Haier HDHP-AN1 Series

A great machine, efficient and good value – Overall a really good appliance. Does what it says. It is very easy to use. I love the drying rack and all the drying cycles. It comes with an internal light which is great to check inside once the machine finishes. I had issues plumbing it and so I use the tank which is of great capacity and very easy to empty. So it works if you have no plumbing as well. It is easy to clean in between cycles and it’s stylish. Show details

Slightly disappointed (Update) – It's a lovely looking dryer, is very modern and with that I was expecting a quiet machine, but it's rather noisy when in use. The display is a little confusing when you turn it on it shows up as AU and some cycles do not show the time remaining even once started, I thought the AU in the digital display would disappear once the cycle started but it… Read more

doesn't, the timed dry will show you time remaining and you can turn the knob to increase the timed dry to suit your needs. You can tweak the dryness of your items via the touch screen as well as the other functions that are at the control panel, I had items in the dryer on the cotton setting and I was ready to hit start and noticed the digital display was showing AU and not the time remaining, so I touched the timer function and it flicked it from the cotton setting to the timed setting of 20 minutes, so I went back to cotton setting and it displayed the AU so I pushed start expecting it to show me time remaining for the dry but instead it just showed me the AU for the whole cycle, which is a bit annoying because it gives me no idea at all on how long or short the cycle is, it's basically guess work for some of the cycles and that is what I get when using the quick start guide, which is super simple to do but again, theirs no time displayed for convenience, I wasn't prepared to let the cycle go full circle because it could go for as long as 180 minutes which is way too long, so I was stopping the dryer after 40 minutes to check the progress of the drying to make sure the clothes aren't getting too hot and at the time I empty the water tank and clean the filter and return to drying, as some things are still damp after 40 minutes even on the driest setting. the filter is easy to clean and I have my dryer in the kitchen and when it finishes the cycle and is emptying the water out, it makes a loud crackling noise and I was expecting it to catch on fire, but then realized it was the water going into the reservoir, which is also super easy to empty and can take a reasonable capacity of water, so I have mine set up where I need to empty the water manually rather than having the pipe connected and into the sink, the machine tells you when to empty filter and water reservoir via the flashing icons on the digital display. There was 1 cycle I used and after hitting start was displaying the AU icon in the display and when I went back after say 15 minutes it had flicked over to show how much time was remaining for the drying cycle, but it won't do that with all the cycles, I did the quick start function and had to time it myself using my phone alarm after 40 minutes. I have tried to contact the customer service team about the AU display and not being able to time the cycle unless I actually use the timer function but haven't been able to get through yet. when I use the timer function It won't let me choose my cycle IE if I want to dry cottons or synthetics or the bedding etc. Until I get to speak to Haier customer service I don't know if it's a glitch in the machine and being digital anything is possible. I downloaded the app and was setting it up with the password etc the (cloud ) found my appliance which was good but when trying to actually connect the machine, it turned itself off obviously because it timed out trying to connect to the internet, my internet isn't that great here, so as of yet, I have not been able to use the machine remotely and it would have been good to see if the AU in the display was going to be non existent if using the dryer via wi-fi connection and not manually, but I don;t think so because the machine shouldn't be setup to run properly if only using wi-fi, it should be displaying normally when using it manually and on all functions. I dry everything allowed in the dryer, from light blankets, to knickers socks, shirts tea towels etc, I have my clothes out of the washing machine at the driest and then into the dryer on its driest setting and after 40 minutes, most things need to go back in for second go at 40 minutes even my cotton knickers (using the timed dry) I feel 40 minutes is adequate to start with because after that, the items are particularly hot and I was expecting them to be fairly well dry by how hot they where to touch and I had selected the driest setting but once they started to cool down I could still feel dampness and so I don't think this dryer is any better than others, I would say it's on par with my last dryer at least which was an Electrolux vented dryer and this being heat pump dryer I did have very high expectations, but I probably set them too high and so therefore feel more disappointed than if I had gone in thinking this would be matching my previous dryer. The manual that comes with the dryer was a bit confusing on some aspects, it shows you the dry cycles by default but it still won't show the time on the control panel in the booklet it shows digital display screen shows the following *dry cycle options and machine settings * dry progress * notifications of error's and when the AU is in the digital display it is not an error code because all the error codes are listed in the manual, drying preparation in the manual is showing Items and drying requirements Towels with suggested cycle of towels, so I put towels in and used the suggested function of towels but not time was displayed to show me when the cycle would finish. At no point in the booklet does it tell me what I should be expecting to see in the digital display, for the drying functions. UPDATE: I just heard from customer service and the digital display showing the AU is not a fault it means the dryer is on AUTO SENSING and that makes sense given I had the dryer going and it started out on AU and then when I went back and checked it later the AU had disappeared and the time remaining was displayed, which means it's automatically sensing how the clothes are drying and it automatically adjust the time to go, upon looking at my booklet again their is nothing that I can see to say its an auto sensing dryer and looking online at the Haier website their is still nothing to say its auto sensing drying, it says it will display the (time to go), so given this new info I'm still not fond of the auto sensing because it still leaves me wondering how long the machine will anticipate the clothes need to be dried for which like I said could be anywhere from 20 minutes up to 180 minutes and anything in between, if the dryer was to malfunction at anytime during the drying process then you could well be looking at a longer or shorter drying program than you would like and after 40 minutes of drying the clothes are really hot, so now I know this I will do my next dry as per normal and let it go for as long as it needs to and check back to set if the auto sense function has kicked in at some time after the 40 minutes and hopefully the clothes are not to hot at the end of it.

