Want to buy LG 6 Motion Direct Drive Washing Machine..

astroboy89

Recruit
I want to buy a LG 6 kg 6 motion Direct Drive Washing Machine...IT has a inverter compressor.

Please give me reviews on efficiency,washing and power saving of this washing machine..

Please also suggest alternative brands with same quality..
 
Main advantage of a DD is sound, it runs quieter than belt driven. Samsung is the other brand that also does DD but isn't as well known as LG and from what i've heard has outsourced their support. LG is better known for WM's than Samsung. Stick to LG if you want a DD.

Disadvantage of DD, as the motor is attached to the drum so the drum volume is about 20% smaller than a non DD model. The other alternative is Bosch, since they don't use DD, their drums are larger for the same weight. But this is mostly true for the 6 kg and under category. With the 6.5-7 kg sizes the difference is smaller between Koreans & Bosch ie under 10%.

A point about Korean DD drum sizes since these kg classifications are useless and at times misleading. Drum volume is more useful.
5.2, 5.5. & 6 kg are all the same drum size (~38 litres)
6.5, 7 and even some 8kg models are same drum size (~56 litres)
7.5, 8 kg are the next size (~65 litres)

Drum diameter is the same across all these sizes for the Koreans, only difference is depth.

Decide what drum volume you want. Biggest difference is between 6 & 6.5 kg drums and less between 7 & 8 kg. i think the 6.5 kg mark is a comfortable size, the smaller size means more washes if you use bed sheets. 6.5 kg is less prone to over loading, you should aim for just under 60% full for optimal loading and best wash efficiency. Or a hands width from top of the opening to the top of the laundry.

More washes means longer time and more power consumption. Since these machines are load sensing you can get away with lighter loads with less time. Only problem is if the load is too light you will have to add some towels to get a proper spin, otherwise, it will refuse to spin or spin at a lower speed. Is a bigger drum that costs Rs.10k more going to be recovered in terms of power savings ? no, It just means less time spent washing and little longer machine life due to less wear & tear if that matters. A 6 kg and under is ok for 1-2 persons, 2 - 4 people then better to go with 6.5-7.

6 motion only applies to cotton washes. Cotton wash is the longest cycle and the most intense. You won't be using cotton washes for mixed fabrics. Forget the quick washes as they won't clean clothes enough, there just isn't enough time. Only for light loads, lightly soil ie not in contact with the skin and in an emergency not for general use.

The biggest cost is heating water, for that a heater element comes into play, like any other cold fill machine. To save power you run 40 degrees washes. 30 degrees isn't hot enough to activate enzymes. 60 degrees for whites & lights. Too many low temp washes mean you have to do a boil wash once a month to keep the machine clean. Cannot disinfect at body temperature. Power savings between front loaders with or without DD otherwise is negligible.

Only two brands to consider are LG or Bosch. Since the Bosch isn't DD it will not need a bearings change around the 5 year mark like the LG DD. I've not been able to get a clear explanation as to why DD will require a bearings change sooner than a bosch. People specualte since the motor is attached to the drum, there is more wear & tear on it.
 
Last edited:
here is another important point to consider when deciding which machine to go for.

minimum permissible water pressure!

Who chooses a washing machine based on how much water pressure comes out of the tap ? nobody! but if you don't spec the machine to the pressure available at the tap then it won't work properly because you are running the machine out of spec.

Every machine has a minimum water pressure required to work optimally. If its too low the machine might misbehave because its water inlet valves won't shut off properly, see, the valves require a minimum pressure to shut off otherwise water can start leaking into the machine overnight if the tap supplying the washer isn't shut off. Nobody closes this tap usually but its a good idea to do so. Or more likely it will just time out when filling and give an error. The software is designed to shut the machine off if it doesn't get the required water in time. There are good reasons for this (ie a leak somewhere and the room will be flooded) but this time limit will prevent the machine from working if your water pressure is too low for the machine. Naturally this is for your own good and in the marketing literature is termed as 'multiple water protection'.

In the good old days the machine waited until the reservoir was full, now a days there is a timeout ! So you may find your old machine worked fine but this new one will not.



Siemens & Bosch want a minimum of 1 bar of water pressure, 1 bar is the pressure it would take to push water up to a height of 10 metres. If your water tank is situated at that height from the machine then fine otherwise not. The conversion is 0.1 bar = 1 metre. So to work out your water pressure, estimate the height in metres that the tank is from your washer.

They also mention requiring a minimum flow rate of 8 litres/minute. I measured my tap flow rate with a watch and found my max is ~6 litres a minute. Now i know a siemens or a bosch won't work in my house. There is no way around this unless you raise the over head tank or get a pump. I doubt they can reprogram the computer on site for a lower pressure. Basically to use a bosch or siemens the overhead tank needs to be 3 storeys above the washing machine. Unless of course you get mains delivered to you at that pressure.

Samsungs will work at 0.5 bar, header tank is 5m above the washer.

LG's will work at 0.3 bar, header tank is just 3 m above the washer. This is for the washers only, have noticed LG's washer dryers want 1 bar instead of 0.3 bar.

