Posted By Laura in #New!, In the Home, Just for You, Review, Shopping | 2 comments

When Beko got in touch and asked if we’d like to try their latest AquaTech Washing Machine Review, the WY940P44E, we thought about it.
I mean, we did. Our old washing machine is 10yrs old this year. We can’t run it in the evening or overnight, as the noise is so loud we’d get complaints from the neighbours (and never hear the TV).
Mysterious black marks have started appearing on the clothes when they leave the machine that weren’t there when they went in (pretty sure washing machines are supposed to reverse that). And the draining cycle is what you might call erratic.

So yes, we thought about it – for 3 nanoseconds before saying yes-please-thankyouverymuch darling Beko.

But that’s not to say we’re easy to please. We’re a family of six – to maintain any semblance of control on our own personal laundry mountain we need to do at least one wash a day, more for towels/sheets and the like. My old machine may have been in its death throes, but it’s a solid workhorse that has hummed (and recently banged and knocked) reliably for years; the AquaTech Washing Machine Review has a lot to live up to.

This post contains affiliate links – you don’t pay any more, but I may earn a teensy smidge of commission (which frankly just helps my coffee habit). But I never recommend something to you I wouldn’t recommend to my sister. And yes, I do love my sister.

So here’s the stuff about the new BEKO AquaTech Washing Machine you’ll need to know (I know this because this is the stuff I checked first). Never mind all the fancy gubbins, here’s what you need before you begin:

AquaTech Washing Machine Review

• 9kg – That’s a hefty size, but smaller than my previous 10kg machine.
• 1400rpm spin. That’s fast. Which means your laundry should come out less wet, thereby reducing drying times considerably.
• £320 (ish)
• A+++ energy efficient (no I didn’t know you could get that many +’s either). Annual consumption estimated to be 152 Kwh.
• 14min quickest wash (for a couple of items)

But, of course, these things don’t always work as well as the shiny details promise. So as is the LittleStuff way, one very large and shiny black monster took up residence, and the trials began. Let’s face it – there can’t be much more daunting to a washing machine than a family of 6, with three man-sized teens with an unnatural fondness for white clothing, and one teen-next-month who’s keen on pale pastel clothes and pasta sauce. There’s your usual dash of sports gear & kickboxing uniforms, stinky uniform from the one who has a part time job in a chip shop, plus regular mud-filled gear from the Army Cadet on company weekends, DofE and PT nights. Oh, and the husband has a penchant for gardening in his favourite jeans, too.

Fair play to Beko, I said. They asked us for this AquaTech Washing Machine Review. They must be quite confident.

So. Does it work?

Well… yes.
It does.
Perfectly.

Not to be too shallow in this terribly technical review but… the first thing you notice is the machine looks… weird. It’s snappy and snazzy and I love it… but it’s disconcerting. I couldn’t figure out why – and then I realised.
The door is flat!
This is the first time ever that I’ve owned a washing machine that doesn’t have a deep inwards-well of a door. I like it. A LOT.

Next is the size of the door – clever designer Beko people not only made a hefty drum size, but that fancy flat door is also a huge porthole (34cm!) to allow a kingsize duvet easy access (and leave room for the sheets too).
Then, the touch control panel is large and easy to navigate, with plenty of very useful but not overwhelming options (there’s a distinct lack of the 6 settings you never touch).

No matter what setting you choose, the first job of every cycle is to weigh your load, and then decide exactly how much water to use. Once the AquaTech Washing Machine has decided what you’ve filled it with, it’ll work out the best settings, and let you know how long there is on the cycle to go. Probably perfect if you should ever find yourself trying to work out if there’s enough time to get the kit washed, dried and ready for kickboxing at 6… *cough*

So – the Happy points:

• It runs really quietly – even that super-fast spin cycle barely causes a hum. I can run it at 9 in the evening with all the windows open. Huzzah!
• The ‘Supershort’ 14 minute wash DOES exist for loads under 2kg – but uses the slowest spin, leaving clothes very wet. I tend to adjust the spin speed up to 1400 – 5 minutes extra on the wash, but drying time is reduced by half.
• You can do an entire full load wash inside 28minutes on the ‘Daily Quick’ and it washes normally soiled clothes perfectly – but again, unless it’s delicates you’ll probably want to increase the spin speed to remove more water, and you’re looking at closer to 40 minutes.
• Timings vary load-to-load, because the machine reacts to what you’ve put in it, along with water pressure and other factors during the cycle.
• The ‘cottons eco’ options takes a lo-o-ong time. Over 3.5 hours. It has high energey and water savings, but not for a daytime wash you’re waiting to get on the line. It is, however, perfect to put on at bedtime.
• It has an allergy care cycle (AllergyUK certified) which is not only perfect for parents washing a delicate newborns laundry, but also for any house with allergy sufferers (asthma and eczema would certainly benefit), as it removes practically all trace of dust mites/pollens etc.
• There are specialist stain programmes. No really. I haven’t tried them all, but young pubescent girls have accidents while they get to grips with their periods. This machine’s ‘blood stain programme’ has dealt with this more effectively than any washing machine I’ve ever known.
• The Teens figured out the settings they need quicker than the Boomers, and happily do their own laundry. That’s a Hell, YES from me.

I’ll be honest – I did think the AquaTech Washing Machine had already broken this week.

The spin wouldn’t spin.

I had just two items in there, had done a super speedy 20 minute wash, carefully setting it to the fastest spin, as usual. But upon completion I opened the door and found the items completely sopping wet. Presuming I’d not set it correctly, I set them to spin again – and they came out sopping again. The third time I hung around and watched, and realised the spin simply wasn’t getting up to speed – it was going around gently, but never building up pace for the eye-blurring whir you’d expect.

I panicked. I thought I’d already broken the 2-week old machine.

To be honest, I quietly *raged* at the foolishness of a machine that just breaks.

And then I realised that the two items were slapping back and forth wetly, and then clinging to one side of the drum as they began to spin. My old machine used to tell me off for this, with an alarm about an ‘unbalanced load’, and I wondered if that might be the issue.

So I threw in 3 towels; problem solved, the machine instantly span happily. It would have been good to have a warning light on the control panel to tell me this was the issue, but I’ll know for next time, and frankly I’m always happy when a machine has a system built in to stop itself breaking.

Conclusion on the AquaTech Washing Machine review

I might have reduced from my previous 10kg sized drum (but then, I no longer have three young children and a toddler throwing food all over themselves), but I gained in spin speed. The AquaTech water distribution cleverness means my clothes are cleaned better, but with less wear and tear – not only budget-friendly in terms of energy and water useage, but also extending the life of my clothes. Important to me, and even more important to my climate-aware eco-conscious teens. It runs quietly, looks beautiful, and will rescue me at 7 in the morning.
What’s not to like?

(Well, there is one teeny thing. It will turn you into a bit of a sad soul who gets a gleam in their eye and talks washing machine technology to anyone who pauses for a nanosecond anywhere in its sleek black much-loved vicinity…)

We reviewed the AquaTech Washing Machine WY940P44E which comes in both black and white, and is available for £320 at John Lewis (plus various other retailers).

And if you’re looking for a happy combo laundry solution, a few years back we reviewed the Beko Tumble Dryer – she’s still going strong, we still call her Dylis and we still throughly approve!