Blomberg LTS2832W Tumble Dryer

Outstanding efficiency and great drying results

WHAT IS THE BLOMBERG LTS2832W?

Blomberg products sell exclusively through independent electrical retailers that are part of the Euronics buying group. Help, advice, installation and great value are what keeps smaller electrical retailers in business, and the LTS2832W certainly helps to tick that last box.

This good-looking condenser dryer uses heat-pump technology to massively reduce your electricity running costs, as well as offering sensor drying, a large capacity and a fully illuminated drum. It dries well, sips power and is easy to use. At under £450 that’s one up for the little guys.

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BLOMBERG LTS2832W – DESIGN AND FEATURES

If you think products on sale in your local High Street electrical retailer might be a bit old-school, think again. Blomberg is a unique brand, built for Euronics by a very respectable manufacturer and designed to offer convenience and performance at relatively affordable prices.

Enter the first Blomberg appliance to hit the TrustedReviews test bench, the LTS2832W condenser tumble dryer. This is an energy-efficient heat-pump model, sporting a rare A++ rating and offering sensor drying to one of four levels – Iron Dry, Cupboard Dry, Cupboard Dry Plus, and Extra Dry.

Capacity is stated at up to 8kg, which is more than ambitious. The manual suggests loading the drum to two-thirds full for best results, which it also admits is around 1.5kg (dry weight) of typical cotton washing. That said, we tested up to 4kg (dry weight) of washing and it performed very well indeed. As that’s about half the maximum load of a high-capacity washer, the rule of thumb to divide a big wash in two for drying holds well.

It’s a sleek-looking beast with a neat, angular and unfussy look. The large double-skinned door is gloss black with silver trim and the fascia is purposeful. The door is also unusual in that it’s easily reversible to suit the location in your kitchen. As standard it’s hinged to the right.

A good-sized programme selector is central, alongside an LCD screen. This isn’t comprehensive in its info, nor as crisp and sharp, as it could be, but the countdown timer digits are at least big enough to see. Key phases of the cycle are indicated by bright LED indicators, so you certainly won’t miss those.

The drum itself is plenty large enough and accessed by a big porthole opening, albeit shrunk in height a little to make way for the fluff filter at the bottom. This is easy to remove and clean after each wash. Best of all there’s a bright light inside the drum that illuminates every recess, ensuring those lost socks should be a thing of the past.

Below the door is a further filter, again easy to access behind a push button door that swings open. The filter itself simply twists to release for cleaning. Unusually there’s also a light on the display that indicates when it needs cleaning out – a great idea.

Water is collected in a large container behind what would be the soap drawer on a washing machine. The container is easily big enough for a couple of loads before you need to pull it out and empty it, and a handy light on the display tells you when its full. Better still, this model comes with plumbing kit that enables you to send the condensed water into waste-water plumbing or a washing-machine stand pipe if close by.

BLOMBERG LTS2832W – WHAT’S IT LIKE TO USE?

The Blomberg is controlled by just one knob and four buttons – although that didn’t stop us getting confused between start/pause (the black button on the display) and the main on/off button beside the display. Several times we set up for a drying cycle and then turned the machine off by mistake. Of course, that’s something you’d get used to.

The large porthole door and big drum with interior light make for easy loading, and despite its conflicting stated load capacities, this is a big machine. We comfortably loaded it up with over 4kg of washing (dry weight) without any adverse effects on drying performance or energy efficiency.

When switched on the LTS2832W defaults to the Cotton Cupboard Dry programme, even if you were using a different cycle previously. With 16 programmes to choose from, defaulting to a ‘standard’ cotton load is no bad thing, especially as this is also the most energy-efficient programme.

The Blomberg is very straightforward to use, in many respects because it specifies a lot of programmes with drying level and keeps add-on options to a minimum. Choose the programme and off you go – the sensor drying takes care of the rest. There are no options for half-load, crease-guard, steam functions or post-cycle tumbling to reduce creasing – the latter because it simply does that as standard if you leave the load in after the programme’s ended.

While many premium condenser tumble dryers offer enough programmes and options to create hundreds of possible combinations, the Blomberg just gets on with the job and adds useful features – sensor drying, post dry tumble, etc – as a matter of course.

The whole operation is finally assisted by Blomberg’s rather good user manual. It’s very informative, slim – mainly because there are no languages other than English – and has a colourful cover so it can easily be spotted in the kitchen drawer.

BLOMBERG LTS2832W – HOW NOISY IS IT?

In keeping with modern heat-pump tumble dryers by having a fat double-skinned door, the LTS2832W isn’t in danger of getting a police warning for noise pollution. In fact, it tested considerably quieter than the energy label would have you believe. We measured a fairly constant 59-60dB during the main drying phase, with only the occasional stop/start of the drum taking the peak noise to the EU label’s stated 65dB.

Overall this is a comfortably quiet dryer, and while the near-constant clockwise rotational tumble might not be best for keeping creases to a minimum, it does create an unobtrusive hum that’s easily forgotten.

