Somewhere, on some planet, there may be someone who always puts everything in the washing machine before starting it. Here on planet Earth, however, that just doesn’t happen. Maybe someday robots will flawlessly do our laundry for us, but right now, it’s just us busy humans. And we inevitably find an extra sock, decide we want to add the t-shirt we’re wearing right now, or remember our workout clothes are still in the bag after we already started a wash. That’s why Samsung added the AddWash feature to its high-end front load clothes washers.
Introduced at CES 2016 this past January and finally available now, AddWash makes it easy to pop the odd sock, t-shirt, gym clothes, or even an extra towel to your front load washer without having to stop the whole cycle, drain the water, and take a chance of spraying yourself and the room when you open a front loader mid-cycle. AddWash is a door-within-a-door. With this feature, you can add what you forgot to the wash at any time during the cycle.
The AddWash feature is available with six Samsung front load washing machine models, including two 5.0 cubic foot capacity washers and four 4.5 cubic foot models. The 5.0 cubic foot WF50K7500 lists for $1,500 in black stainless steel and $1,400 in white. The 4.5 cubic foot WF45K6500 is $1300 in black stainless steel and $1,200 in white. Those four are the top-of-the-line, fully-featured models. Also at 4.5 cubic feet, but with a lesser feature set are an azure blue front-loader for $1,100 and $1,000 in white.
The huge 5.- cubic-foot-capacity, fully-tricked out WF50K7500 washer has some time-saving features. First off, the washer’s capacity is the largest available for 27-inch front-load washers, according to Samsung, plus the SuperSpeed setting, a new faster and more thorough wash cycle, can save up to half the time of a normal cycle.There’s also a feature called PowerFoam that mixes high efficiency detergent with water and air to create a foam that penetrates bulky items more deeply.
Samsung also introduced a newer version of its Activewash washer with integrated touch controls. This version’s built-in sink is deeper, which might help with some of the backsplash we got when testing the last model.