Earth Notes: On the Zanussi ZWF01483W washing machine: Review (2020)

The John Lewis delivery process worked well, even though I mistyped my own mobile phone number into their form it seems, and various other exciting things were going on that day. In fact I had to drop out of a management meeting to let the two guys in a little before half past twelve.

For covid reasons I wore a mask and they did not!

They did a good efficient job extracting the old machine for recycling, and of connecting the new one up and testing it.

(Where I'd normally sign for delivery and installation, that was omitted for covid reasons...)

We then set off a (90°C) maintenance wash to clean any residues from the machine before they left. We could not get that down below about 2.5 hours nominally, which was a bit annoying. Though after 10 or so minutes the machine noticed that it was empty and cut an hour off the remaining time.

The JL team took all packaging away, cleared up, left me the right paperwork and the transit bolts and unused drain hook. They were all done in about half an hour.

Well done JL!

A little later, so that we could make some headway on the laundry basket, we went to cancel the remainder of the cycle. It took a little working out that just to drain (which was a distinct programme on the previous machine) it was necessary to select a normal cotton cycle, then Drain & Spin, then turn off spin! Having done that, 3 minutes to drain and unlock.

We had three loads done by 6pm, some in time to go on the washing line!

(The first load was of the towels we used to soak up the flood from the dishwasher when it threw a strop so as not to be left out...)

We got a couple more loads done the next morning, and were then caught up with the backlog. A relatively low-trauma process from start to finish.

So now we have a quieter, newer, higher-capacity machine, hurrah!

I'm all in a spin...

Initial observations

Interestingly, two energy labels come with the appliance. The first under old regs shows A+++. The new rebased one shows D! Rebasing things periodically so that all new products are not just jammed at the top of the scale is good practice. The EU resisted far too long.

Unlike the just-expired machine, there is no indication on the display of what phase the machine is in (heating/washing, rising, spin). But in practice I don't think that it matters. What is important, that we checked for before purchase, is a remaining-time indicator. Especially given the ability to adjust to load size automatically, it's very handy to know when an hour has been lopped off the finish time.

Before, you used to set a delay before the cycle started if wanted. Now you set a time for it to have finished by, letting the machine do some mental arithmetic for you. The minimum finish time is 3 or 4 hours depending on the selected cycle. In principle this would allow the machine to wash slower and cooler, saving energy, knowing your deadline. But I don't think that it is that clever.

It's working well so far. We are puzzling out the different possible combinations, such as with 'Quick' and 'Intensive'. And could we use the 20°C wash, maybe with intensive, instead of 30°C, to halve energy consumption in winter? (The lift in temperature from mains would then be 10°C rather than 20°C, thus the halving.)

First measurements of actual power consumption with my Maplin N67HH plug-in meter... And of wash performance and time on what I hope may be the go-to Mix 20° low-energy programme between cold and 30°C cottons.

When plugged in via the meter and switched on, the machine draws ~0.8W (alternating between that and 0.7W). When the On button is pressed and the display lights up that rises to 2.4W. After a few minutes left alone, the machine bleeps, the display goes off, and power consumption drops back to the previous ~0.8W.

The Mix 20° program shows as 1:57 duration. It sets the spin speed to 1200rpm (and it cannot be raised back to 1400). This may be a problem, as drying will then take longer. Selecting 'Intensive' raises the programme duration to 2:11.

I have started a small wash (Mix 20° Intensive) at 08:00Z.

Mains water temperature is 20°C, so no water heating should be needed.

(The machine remembered my programme selection while powered off.)

There is one significantly soiled item in this small load.

Opening the valve to let in water raises consumption to ~11W. Gently agitating the clothes too draws a very variable 50--120W. Idling between agitations, ~3.7W total.

Seven minutes into the wash the remaining time shown is 1:57. So maybe a few minutes trimmed from the initially reported 10:11Z finish time. While in this initial wash phase, power draw remains at ~3.7W while the drum is still, varying around/above 100W when agitating.

25 minutes in, total consumption is logged by the meter at 100Wh (0.1kWh). Curiously, peak power is shown as 2379.7W (~10A), which may be an artefact of the induction drive or the apparently slightly dodgy connection.

(The machine soldiered through brief drop-outs in supply from my setup, but beeping in indignation. It is not clear if the total metered consumption, still showing 0.1kWh, will be reliable.)

First drain was at ~90 minutes in. The first short gentle spin pushed consumption over 200W, peaking at ~300W. The next spin pushed consumption to a little under 400W, peaking at ~550W.