BLOMBERG LTS2832W – WHAT PROGRAMMES DOES IT HAVE?

This Blomberg comes to the party with no less than 16 programmes. That’s a massively comprehensive choice for a mid-priced machine. Arguably, that’s because several programmes are the same, just with different drying levels.

The big hitters are the four Cottons programmes, all offering an alleged 8kg load capacity but with varying drying levels. That’s certainly not 8kg of dry load before its gets wet, mind you. And while this machine will certainly work with 8kg of wet washing (approx. 5.5kg dry clothes plus 2.5kg water), it will be at its best with a little less – we reckon no more than about 4kg of dry load.

That’s no different from most machines in this category, so all good – just be aware that you won’t see this machine at its best by lobbing in 8kg of clothes straight out of the washer.

In addition to two Synthetics cycles, at Iron Dry and Cupboard Dry levels, you get a reasonable raft of specialist programmes. These have a reduced load capacity from 1kg to 4kg depending on the cycle. The line-up includes Shirts, Jeans, a Daily programme for mixed cottons and synthetics, Sports clothing, Delicates and a BabyProtect cycle for delicate toddlers’ clothes.

Two timed programmes offer speedy 45-minute and 30-minute cycles. These use a lower temperature to ensure you don’t air-bake your clothes once they’re dry. Finally, a Freshen Up programme gives a 10-minute tumble in cool air to give musty clothes a bit of an airing.

The options list is much more compact. There’s a delayed start of up to 24 hours, a child lock and the ability to mute the end-of-programme beep. There are no fancy additions such as steam, specific anti-crease cycles, shoe-drying features, etc, but overall that makes for a very simple, very practical tumble dryer.

Blomberg LTS2832W – HOW WELL DOES IT DRY?

There are no standards for what constitutes Cupboard Dry, Iron Dry and so on, so results for the same level of dryness across different machines is wide. Many machines err on the side of dampness, as this simply uses slightly less electricity and keeps the energy-efficiency figures looking healthy. Our results are based on feeling the washing and measuring the residual water in the total load when dry.

So, how does the Blomberg fair? Very well, it transpires.

The standard Cotton Cupboard Dry load consistently came out exactly how we like it – dry to the touch, but with a hint of moisture left to reduce creases and allow the last few grams of water to evaporate off naturally. We look for around 1-2% moisture on Cupboard Dry and over three tests with different load sizes, the Blomberg hit between 1.05% for small loads and 1.9% for our larger 4kg (dry) test load. Ideal.

While the drying level was great, there was a little bit more creasing in cottons than we would’ve liked. The LTS2832W spends most of the drying time spinning constantly in one direction, with just the occasional stop and turn-back to ‘tumble’ the load. Machines with a more advanced drum motion produce a little less creasing.

Following on from the great Cupboard Dry results, the Extra Dry also scored well, coming in at under our the minimum 0.5-0.7% moisture level for this setting. Iron Dry proved a little more variable depending on the type of load material, but was still very good. Hitting above 3% moisture for cottons is just about ideal for keeping creasing to a minimum, and making your shirts and skirts easy to iron straight out of the drum.

Aside from clothes being a little more creased than ideal on the standard Cupboard Dry programme, the Blomberg turned in some exceptional drying results.

BLOMBERG LTS2832W – HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO RUN?

Heat-pump tumble dryers should use a fraction of the electricity of standard electric heater-element models. This is especially true if they operate in a nice warm room, as they draw a lot of their heat from the surrounding air.

For a heat-pump dryer to dry our half load (4kg dry weight) to under 2% moisture using less than 1kWh of electricity would be a good result. The Blomberg managed to do it using less than 80% of that – just 0.81kWh!

We were so impressed that we did the test two more times using different meters just to make sure something wasn’t amiss. Sure enough, the Blomberg consistently turned in equally outstanding energy-efficiency figures of around 0.8kWh for 4kg to Cupboard Dry, and only around 50Wh more for Extra Dry.

Bumping the load up to an  80% load – 6.4kg in this case – did take a lot longer (close to four hours) and increased power consumption by around 50%. That isn’t bad considering the load weight increased by 60%. If you used this machine 150 times per year at 100 full (6.4kg) loads and 50 small (4kg) loads, in the Standard Cotton Cupboard Dry programme, it would cost you under £25 per year in electricity.

That’s a truly excellent result, especially considering the Blomberg will cost you considerably less to buy than many of the premium heat-pump tumble dryers on the market.

SHOULD I BUY THE BLOMBERG LTS2832W?

The LTS2832W turned out to be a star player in our tests, mixing great drying performance, ease of use and outstanding energy efficiency in equal measure. We love the drum light, the programme options and the indicators for when the water container and filters need some attention.

It’s not got masses of features, though, and the basic drum action means a little more creasing than you’d get from the very best dryers – but for ease of use and low, low running costs, it’s a real winner.

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VERDICT

Simple, efficient and with outstanding drying, the Blomberg LTS2832W is a great tumble dryer in the under-£500 category.

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