Works well, quick and easy to use – I was so excited to be told I’d be getting a new dryer to test. My husband bought an absolute lemon of a dryer maybe 6 months ago and I’ve been suffering with it ever since. This one, thankfully, is NOT a lemon! I’m the kind of person who uses a dryer very regularly, I work nightshifts, on my days off I tend to keep the same sleep schedule, I… Read more

don’t really have much daylight to work with for drying clothes on a line. If I’m feeling particularly energetic I can put the clothes up when I get home at 8am and bring them in when I wake at 4pm but that’s honestly too much effort for me on those days I’m pulling 12hour shifts and I just want a quick and easy solution.

I did a bit of reading on the manufactures website before it arrived, I was slightly concerned because it seemed to be the same KIND of dryer (heat pump) and looked somewhat similar. That one hubby bought was my first experience with such a dryer and I just assumed they must be an inferior type of dryer having used the older style ones that heat up your whole house my whole life, I figured finding your clothes still slightly damp after 6 hours was the price you paid for energy efficiency.

The first load of washing I ran through it was one I wouldn’t ever DREAM of running through our old heat pump dryer, it was a huge load of just about everything. I filled up our existing 9kg washing machine with my weeks worth of dirty laundry, everything from work clothes to pyjamas to casual wear and underwear. I figured the dryer was also 9kg, he can handle it right!? I wasn’t convinced but I was hopeful. And then pleasantly surprised. After 3 hours it all came out perfectly dry, hallelujah. That would’ve been two separate 4 hour sessions with the old dryer despite it claiming to hold 9kg too.

Setup was easy, i followed the instructions which were not very complicated (many wifi connections can be a little confusing in my opinion) I was glad that the details are included on the actual machine itself and not some piece of paper that will surely end up lost, they’re also in an easy to read place (just inside the door) which means you don’t need to try and pull the machine out to read the back or something equally irritating. I also love the app, it sends me a message when the dryer is finished which is handy, I even noticed it told me when I was at work and not even on the same wifi network, no idea how that works, but awesome, I can text the kids! The dryer is finished! Go put your clothes away! I did notice it could sometimes be inaccurate with the prefinish warning, it would sometimes tell me it had five minutes left then spend another twenty minutes drying before the finish message came. It’s never lied to me about being finished though!

I did find the settings to be a little difficult to understand and the manual didn’t really offer any thing much on that either. Thankfully so far just selecting ‘auto’ on the cotton setting has dried everything I’ve asked except for the one time I decided to test ‘bedding’ when I washed two flannel sheets, 6 pillowcases and 2 blankets all in one wash and dry setting, I was completely amazed that that worked flawlessly too and was completely dry in only four hours.

I guess it’s time for me to stop wanting to tell the dryer how long it needs to dry for and enjoy the fact that ‘auto’ seems to know what I need, I did notice there was a ‘time’ setting which is defaulted to 20 minutes, I spent a minute trying to work out how to change the time and quickly gave up and went with the auto. It seems you can’t go wrong with auto so I’ll forgive it for being complicated with any further settings I might’ve wanted to try.

