treating clothes.
Each programme has a default temperature and spin speed, although these can be overridden using the selection buttons on the front. Plus, most cycles let you add steam to kill bacteria and viruses.
Strangely, the programme dial doesn’t have a dry-only mode on it. Instead, this has to be selected via the Dry Only button next to the LCD. In Dry Only mode, there are four modes. The first three are mysteriously labelled: A3, A2 and A1. These correspond to cupboard, hanger and iron dry modes, but I had to look up what they meant in the manual.
The fourth mode lets you select a drying time between 30 and 210 minutes; for most cases, the sensor drying programmes make sense as they’ll save you more money.
Once a wash has been engaged, the LCD shows the programme’s remaining time on the screen. During the first part of the wash (usually within 10 minutes or so) the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK can be paused and items added to the wash.
Here, there’s a standard detergent drawer, which rotates out. This takes fabric softener, detergent and pre-wash detergent.
Performance
- Decent running costs for washing
- Good drying costs (for a washer dryer)
- Excellent stain removal
I put the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK through our regular set of tests, to see how well it performed. First, I started with the Eco 40-60 wash, which is a standard wash shared across all devices. Measuring water and energy use for our standard 5kg washing load, I found that a cycle cost a respectable 37p (at a unit cost of 34p).
Here, the clothes came out 1.86kg heavier than they went in, which meant that they’d added 37% extra in weight. Under 40% is good, but closer to 30% is best. As far as washer dryers go, this is a good result.
Stain removal was excellent, as you can see from the images below. Starting from left to right, the red wine stain is still visible, but massively reduced, but the other stains (vegetable oil, ketchup, orange juice and gravy) are all gone.
Next, I moved to the Cotton 30°C wash. Here energy use dropped, but water consumption went to 107.5-litres, pushing the cycle cost to 50p for our 5kg load. Again, it’s not bad for a washer dryer, but the cycle is considerably higher than the Eco 40-60 programme. Again, water retention was similar to the Eco 40-60 programme, with my test clothes weighing 39% more.
I then ran the 20°C cycle, which dropped water and power consumption, giving an overall cycle cost of 25p for our 5kg test load. Upping the spin speed to the maximum 1400rpm, and my clothes came out 39% heavier.
Stain removal at 20°C was impressive, and very similar to the results from the 30°C wash. With my stain strip below, you can see the red wine stain is slightly more visible than on the Eco 40-60 wash, and there’s a trace of the vegetable oil stain. Even so, that’s impressive cleaning performance, and for more lightly soiled clothes, the far cheaper 20°C wash cycle is well worth using.
To compare washer dryers equally, I work out the Eco 40-60 cycle cost for a maximum load, which in this case is 9kg. Here, a cycle costs 45p. Given the average UK household will wash around 1370kg of washing per year, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK could complete this amount of washing in 152.22 loads, which gives a yearly running cost of £69.07 per year. That’s a fair bit cheaper than the Sharp ES-NDH0144WC-EN, which costs £79.44 a year to run.
Turning to the tumble dryer, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK isn’t as efficient as a standalone model and has a D class rating for combined wash and dry performance. I loaded the washer dryer with 6kg of wet washing and put it on the cupboard dry cycle. This used a chunky 2.84kWh of power with some minimal water usage (washer dryers use water to condense the steam), giving a running cost of £1.05 per cycle based on our 5kg (dry weight) washing. In this mode, some water was retained in the clothes, with 97% of the water removed; at this level, the clothes are fine to fold away.
Moving to Hanging dry, the cost per cycle dropped to 91p, while water removal fell to 96%. On this basis, I’d use this cycle more, for cost savings.
Using the UK average of 960kg of drying per year, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK would need 160 drying cycles. Based on the provided energy figures, this machine would cost £143.94 a year to run; a big saving on the Sharp ES-NDH0144WC-EN’s £186.82 running costs.
Of course, a full tumble dryer would be cheaper to run, as the cost per cycle is lower and they hold more washing. However, for convenience and if you don’t have space for separates, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK is economical for a washer dryer.
There was little case vibration in this washer-dryer, so I measured it at 53.8dB on its standard wash cycle, upping to 71.5dB on spin. It’s not the quietest washing machine that I’ve reviewed, but I didn’t find this model too intrusive, either.
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Should you buy it?
If you want a washer dryer and don’t want to compromise on wash performance, this is an excellent choice.
If you can fit a separate washing machine and tumble dryer, you’ll get better overall running costs and can handle more washing.
Final Thoughts
If you don’t have space for a separate washing machine and tumble dryer, but don’t want to compromise on wash quality, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK is an excellent choice. It proved itself capable of dealing with stains at low temperatures, and these can also help cut running costs from the standard programmes. Drying performance is very good, for those times you can’t line-dry items. Overall, the Hotpoint NDB 9635 W UK is excellent value.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every washer dryer we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
We test compatibility with the main smart systems (HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT and more) to see how easy each machine is to remote control. Smart washing machines only.
We test each machine with the same stains to see which ones are best at cleaning.
We test with the same sets of clothes for each machine, run through a cycle on our test washing machine, so we can compare energy costs and drying performance between tumble dryers
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FAQs
It can take 9kg of washing and dry 6kg of clothes.
No, all of the controls are on the front.
Trusted Reviews test data
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