Second drain was ~10 minutes later. Gentle brief spin ~200W. Stronger spin ~300--500W.

Third drain was ~10 minutes later, with a "finish in" time of 8 minutes, with a gentle spin. Then the final spin after 4 minutes, maxing out at ~400W in the first half, a little higher in the second half but with an early peak over 900W.

Beep and door unlocked a 10:04Z, so 2:04 run time. Consumption dropped to 1.7W with display on.

Beep and display off 10:08Z, with consumption ~0.7W/0.8W.

Total 0.2kWh recorded for the whole programme.

The heavily soiled item washed fairly well.

The clothes were a bit damper than they would have been with a 1400rpm spin.

A generally decent outcome.

(Rest of house powered up again at 10:11Z!)

Started very small 30'@30° wash. Time shown on the "finish in" display is 30 minutes. Spin speed is shown as 800rpm. (Spin can be turned off, but not made faster.)

Tap (mains cold) water water temperature was measured at 21°C within the last 2 hours.

A full audio recording is being made. (With me in the background, typing!)

Power consumption is being measured by the Maplin N67HH plug-in meter. Whole house consumption is being sampled by the Enphase every minute. Other house variable loads (eg the fridge/freezer) are turned off for the test.

There seems to have been 3 minutes of water heating (at just under 2kW), starting 3 minutes in. This energy is ~100Wh (0.1kWh), similar to boiling water for a couple of mugs of tea. This part might double mid-winter with mains water at ~10°C.

There is much less agitation than with the Mix 20° wash.

First drain at 14 minutes in.

Second drain at 17 minutes in.

Third drain at 19 minutes in. Very gentle spin at this point.

Substantial fill at ~21 minutes in.

Fourth drain at 23 minutes in.

Spin starting at ~25 minutes in.

Unlocked and bleeped at 27 minutes in, ie 3 minutes ahead of schedule.

Note that unlike the previous machine, there is no 2 or 3 minute delay from end of programme to the door actually becoming unlocked, which is good.

0.6W was shown as consumed with the display off before starting, and with the display off after completing.

Total consumption was metered at 0.1kWh. In the same territory as boiling water for a couple of mugs of tea, or maybe a rinse cycle on the dishwasher, ie very low.

(Peak power demand is reported by the meter as 2268.2W, likely spurious.)

This wash is not going to shift anything beyond the lightest of soiling.

A recording of the whole wash cycle, including me in the room typing the words above and sighing meaningfully, and the wall clock ticking, in glorious low-bit-rate mono to save some bytes:

I saw something that did not belong in the wash come to the front. I was quickly able to 'pause' the wash and in a few seconds retrieve what turned out to be a travel-pass wallet, then restart the wash. For the previous machine a wait of at least a couple of minutes would have been required for the safety lock to release.

The machine is working much as the previous one, and doing its job.

Another Mix 20° wash has been tried, and nothing bad happened!

I put on a large (heavy) mixed colours wash as cotton cold around noon.

By default that is timed as 2h46. With selected 'Intensive' over 3h, with 'Quick' maybe half an hour is lopped off.

About a quarter of an hour in, the remaining time shown has dropped to 2h07. So maybe 20 minutes has dropped off the initial wash time.

I set up a medium mixed colours wash as cotton cold around 8pm.

I wanted it to finish in plenty of time to hang out before a 9am-ish meeting. (Tomorrow morning is due to be dry and sunny ish, with sunrise at 6:45.)

The delay (finish by) function only works in steps of 2h at higher values, so I aimed for 12h, ie nominally finishing a little after 8am.

I actually expect it to finish sooner not being a full load, a little after 7am.

A cold cottons wash was set up, with a "finish by" of 3 hours. But the wash started immediately, presumably because the normal run time is nearly 3 hours. However, it seems like the machine did not attempt to shorten the wash according to the load (not huge in this case) as it otherwise would.

We have been trying more of the Mix 20° in place of 30°C washes. It roughly halves the energy consumption at this time of year but still seems to do the job. Nothing going in is very soiled or stained, which would be a sterner test.

Mains cold water at this time of year for us is ~10°C. The energy to "lift" to 20°C (10 degrees) is half that to 30°C (20). Since heating wash water is most of the energy for the whole cycle, 20°C vs 30°C therefore roughly halves energy use. The reduction is fairly visible by eye in the Enphase whole-house consumption.

Today I am starting to tabulate some energy-consumption measurements with the Maplin N67HH plug-in meter.

(What do you mean I should be doing other things today?)

I will update this table periodically as I take more.

Today I'm starting with another Mix 20° wash, not intensive.