For the first few loads I used it without setting up the drain which means I had to empty the water container manually, this was also better than with our old heat pump dryer, for some strange reason the old one had the drainage holes in such a ridiculous location meaning that there was always going to be a couple of inches of water left unless you spent a good five minutes tilting and twisting the tank to get the last of the water out, this one had the hole almost at the very bottom, I understand that it can’t be directly on the end or it’d leak whilst sat hoizontal in the machine so I guess this is probably as good as it can get and leaves maybe a centimetre of water that can be tricky to remove, I ignore that little bit of water, satisfied that its close enough.

Overall, I am very happy with this dryer and would definitely recommend it. Easy to use, very energy and time efficient and most importantly it actually dries your clothes!

Proof that whitegoods can be sexy [updated] – We’d been using a 20 year old Fisher & Paykel dryer for, well…, 20 years and after umpteen repairs over that period to keep it viable, it got to the point where it was no longer safe to use. I’m sure our old dryer doesn’t fancy being put out on the verge for the Council junk collection, but I also don’t fancy my house burning down because of a… Read more

faulty dryer that I can no longer obtain parts for. Nevertheless, thank you for your service Fisher & Paykel ED 56. Consequently the request for a dryer review from the team at productreview.com.au couldn’t have come at a better time. Out with the old, in with the new as the saying goes. Steady on a second there partner! Knowing full well that everything else has changed over the past 20 years, some for the better, some for worse (my hairline for a start), I knew that this would be quite the experience in observing how much technology has permeated into the most bland domestic appliances. Enter the Haier HDHP90AN1 heat pump dryer. Bland is something it isn’t. It’s almost to the point of being sexy. Can that even be possible? A clothes dryer? Really? First, a word about heat pump dryers. These aren’t like your traditional clothes dryers that were basically a rotating drum that heated up your clothes until they were dry, and made a lot of racket in the process. And fogged up your laundry windows. And made your power bill go through the roof in winter. These are next generation devices that leverage reverse-cycle air conditioner technology to dry your clothes and linen. The key point of difference is that they don’t heat the drum your clothes are spinning in, they heat the air around them. Accordingly, they use less power than the “old” style and don’t vent all the condensation to the outside of the unit, fogging up your laundry windows. Allegedly they are kinder to your clothes as well because the overall temperatures in use by the dryer are lower. First impressions Unboxing the Haier the first thing that struck me – apart from the use of Styrofoam :( – was the size of the unit. She’s big. And at 52 kilos, there is no way it is getting mounted to anyone’s wall, anywhere. I don’t care if you’re Superman with mine site-grade wall fasteners, it simply isn’t safe nor practical to mount something like this to the wall. Haier recommends it be mounted on top of a washing machine with a stacking kit, ostensibly theirs, or under a bench. We chose the latter. The overall fit and finish of the unit is of high quality. There are no loose fitting plastic parts, poorly aligned closures or flimsy buttons. In fact, there aren’t any buttons. The control panel is one big touch panel apart from the dial used to cycle through the wash programs. The door to the drying compartment is made of real glass with a metal ring around the outside and the casing is steel, not plastic like I’ve seen with other dryers. In use Plug it in, press the power symbol (not a button!) on the, uhh, dashboard I guess you could call it, and it will play a little tune and let you know it has been brought to life. Use the large dial to cycle through the drying programs, and hit the ‘play’ button. Yes you heard me, the play button. Like your DVD player. Wait, does anyone even use DVD players anymore? It has a drying program for synthetics. It has a drying program for towels. It has a drying program for wool items. It has a drying program for just about everything else. Hit the play button and walk away, when it’s done, it will play a little ditty. Because it is a heat pump dryer it creates and captures condensation internally in a condensation tray located in the top left corner. You MUST empty this after every load otherwise it will overflow, and water will puddle on the floor of your laundry. It’s much like cleaning the lint filter of a traditional dryer (this has one of those too), just that you’ve got to empty the condensation tray as well. This is the trade-off for that 8 star energy efficiency rating that it has. A small price to pay really, for the energy savings you will make. There is a way around the whole condensation tray deal, and that is to permanently plumb it into the S-trap under your laundry sink. The Haier comes with a kit that facilitates this. In our case the layout of our laundry will not allow it. Doesn’t stop you though. And then of course we come to the Wi-Fi connectivity aspect. The internet of things has now connected your clothes dryer to the universe, via your smartphone (with the app from Haier) so you can, I guess, do clothes dryer-y things when you’re not home. To be honest I think this is a gimmick and can only see a useful scenario for this in circumstances when you’ve gone out and left the dryer on accidentally, and you can log in and switch it off. Unless of course you have a robot at home that empties your washing machine when you aren’t home and then puts all your clothes into the dryer but then can’t turn the dryer on, which I think says more about the usefulness of the whole concept of Wi-Fi connectivity for a clothes dryer than the incompetence of said robot. The rub At the moment, a few weeks into our new clothes drying adventure with the Haier, I am struggling to find meaningful things to be critical about. The condensation tray issue can be a trifle annoying, but that is a thing for all heat pump dryers, not just the Haier and to their credit, they have anticipated this and made it as easy as possible to deal with.

