Samsung Series 11 Auto Door Open

Is the Samsung Series 11 Auto Door Open worth buying?

Yes, if the wash is audible from the sofa and the budget stretches: the Samsung Series 11 Auto Door Open costs £601.33, holds 14 place settings and runs at 43 dB. That is 4 dB below the 47 dB of most machines here and a single decibel above the 42 dB Hotpoint H7I Maxi Space. Sound works on a logarithmic scale, so 4 dB is a little more than double the sound energy, which is the difference between hearing a cycle start and forgetting one is running.

Seventeen owners rate it 4.0, the door opens itself a few centimetres at the end of a wash so the steam escapes and drying finishes without a heating element, and a blue Info Light on the floor shows a cycle is live. Touch controls and SmartThings cover the remote side. It is a poor buy if you only need 14 clean covers a day, because the Candy does that for £279.

How much does the Samsung Series 11 Auto Door Open cost per place setting?

Divide £601.33 by the 14 place settings it holds and every cover in the basket costs £42.95. The COMFEE' 14 Place Settings Wi-Fi holds the same 14 covers for £359.99, which is £25.71 a setting, and the Candy works out at £19.93 a setting. Put plainly, roughly £242 of this Samsung's price goes on quiet running, the opening door and app control rather than on a bigger interior.

Forty-three decibels is what the premium buys, and it is the number to weigh against everything else. Express Wash clears a full load in one hour for the evenings you cannot wait, half load covers the days the basket is barely full, and delay start pushes a cycle into the night when nothing else is on. Five settings and three option cycles keep the panel short rather than a wall of buttons.

What comes in the box and how does it fit?

The machine measures 59.8 cm wide, 55 cm deep and 81.5 cm high, so it slots into a standard 60 cm housing under the worktop. It weighs 23.5 kg, light enough for two people to lift into place without a trolley, and it is the lightest full size machine here against 29.9 kg for the Bosch Series 2. The black gloss cabinet finish and a basic display sit on the front edge.

Inside the box there is the dishwasher and a user manual, and nothing in the way of plumbing or trim. The inlet hose, the drain hose and your own cabinet door front are bought separately, so add those to the price before you commit, along with a fixing kit if your cabinets need one. Samsung covers it with a two year manufacturer warranty, which is the same cover the Hisense HV642E90UK carries.

Where does the Samsung Series 11 Auto Door Open fall short?

The cost per cover is the sticking point: £42.95 a place setting is the highest of any 14 place setting machine here, and £17.24 more than the COMFEE' 14 Place Settings Wi-Fi asks for the same 14 covers. You are paying around £242 extra for a quieter wash and a door that dries, and only a closed kitchen makes that a fair trade.

Seventeen ratings at 4.0 is a thin base for a £601.33 purchase, against 864 for the COMFEE' 12 Place Settings at £199 and 161 for the COMFEE' 14 Place Settings Wi-Fi. The box is scant as well, so the hoses and the door panel land on your bill on top of the machine. Five wash settings are also fewer than the eight of the COMFEE' 12 Place Settings.

How does it compare with the Hotpoint H7I Maxi Space and the Candy?

The Hotpoint H7I Maxi Space costs £369, which is £232.33 less, holds 15 place settings, one more than this Samsung, and runs at 42 dB, a single decibel quieter. It also has the deeper owner base at 44 ratings and no app to set up, so it is the smarter buy for a large household that wants the quietest possible load without SmartThings.

The Candy is the value answer at £279: the same 14 place settings and a door that opens itself to dry, which is £322.33 below the £601.33 Samsung. The trade is 4 dB more noise at 47 dB and only 7 owner ratings, which is a fair deal in a closed kitchen and a poor one in an open plan room. Pay the Samsung price when 43 dB is the feature you actually want.