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John Lewis JLWM1413 – What’s it like to use?

The JLWM1413’s centrally mounted rotary selector is a simple and efficient way of choosing wash programs and will be an intimately familiar control for most users. The main programs are spaced down the right-hand side (clockwise) with the lesser-used extra feature washes anti-clockwise. The Cotton and Cotton Economy programs, the two most likely to be frequently used, are positioned just a click away from the top.

Once a program has been selected, a raft of options is available via the solid push buttons. These include variable temperature, manual spin, speed selection and delay start. There are also button controls for a child lock on the door, a Quick Wash mode and an Extra Rinse mode to ensure removal of detergents for those with sensitive skin. The wide opening door, pull-out detergent and conditioner tray and pump filter access are all pretty standard for machines at or around this price.

This John Lewis model offers a more modern touch with a visually impressive bright red LCD screen. While its lower-priced 1200rpm sibling has illuminated LEDs on a printed scale for temperature and spin speed, the JLWM1413 displays these as text. The display also offers a range of icons to indicate modes and options selected, what part of the program the machine is currently on, and a timer that counts down to the end of the cycles in hours and minutes to go.

John Lewis JLWM1413 – How noisy is it?

The noise of a washing machine is almost always inversely proportional to its asking price – the higher the price, the lower the noise. At under £400, this mid-range washing machine has an EU energy label that suggests relatively mid-range noise levels of 59dB on wash and 79dB on spin. Neither figure is outstandingly quiet by modern standards. In test, however, the JLWM1413 bucked these figures by some margin and in both directions!

With its single glazed door, the noise of water sloshing around in the drum compounds the motor and mechanical noises, creating around 62dB of wash noise on most cycles. That is 3dB noisier than stated – over a third louder, in fact – and about the same as a normal conversation. That’s not a level of sound that will drive you to distraction, but it’s certainly noisier than some machines we’ve tested around this price.

Conversely, the 1400 maximum spin registered almost the same difference below the stated 79dB. While 75-76dB is still no poster child for the Noise Abatement Society, it compares favourably with its similarly priced peers and will no doubt sound a whole lot quieter than any aged machine that it replaces.

John Lewis JLWM1413 – What programs does it have?

John Lewis’s claim of 16 programs for the
JLWM1413 is a little ambitious as it incorporates the standalone
rinse program as well as a simple drain and spin mode to retrieve
washing in a hurry. Of the standard offerings, Cotton, Cotton With Pre-Wash and Cotton Quiet programs complement dedicated cycles for
synthetics, delicates and wool/silk. For those in a hurry, this
machine offers John Lewis’s 20-minute wash for lightly soiled
clothes, a cool wash for extremely delicate loads and an intensive
wash for heavily stained garments.

Unusually, this model
offers a dedicated wash program for lingerie. It sounded logical,
but the general feeling around the office was that no-one owned
enough frilly smalls to make a dedicated wash cycle a viable
proposition. The heavy cotton and intensive programs are geared up
for larger loads. Like its smaller sibling, this model has a cottons
economy mode that runs at 60°C, rather than the 40°C most people
use for cotton washes – which is unlikely to make it all that
‘eco’.

Once the main program has been selected, options
include adjusting the temperature and spin speed, selecting
additional rinse, speeding up the cycle with the ‘quick’ option
or delaying the start to make the most of overnight low rate
electricity. Unlike its 1200rpm-spin counterpart, there’s no rinse-hold
feature, so you’ll need to ensure that you’re ready to unload the
machine when it ends to reduce creasing.

John Lewis JLWM1413 – How well does it wash?

Covering three main wash tests, we ran the
JLWM1413 on a 40°C cotton wash with a 6.4kg (80%) full load at the
maximum 1400rpm spin speed, a 40°C cotton wash with a 3.2kg (40%) load
at 1400 spin speed and the same half load on the cotton economy wash
although this does default to 60°C. We use 80% capacity as a ‘full
load’ as you would be surprised quite how large a pile of cotton
washing 6.4kg represents, and few people actually stuff their machine
much more than this. A test stain strip went into the first wash,
stained with dried on ketchup, coffee, blood, red wine and engine
oil. We loaded the JLWM1413 with a leading brand non-biological
detergent and got down to washing.

The main 80% full-load
cotton wash at 40°C was not very quick, but it was at least half an
hour quicker than its 1200 spin counterpart, coming in at exactly
three hours. The actual wash results were a verbatim copy of
the smaller capacity machine and that meant very good indeed. The
four main organic stains were almost completely removed with only the
dirty engine oil stain hanging in there with any tenacity. It is a
great wash result and with the aid of biological powder will offer
exceptional cleaning across a wide range of clothes and materials.

Our test strip before (above) and after

The drying efficiency of the spin was also pretty
good with a 2kg (31% of load weight) of water left in our main test
wash after the maximum spin. While the 1400 spin did actually remove
more water from the larger wash load, as a percentage of the wash
weight its efficiency is almost identical to the smaller and very
impressive 1200 spin model.

Once again the cotton
economy program transpired to be less efficient, less economical and
longer running than the standard cotton program with a half load,
taking three hours to complete compared to two hours and 15
minutes for standard half load wash. Spin efficiency on both programs
is very good, however, leaving just 1kg of water (31% of load weight)
remaining after spin.

John Lewis JLWM1413 – How much will it cost to run?

As we anticipated for an A+++ rated machine, the JLWM1413 is suitably frugal with its use of both water and electricity. The main full-load wash used a respectable 1.2kWh, with the half load reducing that by exactly half. Water use is a little higher than some A+++ machines we have tested at 74.4litres for the full load cotton wash, although this consumption drops relative to load weight down to below 50% (just 30.4litres) for the half load.

The cotton economy mode really doesn’t work efficiently on anything but a full load, and our half load tests really upset the eco credentials of this machine. Compared to the standard wash half load results, this mode uses 11 litres more water and nearly 200Watts more energy. If you want to use the cotton economy program, make sure it is with a full load.

Over the duration of a year with a typical household running 200 full load washes and 50 half load cycles (split 50/50 normal and eco) the JLWM1413 would cost around £41 in electricity and use some 16.6 cubic meters of water. For metered water customers that would be around an additional £25-£30 per year. If you ditch the cotton economy mode for half loads you would shave a pound or two from these figures.

Should I buy the John Lewis JLWM1413?

The JLWM1413 is another solid washing machine from John Lewis, mixing superb cleaning performance with simple controls and low running costs. On the negative side, it’s rather slow on main washes, the cotton economy mode can only be used on full loads and the only real gain over its £70 cheaper sibling, the excellent JLWM1205, is that 1kg extra load space, as all other tests delivered almost identical results. For the larger family needing that space, it remains a great buy.

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Verdict

A decent washing machine whose biggest competition comes from its entry-level stablemate.

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