Score for the Koreans, lose for the Germans.

Check the permissible water pressure spec of the model before you buy.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. I keep getting low water pressure error on my Bosch quite frequently. All I have to do usually is close and then again open the tap and we are good to go.
 
We don't have a separate overhead water tank for the machine if that's what you are implying. The input end of the tube is connected to a normal tap.
 
We don't have a separate overhead water tank for the machine if that's what you are implying.
it's not seperate just for the machine but will be for the whole house. Does your water comes directly from the water company and straight out the tap. Where i am it goes into a sump and has to be pumped overhead. The delivered pressure from the water company isn't enough any more to go straight to the tank two storeys up.

Can you do a test ? try to fill a bucket that is of a known volume for a minute. This way we can gauge the flow rate and see how close you are to the specs.
 
it's not seperate just for the machine but will be for the whole house. Does your water comes directly from the water company and straight out the tap. Where i am it goes into a sump and has to be pumped overhead. The delivered pressure from the water company isn't enough any more to go straight to the tank two storeys up.

Can you do a test ? try to fill a bucket that is of a known volume for a minute. This way we can gauge the flow rate and see how close you are to the specs.

I get it. It is pretty similar for us. And our water tank is at least 1 floor above where the washing machine is kept. Ours is a duplex house. The washing machine is on the ground floor of the house and the water tank is on the roof of the first floor.
 
Yeah. I keep getting low water pressure error on my Bosch quite frequently. All I have to do usually is close and then again open the tap and we are good to go.
Do you have to do this with the rinse cycles as well ? wash cycle open close tap, then for the rinse cycles as well. Have not understood how the error goes away without resetting anything on the machine as well.

you can increase the pressure by using a tap with a smaller diameter. But this means an even slower flow rate. If the machine is expecting the drum to have received water within a certain time it will give the same error again.

Can't use timed washes because of manual intervention. Timer that says start later and finish by so and so time.

What have Bosch engineers suggested as a way to solve this error ?

Have you explored the possibility of using a booster pump or is it not worth it.
 
Last edited:
Do you have to do this with the rinse cycles as well ? wash cycle open close tap, then for the rinse cycles as well. Have not understood how the error goes away without resetting anything on the machine as well.

you can increase the pressure by using a tap with a smaller diameter. But this means an even slower flow rate. If the machine is expecting the drum to have received water within a certain time it will give the same error again.

Can't use timed washes because of manual intervention. Timer that says start later and finish by so and so time.

What have Bosch engineers suggested as a way to solve this error ?

Have you explored the possibility of using a booster pump or is it not worth it.

Never tried to resolve the issue. All I do is turn the tap off and on and then push the start button on the machine and the machine resumes from where it left. Yes, it is mostly during wash cycle.
 
its there on recent models, even on the entry level models. Say you would like the wash to be over at a certain time. Either when you wake up in the morning or get home later in the day. Dump the clothes in, set the timer, it does not know the time of day, more like delayed start. People used these timer switches at the plug point before so the vendors incorporated it into the machine. Course without load sensing it was harder to get right.

present time + x hours and it works out when to start so as to finish at the designated time.

This assumes you won't have any unbalanced load errors during spin. Ending at rinse and hold is safer.
 
Last edited:
I recently purchased the DD variety of LG washing machine.

I purchased 8/4 kg capacity one. Meaning 8 kg washer capacity and 4 kg drier capacity.

The machine is extremely silent, works perfectly. Takes longer than other machines of front load variety.

We usually do not use heater function as cloths are not very much soiled.

The bedsheets, towels, curtains which need lot of hardwork are cleaned very well, and ladies of house are happy.

Definitely recommended.

Why we chose dryer, cause at the cost of same function Siemens / Bosch we got dryer. While siemens and Bosch have dual functions at cost of above 70k. we got ours in 52k.
 
I got infatuated with washer dryer when i was researching. The good people over here told me to just say no. Still i wanted to get one. Saw there is this program Wash & dry, just could not get it out of my head. The marketing people know exactly what strings to pull.

What finally got me off that path was that all the lg washer dryers specs state a 1 bar minimum incoming water pressure whereas LG's washers can handle or so the specs say 0.3 bar.

btw, your 8/4 is actually a 7kg drum capacity. The 8kg dryer model is the 8/6, dimensions will be larger in terms of depth. The 8/6 is built in Korea too. Rs.60k+. Samsungs 9kg washer dryer is 8kg in terms of drum capacity and their 8kg WD is also a 7kg.

hey! what's a kg here & there between rivals.
 
Last edited:
@blr_p

So I would like to know which brand and model for a max budget of 28k should I buy?

My requirements are very good power savings,good wash quality with variety of programs,very low maintenance in the long run,excellent build quality and excellent after sales service..I have a family of 4 and it will run max 2-3 days a week.
 
@blr_p

So I would like to know which brand and model for a max budget of 28k should I buy?

My requirements are very good power savings,good wash quality with variety of programs,very low maintenance in the long run,excellent build quality and excellent after sales service..I have a family of 4 and it will run max 2-3 days a week.
Mention the height in (metres/feet) your water tank is above where you want to position the washing machine ?
 
