Fisher & Paykel DH9060 Series

Expensive and disappointing – It worked well for a year then I had a technician out 7 times to replace various parts, for the price point not worth the money. The technician said he sees a lot of these and old models from the early 2000s are more reliable. Time to go in the bin

I Truly Expected Better – The F&P DH9060C dryer is gentle on fabrics, quiet, and economical. It cannot handle sheets, duna-covers, and bulky items. It is hopeless. When you dry sheets using the "Sheet" program, the machine does a very good job at winding the sheets into a very tight (but damp) ball. The "Sheet" program does not reverse frequently enough nor for a… Read more

duration that will satisfactorily untwist the ball. Great machine if you don't want to wash and dry sheets.

the most expensive and useless dryer I've ever had! – Maybe there is something wrong with my dryer? It just doesn't dry. It can only do one washing machine load a day and clothing comes out damp even on the 'extra dry' mode. I clean out the filters each use. Goodluck with your sheets, eventually the machine stops and says too long! Too right it's too long and they are still wet - not damp - wet,… Read more

after a whole day in the dryer! I don't rate this machine at all and wish I'd just bought a cheaper normal dryer!

Caved and bought a dryer - It dries great – Conclusion - TL;DR: Good dryer - dries fabrics well with large capacity to match our existing washing machine, quiet, energy efficient, stacks on existing washing machine, gentle on fabrics and the room isn't steamy in use. Happy with the choice to go for a heat pump drier. If you need/want a drier of 9kg capacity, this is a good choice. Select… Read more

the 'Bulky' cycle + 'Extra Dry', press go = come back later for great result.

Read on for detailed review: I've managed to go through life without buying a dryer for decades. If a dryer came as part of a rental property - then great it was used from time to time but for the majority of the years - no dryer with just line drying in the breeze to cope.

With the arrival of our first newborn a month or so ago, coinciding with some incredibly wet and humid weather it became very apparent that having a dryer was now a necessity to keep on top of the washing mountain.

Our requirements were: Energy efficiency Being good to fabrics Easy to use Having limited space in the laundry it needed to be able to stack onto our washing machine - an 8.5kg Fisher and Paykel machine that has been going well now for almost 6 years. Preferably not make the room steamy thus reducing the attractiveness to mold growing.

Desirables Have a capacity that matched or exceeded our washing machine (8.5kg). Quiet

After some research into dryers there are many technologies to consider - convection, gas, condensing, heat pumps and heat pumps with steam. Conventional and gas dryers were ruled out for energy and wear to fabrics. Deciding between condensing and heat pump was a lot more difficult. In the end went with heat pump because of the perception of better energy efficiency and not needing to plumb it into cold water to make it work.

Very nearly went with the F&P heat pump with steam dryer but a good deal on a second hand one of these came up. Truth be known I was more than a bit apprehensive based on the negative reviews here about tangling sheets, being slow and not drying clothes properly but went with it anyway based on our good experience with F&P washer.

I feel that it is worth addressing some of the concerns raised in other reviews for this dryer with the reality of first hand experience (Negative Comment | Reality from using it experience) -Doesn't dry... | Reality is it does dry things. Dries them well in fact. Things come out nice dry and warm

-Long cycle times.... | Reality - compared to what? Speed doesn't bother us as it is still way faster than without a dryer. Even a load of towels is dry in a couple of hours. So I guess long drying times....perhaps - but again compared to what?

-Leaves things wet... | The reality is I haven't noticed this phenomenon when using the dryer properly (as designed) with the correct cycle and the fabrics are grouped into roughly similar thickness & types and not overloading the machine cycle - everything has come out dry first go. However I did conduct some testing with a few very mixed loads consisting of very different types and thickness fabrics (eg jeans, towel, rug, tshirt, bathers, thin scarf and handkerchief type items) just to see what happened. In this very mixed fabric use case, the thickest items were infact slightly damp while the thin stuff was dry (in fairness this not everything is equally dry effect occurred in previous conventional heating element driers too). The damp items weren't even 'that damp', so one could choose to either remove the dry items and continue drying the remaining damp items a little more, or alternatively, hang out the slightly damp items to air dry. When the 'Extra dry' option was selected on a similar mixed fabric load, I didn't noticed any slightly dry or damp items. I recommend selecting extra dry as a standard option when starting the dryer because, really, who wants almost dry?

-Tangled sheets/Tumbling... | I use the 'Bulky' cycle for sheets, towels and long things (as per the user manuals recommendation) which spins both directions. I haven't noticed any tangled items using this cycle. In fact I think 'Bulky' is a better cycle than 'Everyday' so tend to use it for everything.

General observations Very easy to use - just like the washer - clean filters, empty reservoir, load clothes, select cycle options press go. It is remarkable just how much water is extracted from the clothes and deposited in the reservoir. Ultimately we'll plumb it into the laundry tub when time permits. Set up was easy - place in position, plug it in, go. It's relatively quiet - you know it is working with general background hum but it certainly doesn't affect conversations or watching something on the Tele. The baby sleeps through it no problems. The light inside the dryer is a nice touch. Durability: Too early to tell - so far so good. It's currently getting used multiple times per day so far without issues and we are able to keep the washing mountain small. It doesn't 'beep' too much - which is nice. I find some appliances like the sound of their own beeps a little too much and will continue beeping needlessly until you intervene to stop them. This one beeps on input and a couple of times when finished.

