I'm quite disappointed with my new Samsung Series 8 Space Max 11kg washing machine. I used to use an LG washing machine which was about 10 years old. I was happy with washing quality and the features of my previous machine, but I know LG aren't great at the smart connected side of things. I choose Samsung because their smart integration is better and I believed the washing machine features would be on a par with the older LG. However, it's quite basic in terms of options and unnecessarily cumbersome to use.
I think Samsung could fix most of the concerns below through software updates. I doubt that Samsung will make changes – there is probably little incentive to do so as washing machines aren't items you buy that often. It's a shame as the machine itself is fine, it just needs more easy-to-use customisable options which do not affect the other washes.
You can adjust some of the settings such as additional rinses and spins but limited adjustments for other options
With my previous machine, I could change additional options such as more intensive wash and steam. Each element would add additional time to the wash. Quite often, I would start with start with quick wash, change the temperature, add more intensive wash, add steam and add extra rinses. It didn't matter if I filled the drum as it would adjust the time accordingly.
With Samsung, most of the washes have limited options. The super speed option can only go up to 40 degrees, you can't add steam or bubble soak or intensive wash. It doesn't appear that the machine adjusts the time based on load either.
Lack of temperature options
Each wash setting has specific temperature ranges and you can't adjust the temperature out of these ranges. There are better options for colder washes but many washes can't go above 40 degrees.
Quick Drive is only available on certain washes
I chose this model because of the Quick Drive option, but you can't add this to most washes. It's also not clear when it's been applied as the light on the button doesn't light up like it does with other options (a message briefly flashes up on the display but no light or symbol).
Steam is only available on certain washes
Steam was a requirement in choosing a new machine but you can only use it on certain washes. I could add steam to most washes with my previous machine.
Changes to auto dose settings apply to all washes
If you change auto dose in one wash, it applies them to all (except ones which don't support auto-dosing – such as rinse only or specialist care). There are times when you might want to use a different product (such as changing to powder or tablet for a white wash) but you have to manually change this on the machine and then change it back the next time you use the machine. It's between 5 and 12 button presses or clicks to go through menu and change the auto-dosing settings each time.
Specialist wash options but no standard wash
There are lots of additional wash options such as outdoor wear, denim, hoodies etc, but no general standard wash to select and then build options. I suspect the standard wash is deemed to be the AI wash (which leaves the machine to decide) or full wash (which is 3 hours so not something to be adding more wash options to).
Also, many of the wash options have reduced weight (between 2kg and 5kg) which is a shame considering this is an 11kg load.
Downloadable wash options are limited
I thought I would be able to download various options and configure to my needs. I suspect most users would have a few types of wash that they would use regularly and would like to have on demand without having to go through changing settings each time. For me those would be:
- General wash for colours that uses auto-dosing (might be a medium or heavy load)
- White wash using manual dosing for detergent but auto for fabric softener
- Towels and bedding with auto-dosing and higher temperature with steam
- Wool wash for jumpers which uses specialist detergent but auto-dosing for softener (this is a wash I would use occasionally so wouldn't mind adjusting manually but there is a wool wash which could have these settings)
- Jeans cold wash with auto-dosing detergent but no softener (this is a wash I would use occasionally so wouldn't mind adjusting manually but there is a denim wash which could have these settings).
As far as I can tell, each one of the above would require me to select a wash to start from, press the options button and then use scroll wheel and selecting each option manually. The lack of buttons makes it time consuming but if you select the wrong wash to start from, you won't be able to select some of the options. This means you end up scrolling through other wash options trying to find the relevant wash which has those settings to then configure.
There are specialist options built-in and can be downloaded, but these are specific – for example, there is a bedding option which is very different from the towel option – how do you chose when you want to wash towels and bedding together? And, you would still need to go through and adjust auto-dosing and other settings every time you use the machine though.
Scroll wheel
This device has a scroll wheel which is ok to use but not when you have to change options for virtually every wash. I would certainly choose buttons next time.
Other thoughts
- Auto-dosing is good (despite the interface issues). I had a number of questions about this before purchasing so hopefully this helps:
- There are settings on the app to change whether the detergent and fabric softener is concentrated (this can't currently be configured on the device).
- You can select off, low, medium and high doses for detergent (remember that this change will affect other washes though).
- You can select off, low, medium and high doses for fabric softener (remember that this change will affect other washes though).
- You can put detergent liquid in both drawers but it treats it as one drawer so you can't put white detergent in one drawer and the other for coloured detergent). I've chose colour liquid in detergent drawer as it's what I use most often. I use manual dispensing when I want to use white tablets/powder (which I do sometimes for whites).
- The liquids run out quickly. I'm not sure if it's overdosing or using the same dose even when it's a light load. I'm going to try the concentrated options.
- Drum clean option is really good idea. Hopefully this will result in a better smelling machine and cleaner drawer.
- The machine isn't as quiet as I thought it would be (I'm comparing to LG which is direct drive so probably not a fair comparison, but definitely quieter than Bosch equivalent).
- Drum light would be really handy as it's easy to leave items in the big drum.
- The unlocking of the door is really loud (it's the lock rather than the chime which you can switch off).
- Would be good to be able to turn off the beeps as you change options.
