How do I choose a washing machine, and what actually matters in the specification?

Washing machines are sold on a list of features that has almost no relationship to how good a machine is to live with. Fifteen programmes and a phone app are cheap to add; a well-supported bearing, a quiet motor and a drum that balances a duvet are not. The specification points below are the ones that turn out to matter after two years, in the order they matter.

What you'll need

• A tape measure
• The dimensions of the gap, including depth behind the units
• Your postcode's water hardness, for detergent and descaling expectations (optional)

Step by step

1. Measure the space before you look at a single machine.Standard freestanding machines are 595 to 600mm wide and 850mm high, and the height is adjustable downward on the feet by a couple of centimetres. Depth varies far more, from about 450mm to 600mm, and you need roughly 100mm behind that for hoses that are not crushed. Measure the opening, not the machine that is in it.
2. Check the door swing and the floor as well as the hole.A door that fouls a cupboard or an island makes loading miserable for a decade. Check which way the door hinges — it is fixed on almost all machines and cannot be swapped.
3. Pick capacity from your actual weekly volume, not your household size.Capacity is quoted in kilograms of dry cotton. 7kg suits one or two people, 8 to 9kg a family, 10kg and above only if you regularly wash bedding for several beds. A bigger drum costs more to buy and takes up the same floor space, but it will not cost more to run a small load in it on a modern machine that weighs the load.
4. Treat spin speed as the single most useful number on the sheet.It decides how wet the washing is when it comes out, which decides how long and how expensively it dries. 1400rpm is the sensible default. 1600 is worth having if you tumble dry or dry indoors; 1200 is fine if everything goes on a line.
5. Read the noise figures, both of them.Machines quote a wash decibel figure and a spin decibel figure, and the spin one is the one you will hear. Anything at or below about 72dB on spin is genuinely quiet; the mid-70s is normal; the high 70s in an open-plan kitchen is intrusive. Decibels are logarithmic, so 76 is roughly twice as loud as 73.
6. Understand what the energy label is actually telling you.The kWh figure is for 100 cycles of the eco 40-60 programme at various loads. It is a fair comparison between machines, but it is not the consumption of the programme you will select. Use it to rank machines, then use the manual's programme table to work out your own cycle.
7. Look for the boring build details rather than the programme list.A stainless drum, a sensible weight (heavier usually means more concrete ballast and less walking), a metal rather than plastic door hinge, and a filter you can reach without moving the machine. These are what separate a machine that lasts twelve years from one that lasts five.
8. Check parts and repair support before you commit.Ask, or search, how long spares are guaranteed for that model, and whether an independent engineer in your area works on that brand. A machine nobody local will touch is effectively disposable regardless of its price.
9. Decide about auto-dosing honestly.A refillable detergent tank that doses by load size genuinely reduces overdosing, which is the commonest cause of residue and machine smell. It also adds a system to clean and to fail. It is a real feature, unlike most of them.
10. Ignore the programme count.Almost everyone uses three: a 40 degree cotton or eco cycle, a 30 degree synthetics cycle, and a 60 degree one for towels and bedding. What matters is that the machine lets you vary temperature and spin independently of the programme, which not all cheap machines do.
11. Check delivery, installation and disposal at the point of ordering.Removal of the old machine, unpacking, connection and taking the packaging away are sometimes included and sometimes an expensive extra. A machine delivered to your doorstep in a box is not the same purchase as one connected and tested.

Tips

• Buy the machine that fits the space with room to spare rather than the one that fits exactly. Hoses need a bend radius, and a crushed hose behind a machine is a slow leak waiting to happen.
• If the socket ends up behind the machine and unreachable, have an electrician fit a switched fused spur somewhere you can actually reach. You want to be able to isolate it in a hurry.
• In a hard water area, expect to descale and expect detergent doses at the higher end. It affects running cost and machine life more than most spec-sheet differences do.
• A machine with a heavier concrete ballast walks less on a springy floor. Shipping weight, where it is published, is a surprisingly good proxy for this.

Common mistakes

• Buying on programme count and app connectivity — These are the cheapest things on the machine to add and the first things you stop using. Capacity, spin, noise and build determine whether you are happy with it in year three.
• Measuring the gap but not the depth behind the units — A machine that fits the aperture but needs 100mm of hose space behind it will stand proud of the worktop line, which looks wrong and stops drawers opening.
• Reading the energy label as the running cost of your wash — It describes the eco 40-60 programme only. A 60 degree cotton wash uses several times as much electricity as the labelled figure implies.

Questions people ask