Tips -Read the manual to know what the different cycles do and how to use them. -There are different weights for different cycles. 9kg capacity is available in only 2 of those cycles with the rest of the cycles in the 3-6kg capacity range. -We tend to use the two cycles (Everyday and Bulky) that do offer the 9kg capacity and load it a bit less.... say 6 to 7kgs. -Sort items into their approximate cloth thickness and type. Not only is this best practice washing, it makes drying faster and more effective if using everyday. Applies to pretty much any dryer. -If you must use auto for a very mixed load of small thin items through to large thick fabric items (life happens sometimes), then do make sure to select the 'Extra Dry' option to avoid/minimise the thickest items being slightly damp -Using the 'Bulky' cycle with extra dry option selected means you get nice warm dry towels (or whatever). I find 'Bulky' works better than the 'Everyday' cycle. Perhaps because it spins in both directions. -Don't use 'wrinkle free' option unless you understand that you need to manually stop the dryer. The dryer will continue to run forever. That is how it is designed to prevent wrinkles and not a design flaw.

I hope that helps

Conclusion: Good dryer - See top of page

Huge, cheap to run, but slow, and the wifi/app is so unreliable as to be basically useless – Having left our loathed Rinnai gas dryer when we sold our old home, we were hesitant about buying a heat pump drier, and I'm relieved to report our concerns of finding tightly rolled balls of still-wet sheets were unfounded and every item within is dry. The 9060FS1 reverses sufficiently to dry sheets without problems - and it can take a lot at… Read more

once.

Prospective buyers should take the "faster drying times" currently being promoted by F&P with a grain of salt. When compared to what, leaving the clothes sitting in the basket?

We're seeing around 2+1/2 hours per (fairly full) load. When you factor in the ENORMOUS capability of the drum and the fact it's costing next to nothing to run, I'm OK with that.

What would be helpful however is if the advertised "Wi-Fi capable" functionality existed, but it's not here yet.

Our home is rather large, and we deliberately chose the WiFi model so we could be notified when the cycle finishes, but despite the user guide documenting the process, there's no way of pairing a dryer with the F&P "Connect" app (as at June 2021). After multiple frustrating calls to "customer [dis]service" and escalations to L2 support, we're advised that a new app will be hopefully coming around the end of August. Fingers crossed there.

EDIT Oct 2021: Support for the F&P dryers has been added to the GE "SmartHQ" app, but it's so unreliable as to being basically useless. Some weeks it might work, other weeks not a peep out of it. Support is thin on the ground.

Other criticisms of heat pumps is that the clothes don't come out dry enough, and this was certainly enough to deter us from buying other brands in the market. We split day-to-day drying into "heavies" (towels, socks, denim) and lights (t-shirts, undies, etc) on the appropriate cycle setting and we have no complaints with the dryness. The 9060FS1 also lets you choose from five "dryness levels" up to "Extra dry", but we've not found cause to try that yet. [EDIT: Yes, I'm starting to use Extra Dry now, even on well-sorted loads of only t-shirts. I can't afford to return to the dryer after several hours to find the load still moist].

I'm really impressed with the design of the main lint filter. It slots into the front at the bottom of the "door jam". You remove it and it opens like a book, raising the fluffy sheet of lint so it's incredibly easy to remove. No need to lick my fingers and rub at the gauze like I had to do with the Rinnnai.

Our only other negative experience to report is that the supplied Y-adapter for the water supply it requires has introduced an annoying whistling when the adjacent (F&P) washing machine fills. I'm figuring that to rid this I'll have to procure a wider bore Y-adapter, or maybe an adapter to fit the Y directly onto the tap. [EDIT: $20 worth of brass fittings from my local Home Hardware has resolved this issue].

Heat pump driers like this don't vent hot air into the room, but directly drain the collected water into either an on-board tank or out via a hose. We're using the supplied hose to drain directly into the laundry tub, and are relieved to report that the length is JUST long enough to reach around the washing machine to its left to the tub. Were our laundry flipped (with the tub on the right) it wouldn't reach, and you'd probably need to discharge directly into the floor waste (if it's close enough), or add an extension.

Two features I would have liked to see are a way to turn the internal light(!) on while it's running, and some guesstimate on the display of the estimated time to dry. [EDIT: Tapping the 'keylock' button while it's running will turn the light on for a minute].

All in all though, we're off to a really good start with the 9060FS1. If you have dryness anxiety, don't want the running cost or humid exhaust of a traditional drier and have $2k to blow, I'd certainly put this one on your list. [EDIT - but yes, get used to slow drying times.]

The dryer that doesn't dry – This dryer is great in theory but poor in practice. I was attracted to this mainly for the energy efficiency and the fact that it doesn't pump hot/damp air into my home. It does do both of these things well, unfortunately it is terrible at actually drying anything. It twists clothing like none of my other dryers ever have and sheets are even… Read more

worse. Sheets become so tangled that it is actually a struggle to untangle them. I have tried to dry sheets with full loads, medium loads and loads with a single sheet. There has not been one occasion where the sheets have been dried or even close to. For such an expensive product I would expect it to at least get the basics right. After owning this for a month now I am noticing some of my clothes are getting misshapen from the stretching and twisting. If it was possible to return this for even half my money back, I would.