Hisense WD5S1045BW Review
A well-specified washer-dryer with low washing costs
Verdict
The Hisense WD5S1045BW is a washer-dryer that doesn’t compromise on washing. With auto dispensing, a smart app and huge 10.5kg drum, this washer-dryer can cope with big loads, while keeping running costs down. Its tumble dryer is expensive to run, and only has a capacity of 6kg, making it better for occasional use.
Pros
- Massive washing capacity
- Low washing costs
- Good stain removal on Eco 40-60 cycle
Cons
- Fiddly to set up app
- Expensive to tumble dry
Key Features
- CapacityTakes up to 10.5kg of washing and 6kg of clothes for drying.
Introduction
For far too long, washer-dryers have been on the wrong end of development: lower capacities, higher running costs and fewer features than their standalone competitors.
The Hisense WD5S1045BW redresses the balance with A-rated wash performance and a massive 10.5kg drum with a 6kg capacity for drying.
Throw in its auto-detergent dispensing and smart app control, and this washer-dryer offers far more features than you’d expect at this price.
Design and features
- Stylish modern design
- Automatic detergent and fabric softener dispensing
- App control
With its strip of black at the top and white body, the Hisense WD5S1045BW is a good-looking and stylish washer-dryer. It’s not the first washer-dryer I’ve reviewed with an A-rated wash (see the Hotpoint ActiveCare NDD8636DAUK), but this has the biggest drum.
With space for 10.5kg of washing, the Hisense WD5S1045BW is an immense washing machine and about as big as you can get. More capacity is helpful for large families with a lot of washing to get through and for homes that want to clean larger items, such as duvets.
A big porthole makes it easy to load this machine up with washing, without too much shoving.
Despite the large drum, drying capacity is 6kg, which is about as big as it gets for washer-dryers; if you want to dry significantly more washing, you’re better off buying a standalone tumble dryer.
This washer-dryer has a large detergent drawer with reservoirs for liquid detergent and fabric softener. Both are auto-dispensed by the washing machine, so you can fill it up, and it will last for multiple washers without having to be filled each time. If you do want to use washing powder, then this can be added instead.
In most instances, the Hisense WD5S1045BW will use its simple control panel. There’s a main cycle selector that has the most common wash and dry modes. There are some special modes, too, including wash modes for wool, silk and bedding.
There’s also an option to add tumble drying onto any wash cycle, so you can go from dirty clothes to dry ones ready to fold. Drying options default to cupboard dry, but there’s also iron dry and extra dry settings, but no hanging dry option.
This is a smart washer dryer, which works with the ConnectLife app, which oddly has no Hisense branding on it. It often takes me a few minutes of thought to work out what to search for when I want to open the app. The LCD screen shows the estimated wash time, and has options to override default settings, such as the spin speed and wash temperature.
Adding the Hisense WD5S1045BW to the app should be a simple case of scanning the barcode on the front, only this didn’t work, and I had to manually type in the washer-dryer’s long serial number instead.
From the app, I could select the washing modes I wanted, plus override any defaults, such as the spin speed or washing temperature. The washer-dryer has to be enabled for remote start if I wanted to start a wash from the app; this is the same as with all smart devices, acting as a safety feature.
Performance
- Low washing costs
- Decent stain removal
- Tumble drying is quite expensive
I started off using the Hisense WD5S1045BW on its Cotton cycle, setting the temperature to 30°C. Here, I found that the cycle would cost around 44p, which is a little more expensive than the same wash on the Hotpoint ActiveCare NDD8636DAUK, although still relatively cheap.
At the end of the wash, my 5kg washing load had increased in weight by 51.41% due to water retention. That’s quite high, and typically I like to see this figure at 40% or less.
I used a stain strip in this wash cycle, which is pre-stained (from left to right) with red wine, orange juice, ketchup, cooking oil and gravy. With this cycle, the stain strip got quite twisted, which ended up with the ketchup stain remaining quite visible. My red wine stain was still visible, although faded, while the remaining stains had been removed. That’s a good, but not outstanding result.
Moving to the Eco 40-60 wash saw improvements all round. First, the wash cycle was reduced to a cost of just 24p for my 5kg load. That’s exceptional value, particularly for a washer-dryer.
Here, my 5kg clothes put on 40.91% of weight through water retention, which is a much better result, showing that they’d dry faster if left to hang out.
Stain removal was better, too. Here, all of the stains were gone, bar the red wine stain, which had faded a lot, and a little bit of the orange stain left. That’s a similar performance to the Hotpoint ActiveCare NDD8636DAUK.
There’s a quick wash on this machine (39 minutes), which resulted in a running cost of 29p, although my clothes did come out 63.27% heavier. Still, this wash is useful if you’ve got lightly soiled items that you want to turn around quickly.
Washer-dryers aren’t known for their efficiency, but the Hisense WD5S1045BW is quite expensive to run. Setting it to cupboard dry, I found that it cost £1.22 for the cycle to complete. My clothes lost 102.48% of their wet weight, which shows that some fibres were lost through over drying.
Switching to the iron dry setting, I saw running costs come down to £1.07 per cycle, and my clothes were 98.37% lighter than their wet weight. This shows that, while some water remained in the clothes, they were dry enough to pack away.
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Should you buy it?
You want cheap washing and lots of capacity
A-rated for washing, this machine has a large 10.5kg drum, a smart app and auto-dispensing for a no-compromise wash.
You want more tumble drying capacity
If you need to dry lots of clothes regularly, a traditional tumble dryer will be a better bet.
Final Thoughts
At its best, the Hisense WD5S1045BW is a capable washing machine, able to take very large loads, with running costs that compete well with the best washing machines. It’s also a decent cleaner, dealing well with most stains, although there are washing machines that do even better.
Tumble drying quality is good, although I did find this machine quite expensive to run. If you only need occasional drying, don’t have space for separate machines, and don’t want to compromise on washing-machine running costs and capacity, this is a good buy.
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’s large and can take 10.5kg of washing and up to 6kg of drying.
Yes – the ConnectLife app gives remote control over the washer-dryer.
Trusted Reviews test data
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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.
