The AEG L87680FL is the company's high-end, stylish model. With its brushed-metal effect top and large CLD display, it certainly looks the part. It has a decent 8kg capacity and, with an A+++ efficiency rating and steam modes, it promises to be more than just a pretty face.

POWER AND WATER USAGE

As with all electrical appliances, the efficiency rating is just a guide. It's the actual figures that are of more interest. In our tests, we ran Cotton 30C, Cotton 40C and Synthetic 40C cycles, using 3kg of washing in order to test power and water consumption.

At 30C, the washing machine used 0.59kW of power and 49L of water. This gave us a combined cost of 23p per cycle, which is about what we'd expect from washing machine like this. However, as this machine as a 1,600rpm spin speed, our clothes retained just 980g of water. This means that they'll dry faster (or require less time in a tumble dryer) than machines with slower spin speeds.

Moving to the Cotton 40C cycle, we saw power consumption increase to 0.71kW, while water slightly increased to 58L. This put the cost per cycle up to 27p. However, thanks to the fast spin speed, our clothes retained just 979g of water.

Steam modes and an A+++ rating mean that this washing machine has plenty to offer

On the Synthetic 40C cycle, which can often dramatically increase power consumption due to the extra drum movements, we saw power consumption increase to 0.74kW, while water usage remained at 58L. The spin speed was reduced to 1,200rpm, so our clothes were wetter, retaining 1.4kg of water. We calculated a reasonable cost per cycle of 28p.

Using the EU Energy Label (see how we test washing machines for more information), we work out how much the machine costs to run each year.

With these calculations we worked out that this machine costs £54.74 for high usage, £41.05 for medium usage and £27.37 for low usage. That's about what we'd expect for an A+++-rated 8kg washing machine, although we have seen models with lower running costs.