Rows coloured deep green are our main (and efficient) washes.

Measured Zanussi ZWF01483W energy consumption.

Programme	Feature(s)	Duration (m) [1]	Energy (kWh)	Date	Water (°C) [2]	Comments
cottons	cold	140		2020-10-17		Large (heavy) mixed colours wash. Used default 1400rpm spin.
	cold	~166	~0.35	2021-11-29	12	With water at 12°C, when the display LED stopped flashing at ~2h46, the remaining time did not drop ~1h. So maybe the machine is by design washing for longer when the water is actually cold and detergents will take longer to work. It seems to be a somewhat binary choice however! Estimated ~150Wh more (mechanical) energy consumption over normal cold wash. Time and energy not measured directly.
	cold	147	0.38	2022-10-29	17	Energy consumption is being monitored by Local Bytes plug. Large colours load from full laundry basket! Started 08:35Z. Display showing 2h46. At 08:51Z the display LED has stopped flashing and remaining time shown is 2h15. 10:05Z drain audible from another room. 10:06Z to 10:10Z drain and spin. 10:19Z drain. 10:21Z to 10:24Z spin. 10:31Z drain. 10:36Z to 10:37Z spin. 10:47Z drain. 10:51Z to 11:01Z spin. Finished (door unlatched, beeps) 11:02Z. Beeps stopped by 11:05Z. Front-panel lights off by 11:09Z, and energy monitoring stopped. Consumption measured by Local Bytes plug from 08:34Z to 11:10Z was 0.38kWh.
	cold	XXX	XXX			Energy consumption to be measured at low mains temperature.
	cold intensive	117	0.2	2021-05-31	15	Medium dark load. Used default 1400rpm spin. Initial time shown as 3h03 (183m). Started 09:47Z. By 09:57Z the remaining time is showing as 1h50, ie more than 1h vanished! At 10:52Z remaining time is 0h55 and total consumption still showing as 0.0kWh. At 10:59Z remaining time is 0h48 and total consumption is showing as 0.1kWh. At 11:09Z a drain has happened and a gentle spin is just stopping; 0.1kWh. At 11:38Z another spin is underway with 0h07 remaining shown; 0.2kWh. Finished 11:44Z, 0.2kWh energy used. (1-minute whole-house energy monitoring ran from 09:55Z)
	30°C	94	0.5	2020-12-28	11	Small load, initial displayed run time 2h46, started 11:30, finished 13:04. By 11:40 display time had dropped to 1h27, ie ~1h10 taken off the run time. ~9A@245V (~2.2kW) while heating water at 11:47. Water heating stopped ~11:49 (consumption back to ~100W), max 2299.9W, with 0.3kWh metered. Final drain and spin started 12:48 with "finish in" 13m shown, 0.5kWh metered. After: 2327W max, 0.5kWh
	90°C, quick	140		2020-09-10		'Maintenance' wash at installation.
	90°C, quick	>90	~2	2022-06-26	20	'Maintenance' wash. Energy consumption estimated, not directly measured. Run when enough PV and battery cover to minimise grid imports.
mix 20°	intensive	124	0.2	2020-09-19	20	Small load. The clothes were a bit damper on default/max 1200rpm spin than they would have been at 1400rpm. A generally decent outcome.
		110	0.3	2020-12-25	11	Medium/large load (most of full laundry basket), started 10:16, finished (beeps) 12:08. 0.7W before setting up (displays all dark). Display time 1h57 at start. 11.3W during initial cold fill. [Prosecco break for measurement technician...] Showing 31 minutes left, 2292W max, 0.2kWh, at 11:38. ~290W during penultimate spin, peaking ~680W sustaining ~330W during final spin. 1.2W when finished, 0.7W when turned off with the button. Peak 2292W, total energy metered 0.3kWh. Duration 110m vs initially displayed 117m. Potentially heavily-soiled items seem to be clean.
30'@30°		27	0.1	2020-09-20	21	Very small load. This wash is not going to shift anything beyond the lightest of soiling, but seemed to be sufficient in this case. 1794s "20200920T1345Z ZWF01483W 30at30 cycle" (i) Uploaded 2020-09-20. Downloads: • small lo-fi very low-bandwidth audio/opus mono clip 3493kB + • lo-fi low-bandwidth mono clip 7987kB ++ • mono clip 8511kB +++
ECO	40°C	143	0.4	2021-01-02	10	Medium load of bedding. Start at 10:38, finish at 13:03. Initial time shown 3h29. At 10:50, display saying "finish in" 2h17. At 11:06, load dropped to around 50W (agitating) so not heating the water, 0.2kWh metered. At 11:50, 0.3kWh metered, "finish in" 1h17 displayed. At 12:53, 0.4kWh metered, "finish in" 9 minutes displayed, spin just starting. Final metered consumption 0.4kWh, max power 2254W.

