Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK Review

Design and features

• Neat control panel
• Plenty of wash options
• Good smart app, but slightly confusing use

Hotpoint has been known for its solid choice of mid-range appliances, but it steadfastly refused to join the smart age. Now, with the merger of Beko and Whirlpool (Hotpoint’s parent company), the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK is the first new machine to come out of the company.

While it retains a lot of the stuff that made previous washing machines so good, it also embraces smart connectivity via the HomeWiz app.

Externally, the HPC 96 Care UK is clearly a Hotpoint washing machine. It has the same two-tone control dial that I’ve come to expect from the brand, and that you can see in its previous machines, such as the Hotpoint NDD11726DAUK.

A little more work has gone into making this machine a bit more stylish, and it has a silver-coloured strip that runs across the front of it.

The controls have also changed slightly. Rather than having an on/off button, the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK turns on when the dial is turned to choose a wash cycle, and it’s off when the dial is turned to face the power icon.

I do prefer a proper on/off button. With this style of control, moving anti-clockwise from Cotton to Anti Stain causes the machine to turn off and then back on. It’s a minor irritation.

Most of the wash cycles that you’d expect are there, including modes for wool, steam, stains and a few fast wash options, with the 45-minute full load able to get lightly soiled clothes washed in less than an hour.

Once a mode is selected, the estimated run time is shown on the screen. This can change (and even increase) depending on the load you have.

For most wash cycles, you can adjust the temperature and spin speed, and choose to add Steam. There’s also an option to reduce the cycle time (handy if you’re in a rush) or add an intensive wash. 

Unique to this machine is a Pet Hair Care mode that uses a pre-wash to help remove pet hair from items. That might be handy if you’ve got pet bedding to wash and pets that shed a lot.

This is the first Hotpoint machine that I’ve seen that’s smart, compatible with the HomeWiz app. It’s easy to get the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK connected to Wi-Fi, but using the app is a bit fiddly.

With most smart washing machines, such as the Samsung Series 9 Bespoke AI Washing Machine WF90F09C4SU1, you can use the app to set a wash cycle at any point, but you can only remotely start a wash if the remote control has been physically enabled on the machine.

With the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK you have to select the Download cycle on the machine to select a wash cycle, and enable remote control if you want to start the wash from the app.

Still, the app is useful. It helps explain what each cycle does and lets you see all of the available options, plus set a delay (this latter option is also available from the control panel). 

More usefully, the app will send a notification when a wash cycle is completed, and let you keep tabs on progress, so you only need to return to the machine when it’s actually finished.

The app is still a bit rough around the edges: when setting a delay, one option was ‘Vazgeç’, which is Turkish (in this context) for ‘cancel’. As Beko is owned by a Turkish company it makes sense that the app would have been developed in that language first, but it shows that the app needs a bit of fine-tuning.

The Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK has a 9kg maximum capacity, which is about standard for a regular washing machine and large enough to deal with a typical family’s weekly load, with enough room for larger items, such as duvets.

There’s also a standard detergent drawer, which pulls out from the front. This has a flip-down measurer for liquid detergent, or you can leave this up if you use powder.

Performance

• Low running costs
• Good stain removal on Eco 40-60 cycle

I put the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK through all of my standard wash tests, starting with the Eco 40-60 wash. I worked out that, with my 5kg load, this cycle costs around 19p. That’s pretty good value, with only a few machines cheaper to run, such as the Hisense WF5I1045BWQ, which cost 15p for the same cycle.

At the end of the wash, my clothes had increased in weight by 39.42%. That’s a good result: I look for an increase of below 40%, and the Hotpoint HPC 96 Care UK just squeezes in below this.

Wash performance was very good, too. I use stain strips, which are stained (left to right) with red wine, vegetable oil, ketchup, orange juice and gravy. At the end of the test, all of the stains were gone, bar a small yellow mark where the ketchup was and the red wine.

Running the Cotton 30°C test, running costs increased to 30p, which is competitive, and my clothes only increased in weight by 35.68%. 

Stain removal was good, but the action of the washing machine twisted up the stain strip, so the ketchup wasn’t disposed of very well. My red wine stain remained very visible, too.

With the 20°C wash, the cost was just 16p for the cycle. However, for this wash my clothes were a little wet, adding 53.85% in moisture, so they really needed to have an extra spin.

Cleaning performance was actually very good, with most stains gone. Some twisting of the stain strip meant that the ketchup stain left behind quite a few solids.

Next, I used the Stain wash, set to the red wine option. This cost 76p for the cycle and my clothes gained 42.58% in weight. Cleaning performance was good, but the red wine stain was still visible and a twisted stain strip meant that the ketchup stain remained quite visible.

With the Intensive wash at 60°C, the cost per cycle increased to a high 95p. My clothes were also a little wet, gaining 45.38% in weight. 

However, the stains were mostly gone, although the red wine stain changed colour rather than disappearing completely.

I tested the fast full load wash, which cost 22p to run. My clothes were quite wet at the end, gaining 74.7% in weight, so they really needed an extra spin cycle to get them to the point where they were alright to hang out. Still, if you’re in a hurry, this cycle could be a good choice.

Should you buy it?