As far as its core business goes (like drying clothes), it is hard to fault, although sometimes clothes will come out creased or crinkled from a drying cycle which isn’t cool. I’d imagine if I’d just dropped $1,299 on a dryer I’d want my garments to be pretty much perfect when they were removed from the dryer, but I guess that is what an iron was invented for. On the other hand, I’m amazed at how much crud the dryer captures in its lint filter which the old unit didn’t, especially for items like wool blankets. It’s great to know that the dryer is almost acting like a second-stage cleaning system for clothing.

Nice little touches like the LED light in the drying compartment and the lack of buttons (easy to keep it clean!) show that someone, somewhere has put a lot of thought into making it user friendly. The main issue with the Haier is its size. This isn’t a flaw or failing of the product itself, but more of an observation that this model is a large family sized dryer and you need to do your homework before buying. What that means is that you’ve got to get out the tape measure and see if it will fit your laundry – at 840mm high, it fit under our bench with less than 10mm to spare. This also means that you will need to sort a power point under your bench or end up like me using some kind of lame workaround like an extension cord to get the whole shooting match working. Like I said, this isn’t a flaw of the product, but it requires you to assess some things that you might not have thought about before committing to a dryer like this. If you’ve got your heart set on this Haier – and at $1,299 you’d want to be absolutely sure on that – you need to think about your laundry layout, dimensions and ergonomics before pulling the trigger and joining the Haier fan club. In case you didn’t get the message, protip: measure first, buy second. When all is said and done, it is worth getting and if its long term durability ends up being as good as my first impressions of its quality, it is worth spending the dosh if you can afford it (and fit it in your laundry). It does what it says it will do on the box exceptionally well, and being a 9 kilo dryer, you’ll be able to dispose of most of the family laundry in one go rather than in several loads when I’m sure you, like me, have better things to be doing over the course of a Saturday afternoon than constantly loading and unloading clothes dryers and washing machines. In 6 months’ time I will be providing a product update on its longer-term usage and any issues experienced, as I believe a fulsome review of a product can only be done once it has a few runs on the board and the user has gotten to know it over a period of time. My vibe is any issues will be few and far between.

***6 month product update***

(Yes I know it has been more than 6 months, but anyway). As promised when I posted my review, I would provide an ownership update of the Haier after about 6 months. My initial impressions and observations in my review still stand, mostly. However there are a couple of caveats.

The first is the drying time. The length of time it takes to dry a load of washing is extraordinary. Despite stuffing around with its settings, we can't seem to get it to shuffle along with the time taken to complete a dry cycle. It literally takes over half a day (as in, from lunch time until well after dinner!!) to dry a single load of clothes. I am led to believe that all heat pump dryers do this, however this thing takes the cake and if it is indeed the case that heat pump dryers are all clothes drying slow pokes, then they compare poorly in this aspect to traditional dryers (which cost a lot less I might add).

The second caveat concerns its longer term reliability. We have noticed that condensation is building inside the control panel (it's transparent when switched on) and said condensation isn't going away. There is no way to remove it or dry it out. This has already led to an arbitrary touch panel lockout which we only managed to disable through sheer luck - the condensation must have shorted something or otherwise upset its apple cart. I'm guessing that because of its location next to the condensation collection tray, moisture is somehow finding its way in behind the control panel. Given this control panel, uhh, controls everything you can do with the appliance and there are no physical buttons to press, once it gets enough moisture in there to bugger everything, the next thing that will be buggered is your ability to dry clothes with this dryer.

Just over 6 months in with the user experience, for something that retails for $1,299, it simply isn't good enough. You shouldn't experience these sorts of issues with an appliance at this price point, especially when you consider the alternatives. For these reasons, I am downgrading my review to 3 stars.