Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 Dryer

Plenty of features and low running costs

What is the Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441?

This top-of-the-range tumble dryer from Whirlpool packs in the features and is an excellent companion to the FSCR12441 washing machine that earned itself a TrustedReviews 5-star Editor’s Choice rating earlier this month. This tumble dryer offers the same intuitive controls, a generous 10kg capacity, an A++ energy rating and steam function too.

While there’s no arguing with its huge capacity or low energy use on the Eco Cotton programme, drying results can be rather hit-and-miss, and it isn’t particularly quiet for a premium machine. Filter cleaning proved awkward and the steam programme requires you to manually add water to the drum. A solid performer – but at this price, we expect a whole lot more.

Related: Best Washing Machines

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – Design and Features

Styled to match Whirlpool’s equally contemporary-looking FSCR12441 washing machine, this modern high-tech tumble dryer offers plenty of features that go some way to justifying its premium price. This includes a monster 10kg load capacity, and A energy efficiency rating and optional Wi-Fi-connected app control.

Similar to the washing machine, the rather intimidating fascia is actually pretty easy to use. You simply select the main program by pressing one of the icons directly and choose from one of the options beneath. The crisp blue-white LCD panel makes you are of precisely what’s been selected, along with the estimated time to complete drying.

Being a condenser dryer, water is removed from clothes and deposited in a long reservoir container behind what would be the soap drawer if it were a washing machine. This offers generous water capacity – just as well, considering the 10kg load – but be careful to use both hands when you pull it out. The first time we pulled out a full drawer, the fascia unclipped and drop the container on the floor.

Thankfully, this machine can be plumbed into your normal waste water system, so you might not have to unload the tank at all.

The enormous black porthole door covers a huge chunk of the front of the machine and, unusually for a tumble dryer, it’s translucent. You can now see your clothes being dried. That is further facilitated by bright white interior drum lighting, which is also very useful when loading and unloading the machine.

The door swings open to the right-hand side. This is to partner with the matching washing machine, which opens to the left, allowing you to easily transfer laundry from washer to dryer (assuming they’re placed side-by-side, of course).

There are two main fluff filters to contend with – pretty much on a wash-by-wash basis given the sheer load size and amount of lint this will create. A pullout flat filter behind the door splits open for easy cleaning; we found this best addressed with a damp cloth. A larger foam filter pulls out from behind a flap at the bottom of the machine.

This is a much tougher challenge to clean out effectively and we found the only real solution was to remove the foam from the frame and rinse it out in the sink. This is onerous, especially considering the time between cleaning the filter was barely a cycle or two of drying.

This machine features Whirlpool’s 6th Sense 3Dry technology, which uses multiple flows of warm air into the drum rather than the usual hairdryer-like blast from one side. The upshot is better drying and more delicate care for your laundry, says Whirlpool.

Other nice touches include a steam option to reduce allergens and the need for ironing, and Wi-Fi-connected control via Whirlpool’s 6th Sense live app. The app replicates pretty much all of the functions of the fascia, offers cycle-finish alerts, and allows synchronisation of programmes between this dryer and the matching washing machine.

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – What’s it like to use?

Despite the high-tech fascia and slightly bizarre spinning 6th Sense icon at its centre, this Whirlpool tumble dryer is actually straightforward to use. Choose one of the eight direct access programs, choose a drying level, press start.

The sensing technology weighs out the load while also detecting the moisture level in the air in the drum. This combination of information controls the drying time for the load, alongside your choice of iron dry, cupboard dry or extra dry.

Each programme has a maximum load limit indicated on the display, along with the estimated time to completion. A little bar graph on the display indicates how much energy each option is likely to use, relatively speaking.

Depending on the programme, you can adjust the drying time, programmer finish time or add the steam option. You can also add Whirlpool’s Fresh Care option, which continues to tumble intermittently after the cycle is complete to keep your clothes fresh.

Even a huge load in excess of 9kg of normal clothing will fit in the drum, although it doesn’t look as though it would dry efficiently. Whirlpool recommends that for peak efficiency you should always use a full load to optimise energy consumption, so the company must be confident in this machine’s big-capacity abilities.

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – How noisy is it?

Having been incredibly impressed by the low noise of the matching Whirlpool washing machine, the HSCX 10441 disappoints. Unlike the gentle hum of its partner appliance, this tumble dryer has an industrial sound and a purposeful motor noise.

We measured a constant 63 to 67dB noise output through the drying cycle. While that confirms the claims on the energy label, this is a long way from being quiet or unobtrusive. Other premium tumble dryers we’ve tested at this price are certainly much quieter.

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – What programmes does it have?

This tumble dryer’s programmes are divided neatly into eight main cycles with direct access buttons on the fascia, and a further eight specialist programmes that require scrolling through the display menu.

Heading up the main list, the Eco Cotton and Cotton drying cycles will handle the full 10kg load. The Cotton version gives you the option of three drying levels: steam, extra gentle care, and a rapid option to speed up drying time. The eco version is pretty much a fixed cycle aiming to deliver Cupboard Dry drying levels with minimal energy use.

