Hoover H-WASH&DRY 500 Freestanding Washer Dryer, 9 Kg Wash + 6 Kg Dry, 1400 RPM, Combined Cycle Class D, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth, Auto Care & Hygiene Cycle, White, 60x58x85 cm - HD 496AMC/1-80

I have been using this washer dryer for 2 months at time of writing. I have used it personally approx. twice a week, and I live in a houseshare with 4 others so it has seen it's fair share of use.Capacity and washing/drying ability:The main feature of this washer dryer is it's (at time of writing) unmatched capacity - 14kg washing and 9kg drying. This is accomplished partly via sheer size - the unit is extremely deep and the drum fills almost the entire body. I think I can literally fit twice as many clothes inside it as my previous 6kg wash 5kg dry washer dryer. The size is also backed up by washing/drying ability, as I have frequently filled the (giant) drum to 2/3rds or more capacity with heavily soiled and thick clothes, which have emerged both totally clean and also dry throughout, even on the quicker washing modes designed for lightly soiled clothes. Since these loads are so big I often use two washing pods instead of just one, and the manual recomends this for larger loads.Some examples of what I can wash & dry in a single load with no issues:- King sized sheet, duvet cover, two pillow cases, and two medium-large towels. This mostly filled the drum, and took about 7 hours total including 5+ hours drying time.- Three pairs of trousers including a pair of thick cotton joggers, two buttoned shirts, a thick jumper, 3 t-shirts, 3 sets of running shorts, 7 pairs of socks, and 7 boxers. This all fit with plenty of space to spare and washed and dried using the '59-minute' wash setting in about 3-4 hours total.Note that some of the more aggressive washing cycles (particularly the cotton cycle) take an extremely long time - approx 3 hours for washing alone, with lots of very loud spinning. However I have found the faster mixed washing cycles (such as the '59-minute wash') do the job just as well in a third of the time, even with fairly heavily soiled clothes.Controls/UI:The controls on the front of the machine are quite complex and not initially user friendly, requring studying the manual in depth to learn the meaning of all the different symbols etc. Once this is done it becomes a minor but noticable annoyance, as you often need to do lots of cyling through options with touch-sensitive buttons to get all the settings right.This is mitigated by the accompaniying app however, which after a rocky setup (which probably took me 1-2 hours of faff and trouble-shooting) made it a breeze to set up a few custom programmes to use repeatedly as well as coming with dozens of built in programmes for all kinds of washing loads. The optional notifications when a cycle finishes are also useful.Noise:I am overall impressed by the quietness of the unit, with it typically being inaudible through a closed door. The one exception to this is the higher spin speeds (1600 and 1200 rpm) which get quite loud, and have a somewhat annoying high pitched tone. Using the 800 (or lower) speed gets rid of this issue completely however, so I would be happy to e.g. have this installed in kitchen.Reliability/customer service:Due to an error by the amazon technician installing the unit (they did not level it correctly) after about a week of use the drying funcationality of our unit failed. After a call to the hoover-candy service line about this (only needing to wait ~5 minutes on hold) I was connected to a friendly and helpful UK-based support person, who after asking for details of the issue was able to arrange for a technician to be send out within a week to look at the issue - dispite this happening over the Christmas break during peak Covid.The technician was knowledgable and came prepared, and ended up being able to diagnose and fix the issue using a spare part they had brought along (it turns out due to the unlevel installation a fan used when drying clothes had come loose and gotten damaged, and needed to be replaced).Despite having an issue with our unit, I do not think this was the fault of the unit, and I was overall extremely impressed with their customer service to fix it so efficently.Conclusion:While I will need to wait and see what the long-term reliability of the unit is before I can draw firm conclusions about it, I am currently very impressed by it's performance and strongly recomended it. The main downsides are it's noisy high spin settings and confusing controls, but I think these are strongly outweighed by it's incredible capacity and washing/drying capability and the high quality of customer support.While it is quite expensive compared to most washer-dryers, if you are regularly frustrated by your unit's low capacity or poor drying ability I think it is worth the extra cost.

A bit complicated at first but works well

Huge drum, works well, abit noisy, good cycle times. Sticks out abit but that's due to the size of the drum.

I had this machine delivered today, I started off with a very small test load of washing , was a few thin shirts and tea towels , socks, I couldnt make out why all the steam was come out of clothes when door opens, was like clothes were being boiled, every now and then it lets in water which makes the drying clothes never get dry, also the door lock is clicking on and off six or more times, and it goes into a spin cycle when its supposed to be drying, I have sent back for a refund, and have re installed my old faithful washing machine, never again today has been so stressfull, I feel so relieved its going back, its very complicated to operate, and even worse when it does things its not supposed to, I should be compensated for the terrible day I have had trying to get my washing dry, i've spent all day on this, thanks to amazon for a quick return and machine being picked up, dont buy this machine it really is a terrible machine.

First impressions are that it’s a nice-looking machine. There’s not a lot to distinguish washing machines visually, but it’s smart and simple, with intuitive controls, and the instruction manual is clear. Having never installed a new washing machine before, I was a little apprehensive, but it proved surprisingly easy - a couple of pipe connections and plug it in to the mains socket. Connecting the machine to WiFi was fairly easy too - it could all be done by downloading the hOn Android app, and then pointing the phone at the QR codes on the WiFi router and the washing machine.There are a number of ways you can tweak the washing cycle on the hOn application, using either pre-built cycles or you can make your own. You can set a time-delay on the start of the wash, and I can see that being useful for setting up a wash late at night to start first thing in the morning. The app kept me informed with an estimated completion time for the wash, and once the cycle had finished I got a notification and was asked if I wanted to use the “refresh touch” option, to keep the clothes fresh in case I couldn’t unload it immediately. Everything came out clean, needing only a little drying. There are different drying setting for pre-ironing, putting away in a cupboard and extreme - I’ll explore those more to see what works best. I’ve done a couple of washes so far, and they’ve been quieter than my old machine (which was too noisy to be next to during a wash) and as far as I can tell from my smart meter, they’ve used less energy too. After the first couple of days, it’s a thumbs up!Some additional comments after exploring smart features - There is an option to set a washing cycle by taking a photo of your washing piled in front of the machine, but unfortunately you need about 2m of distance between the machine and your phone to frame it properly, so I couldn't test it. Another cool thing is that you can scan washing labels to build a clothing library, and configure your wash cycle using this.