1. Duration is as timed unless otherwise specified.
2. The mains water temperature when measured. This affects energy consumption of any cycle that heats the water.

Energy consumption from the user manual

Other than specific washes such as for bedding, my observation is that most washes are now being done on Mix 20°. This is at least in part because these Mix 20° cycles, even on 'Intensive' are quicker than the Cotton cold alternative.

And though I have not specifically metered a wash lately, with mains water temperatures over about 12°C, I'm not seeing a huge demand spike in the Enphase graphs for water heating.

I think that Mix 20° is popular is that the cold washes when selected, show a far longer time than they actually take. This is puzzling since (eg) time to heat the water should not be a factor. Maybe more time is allowed when inlet water is cold and/or the load is large.

Here are some timings as shown on when selecting the washes, and as measured:

• Eco 40 (default): 3h29 (actual 2h23)
• Mix 20°: 1h57 (actual 1h50)
• Mix 20° intensive: 2h11 (actual 2h04)
• Mix 20° quick: not allowed
• Cottons cold: 2h46 (actual 2h20)
• Cottons cold intensive: 3h03 (actual 1h57)
• Cottons cold quick: 2h10

I'm testing this theory by running a fully-monitored cottons cold intensive wash. It's a good sunny drying day, so when better to experiment?

(High-resolution 1-minute whole-house energy monitoring was started at 09:55Z, ~6 minutes in.)

Sure enough, within about 10 minutes of starting the wash the remaining time indicator had fallen from just over 3 hours to under 2 hours! This may be accounting for load size (though the load was not tiny), but feels more like a bug to me.

We just put on a cold intensive wash this morning, to finish in 3h. A few minutes later it started up showing ~2h56 remaining time. The timing has not subsequently dropped a little while in as might otherwise be the case. I suspect that if the machine can meet the target time without cutting out the ~1h then it does not, maybe to improve the wash results.

The mains water inlet temperature is down to ~12°C. This morning, on a 'cold' cycle, when the display LED stopped flashing at ~2h46, the remaining time did not drop ~1h. So maybe the machine is by design washing for longer when the water is actually cold and detergents will take longer to work. It seems to be a somewhat binary choice however! That change may correspond to ~150Wh more (mechanical) energy consumption.

Bright sun this morning (~07:30Z) with only the occasional cloud, so enough to cover a cottons 90°C 'Quick' wash with the machine empty to clean out its innards a little, eg to help remove biofilms.

The wash started off by claiming that it would take just short of three hours, which about halved once it had taken on water and thought for a bit.

Heating the water took about fifty minutes, which I interrupted a couple of times when a cloud went over to minimise draw from the grid. I tried to unlock the door to measure the water temperature but it would not let me in, presumably for safety reasons. But towards the end (~08:10Z), kettling could be heard, water was visibly bubbling in the bottom of the drum, and steam was emerging from the detergent drawer along with a hot laundry smell, so I think that the temperature was close to that claimed.

The water in the drum was looking a little murky, and the emerging smell had slightly stale laundry overtones, so I suspect that the exercise was worthwhile.

By the time that water finished heating ~2kWh was used. This was estimated from whole-house consumption (~3.2kWh) minus what went to the Thermino (~0.9kWh) minus other background consumption in the morning. Only a small amount (~100Wh) came from the grid (Enphase and eddi disagree). Mains water temperature (measured yesterday) was ~20°C.

I consider this to be interseasonal storage of consumption that I can defer until abundant energy is available in summer! This energy came almost entirely from our roof, but also grid intensity is low at ~100gCO2/kWh with lots of zero-carbon generation, including ~11GW of wind and ~5GW solar and ~5GW nuclear, beating gas into fourth place at a little under 5GW.

(I also did a sort of maintenance wash for the dishwasher today just before solar noon (11:50Z): machine not totally full, a generous dispenser-full of powder detergent, some prewash powder detergent, and the 65°C 'intensive' cycle.)

I am putting on a (big) cottons cold wash today, monitored by the Local Bytes plug.

Two back-to-back Eco 40°C cottons washes of bedding were monitored by the Local Bytes plug.

I will measure a few more of these washes to get a better grasp on their consumption. These happen every month or so.

With a sunny day to cover the electricity, we did a maintenance wash with a store cleaner for the purpose.