Mixed, Synthetics, Delicates, Wool, Jeans and XXL items such as duvets all get their own cycles, with maximum capacity up to 3.5kg depending on the programme.

Specialist programmes include Shirts, Silk, Sports garments, Outdoor clothing and  Down Jackets, with maximum load capacities from 1.5 to 2.5kg. There’s a 5kg Towel drying programme and a 1kg Mini Load cycle. The latter matches the equivalent 1kg Mini Load programme of the washing machine – for those occasions that you discover that the outfit you really want to wear is still in the laundry basket.

A Steam Refresh programme is specifically designed to remove odours from dry and clean garments such as shirts, blouses and trousers. The cycle handles up to 1.5kg of mixed cottons and synthetics. Unusually, however, you must manually spray water into the drum, up to 200ml, to humidify the laundry in the first place. Other premium tumble dryers recycle water from the evaporator for the steam feature, making this Whirlpool rather a faff in this respect.

You get a completely manual drying time programme that will handle the full 10kg load and, finally, an Airing cycle. The latter is aimed at clean clothes coming out of storage, freshening and loosening them up for 30 minutes without heating.

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – How well does it dry?

The overall theme to how well this Whirlpool machine dried is inconsistent. Running over three times the number of tests we usually run on a tumble dryer, we managed to obtain results that ranged from still very soggy to over dry, with quite a few points in between.

Using the 9.25kg load straight out of the matching washing machine test, the total washing weight including water was over 12kg. We used the Cotton program on the mid-level Cupboard Dry setting. Despite our reservations about any standard 60cm-wide machine’s ability to drive this amount of clothing, the Whirlpool turned in very good results.

Some four hours and 1.9kWh of electricity later, the load weighed just 9.35kg – very dry indeed. While that’s an excellent drying result and not too heavy in terms of energy use, we’d class that as Extra Dry rather than Cupboard Dry.

Switching to a slightly smaller 6.5kg load and using the Eco Cotton cycle on its standard Cupboard Dry setting showed exactly the opposite. After just 2hrs 30mins, and using just 1.0kWh of electricity, the load emerged with over 60g of water remaining. It felt very damp and warm to the touch, which we’d class as Iron Dry.

Reducing the load size to just below 5kg on Eco Cotton produced the most variable drying results of all across five separate test cycles. The overriding theme was very low electricity consumption and very moist clothing. In some cases, the load was even too damp to be classed as Iron Dry.

As per Whirlpool’s instructions, this machine certainly works much better and more efficiently with larger loads. This was highlighted on trying a very small 3kg load that included a bedsheet. The drum rotation managed to ball the entire load up in the sheet and didn’t dry at all.

Following many tests, our summary of this Whirlpool tumble dryer’s performance was something of a variable feast. The Eco- Cotton cycle is fairly frugal with electricity, but the washing isn’t dried thoroughly, remaining distinctly soggy. The main Cottons programme offers much better drying performance – a little too dry than the selected level, perhaps, but uses far more energy.

Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441 – How much will it cost to run?

We ended up with so many sets of test results and energy consumption figures that it was something of a challenge to pin down what this tumble dryer might use in electricity over the course of a year. This was compounded by programmes that delivered the laundry too damp and were then re-run again on the same load to dry off the excess moisture.

Some of the top-line energy figures – over 2.3kWh for a full load on the Eco programme, for example – look high compared to its peers; but do remember that the HSCX 10441 has a truly vast capacity. That full load is 10kg, while many of its competitors at this level remain 6 or 7kg models, so it will be no surprise that the Whirlpool uses 30-40% more power for a full load.

To compare these figures against other tumble dryer results on TrustedReviews, if you used this machine 150 times per year for 100 full loads (80% or 8kg to replicate real-world use) and 50 small loads up to 4kg on the Eco Cotton programme, it would use just shy of 300kWh.

That compares well with the claimed 280kWh on the energy label and would cost around £30 in electricity to dry a, frankly, huge amount of washing. Yet our tests suggest that many of these loads would need a re-run because they emerge too damp, which would significantly increase running costs.

Running the same 150-load annual regime in the standard Cottons programme will reap much dryer end results, but it will also increase power consumption closer to £45-£50 per year. This is still a good result considering the sheer amount of washing that will dry, but it’s a shame the Eco Cotton programme runs just too moist.
 

Should I buy the Whirlpool Supreme Care HSCX 10441?

The HSCX 10441 failed to impress us compared to its partnering FWSCR12441 washing machine. At £900, it’s a seriously premium machine with plenty of features and low energy use, but its inconsistent drying results, fairly high noise level, manual steam moisture and awkward lower filter are well below par for this level of dryer.

As a partner to the FSCR12441, it’s still worth considering for the matched aesthetics and linked features – but it’s no bargain in its own right at this price.

Verdict

The HSCX 10441 is efficient on its Eco mode, but remains a solid – if not exceptional – tumble dryer overall at this premium price.

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