To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
Indesit has always been a popular washing machine manufacturer thanks to the low price of many of its washing machines. At just £194, the IWC6105 looks like a promising option for those looking for a bargain.
POWER AND WATER USAGE
Our test wash produced some surprising results. While washing our 3kg test load on the 30C Cotton cycle used just 27L of water, it used a fairly high amount of power at 0.57kW, but the balance resulted in a cycle costing just 16p one of the lowest prices weve seen. The spin speed was set at 1,000rpm, retaining 1.2kg of water in our washed clothes, which is more than many of the higher-priced machines weve tested here.
On a 40C cotton cycle, figures increased slightly, as wed expect. Power consumption came out at 0.74kW, while water usage measured 32L, creating a combined cost of 20p per cycle, which is also very good. Spin speed was again 1000rpm, retaining the same amount of water: 1.2kg.
The 40C synthetic cycle generally costs more per cycle as the fine drum speed control requires more power, and its no different with the IWC6105. Power usage on the 800rpm spin speed came out at 0.82kW and it used a fairly hefty 52L of water, equating to a cost of 27p per cycle. Water retention was quite high, too, as it retained almost 1.7kg of water.
Our test also calculated running costs based on the EU Energy Label, which provides the annual electricity and water consumption figures for a years use, based on 220 full loads using a variety of programmed cycles. From this we can work out the average cost of a wash cycle.
Getting more accurate yearly figures means using the EU Energy Label (see how we test washing machines for more information). With this information we worked out yearly costs of £66.76 for high usage, £50.07 for medium usage and £33.38 for low usage. These figures show its not particularly efficient compared to other washing machines out there, but thats the trade-off for its incredibly low price.
WASH PERFORMANCE
To discover the cleaning performance of the Indesit, we put it through a series of tests using our stain strips. View our gallery to see all of the cleaning examples: dirty cloth is at the top of each sample; the clean one is at the bottom.
The Indesits cleaning performance was very interesting. The 30C cycle actually performed better than the 40C cycle, with the 40C cycle struggling to remove the blood from our strips, and leaving behind much of the staining.
The cotton sample soiled with blood, milk and ink also came out better on the 30C wash. We couldnt, however, fault how well both 30C and 40C cotton cycles dealt with the red wine stains, virtually removing all trace.
Red wine came out pretty well in the 40C synthetic wash, too, but this cycle didnt fare brilliantly with the blood, milk and ink sample, and there were still spots of staining left on our blood sample.
Performance-wise, this machine clearly did better on some cycles than others, and we were surprised to find it was the 30C cotton cycle that came out on top.
EASE OF USE AND FEATURES
For a machine that costs £194, you couldnt expect it to be anything more than basic. The IWC6105 is certainly that there are no bells and whistles in the form of digital dials here. Instead there is a large manual dial to set your cycle, of which there are all your usual cycles, plus a wool cycle and silk cycle, as well as one for jeans and also specific cycles for sports clothing. Two other smaller manual dials set the temperature and spin speeds. Red LED lights let you know which part of the cycle the machine is currently running, but there is no way to tell how long there is left for the machine to run. There is no prewash to speak of, but there is a button that you can press for an intensive wash, although this only works with certain programs.
As the price suggests, the Indesit IWC6105 felt quite cheap, it was also comparatively noisy when spinning, when we could feel the sides flex. We felt that, although the price and cost per cycle was very good, we’d generally rather spend more to get better wash performance.
CONCLUSION
This budget washing machine certainly appears a bargain on paper, but youd need to consider whether you could live with the downsides. While the performance results werent bad on a 30C cotton wash, it was quite noisy. If youre in the market for a budget washer, it might be worth spending a bit extra to get the Indesit IWE91481ECO, which is still very well priced, but has a larger 9kg drum.