Now work out your wash load.

For a 5-6 kg rated Korean machine that's around 20 litres volume of clothes. If you don't know how much 20 litres volume is then fill a bucket full with water and put it on a weighing scale, if it says 20kg then you have a 20 litre bucket. If less or more now you have an idea how much volume is 20 litres. Volume the dry clothes occupy is more important than how much they weigh.

For a German 5 - 6 kg its 1.25 bucket. For a 6.5 - 7 kg machine its 1.5 bucket.

Now put your laundry in the bucket to figure out how many wash cycles are required. Don't fold the clothes, don't ram the clothes, just drop them in. If you squeeze clothes in they won't wash well and the main point of using a FL gets defeated.

If you can combine the clothes of various members then you can separate whites from colours, cottons from synthetics and run specialised programs just for those loads. More organisation needed but better cleaning result. Otherwise its the mix or daily wash program. Minimum 1.5 hrs start to end. Cottons washes will be 2+ hours. This is at full load or 20 litre. Smaller loads will take less time.

So how many 20 litre buckets will you fill like that per day and for the week in total ?
 
I had been wanting to purchase a 6.5 kg LG 6 motion machine, but was also considering a Bosch initially, but changed my mind to consider a Siemens machine (since Bosch wasn't DD). I was so confused and coudn't gather the required information despite extensive research, and was about to give up, till I found this post a few days ago. And I'm really thankful to know that this could be the place that could alleviate my predicament.

blr_p, I have to say I'm really impressed with your knowledge about all that you've mentioned in the posts above, and hope you could assist me too.

I was slightly tempted towards the Siemens, because of German technology, but sadly, I have, till now, heard only horror stories from many disgruntled customers about Siemens' pathetic after-sales service. The customer service personnel at Siemens never answer the phone initially, and one has to try several times to get them to answer the phone. Once connected, they say they would send an engineer on a particular day, and the person, invariably, doesn't show up. Apart from that, the spare parts are not easily available, and have to be imported (time taken would be around 15 days), and are very expensive, probably because they are imported from Germany and there is that dreaded currency conversion from Euros to INR. In addition, there almost always seems to be a problem of drum breakage for most customers, before or just about when the warranty period expires. I also read that Siemens reported multiple drum breakages / breakdowns for machines, about a year or two ago. When I enquired about this with the sales representative displaying the machine in their showroom, he said that it was because of problems due to improper transporting, which I find hard to believe. Even the service engineers charge a bomb, for just a diagnosis, without confirmation whether they can solve the problem (the amount charged by Siemens is about 2-3 times more than what LG charges, apparently). The parts are imported from Germany, and are therefore expensive. Are the service engineers imported from Germany too??

I had heard that LG machines too were suffering from load sensing and support breakage problems about a year or so ago. But I didn't seem to notice too many problems with LG's customer service.

This made me tilt towards the LG a bit, But regarding 6 motion technology, it is a pity that nobody knows about the technology comprehensively. After some research, I found that 6 motion is applicable only to one particular wash (as also mentioned by blr_p above), and also would come into action only after atleast an hour or two. But the supposedly "educated" sales representatives say this is not so, and that as soon as the machine starts to wash, one can see all the different motions. When enquired about how it was applicable to one type of wash cycle only, they have no idea about it, or maybe they feign ignorance. You would think LG would have provided some information related to this on their website, or educated their dealers, distributors or service engineers, but...not a thing.

Now I can't decide between Siemens and LG. The only thing going in favour of Siemens is that they are German manufactured (though I think machines shipped here are from Thailand or some other place in Asia, and I don't know if they are comparable to those made in Germany), and they have a very robust and strong design and construction, and their electrical / electronic circuitry are very professional, designed to last long. The LG machines, on the other hand, supposedly have poor electrical / electronic circuitry and components, which are flimsy, unprofessionally designed, and therefore unreliable. Their PCB's supposedly conk out often.

Also, because the machine is DD (motor directly connected to the drum), if at all any problem occurs in that "connected" part, the entire drum has to be changed. Are all of the above true?

Also, if 6 motion technology applies to only one wash, could you specify how many other wash cycles are there, and are there atleast 3 or 4 motions associated with these wash cycles, if not all 6? If not, then the 6 motion would probably be just a marketing gimmick. Is it really better than hand wash, as LG would like us to believe?

Finally, the one last thing that still makes me want to consider Siemens is their new IQ drive machines. Are these similar to LG's DD motors, or better?

I must have visited LG's website endless times, in trying to decipher the 6 motion technology, and also gather other relevant information, hoping that they would have added "new" updated information about their existing products, but in vain. I have nothing personal against LG or Siemens, but I only wish that they would show some genuine concern for their customers - existing as well as prospective - in providing comprehensive information about their products, and satisfactory customer service, thereby assisting the customer to make an informed purchase. Maybe asking for the moon is easier.

I hope either blr_p or someone could enlighten me on all these topics. This is, without doubt, my last attempt to gather some information which, unfortunately, a prospective customer like me has to struggle to the ends of the earth, to find answers to.
 
Back
Top