Samsung WF45R6300 Smart Washer and DVE45R6300 Dryer Review

We purchased the Samsung WF45R6300 Smart Washer and DVE45R6300 Dryer so our reviewer could put it to the test with her laundry. Keep reading for our full product review.

Laundry is a daily demon for most families. It grows, seemingly without much effort. Keeping a handle on this mushrooming pile of pants and underpants takes planning and patience. But that doesn’t mean you should struggle with machines that don’t respond to your preferences. Indeed, older washing machines consist of a handful of settings—normal, delicate, and bedding, if you’re lucky. But newer machines have been designed for the generation that loves precision, customization, and the ability to control from a phone.

We used the Samsung Smart Front Load Washer with Super Speed (WF45R6300) and the Electric Dryer with Steam Sanitize Plus (DVE45R6300) for three weeks with daily laundry, bedding, towels, and more. We evaluated factors like design, capacity, noise level, and performance. So if you’re getting ready to upgrade your washer-dryer set or are strategizing your first big home appliance purchase, should you spend the money on this smart washer and dryer? Read on to find out.

Setup: Employ experienced delivery persons

Most home appliance stores now offer in-home delivery and removal. If this service is available to you, we recommend you choose it. Our in-home delivery crew was able to remove an existing washer-dryer set, install the new Samsung set, and put them both on a test run inside of 45 minutes.

Because these professionals have a great deal of experience with moving and setting up these machines, they know how to do so quickly and properly. In fact, our crew brought special tools needed to hook up the dryer vent that we would not have had if we had chosen to DIY this installation.

These machines are slightly larger than standard (almost 32 inches deep), in part because the doors stand out from the front of the machines. However, you will need more clearance in front of and behind the machine for the hook-ups and the doors to open. Our machines sit about 8 inches from the wall at the back.

If your space is too small for the machines to sit side by side, they can be stacked. While we did not test them this way, the machines have flat tops for easy stacking; you’ll need to purchase Stacking Kit SKK-8K. However, this could make viewing the dryer’s display difficult. The display would be over 6 feet tall once stacked.

Design: Sleek and modern

Most washing machines and dryers are hidden away in laundry rooms, and few laundry or utility rooms are the star of the home—but they are one of the most frequently visited and used rooms to be certain. Still, appliance designers know that buyers want machines that look and feel grand, especially if they’re going to make a sizable investment.

The WF45R6300 washer and DVE45R6300 dryer are sleek. Their front faces are almost identical, save minor differences like a pull-out drawer for laundry detergents and other cleaners on the washing machine. The button panel is flush with the machine, so there are no cumbersome knobs or switches. Even when illuminated, the color choice—a light icy blue—is soothing.

The doors are not flush the machines’ body; they stick out several inches and round out in the center to form a “bubble” look. The handles, however, are ergonomic and hidden under the doors’ fronts. Strong catches on each door prevent them from flying open easily. We have to give the doors a good tug in order to open them. 

Once turned on and beginning to fill with water, the washing machine will lock so that you cannot open it and empty out the water. If you do need to open the door, you can do so by pausing the cycle.

The door on the dryer is also reversible. It can be opened from either side of the machine based on your preferences. The company that set up our machine made sure the door opened where we preferred before they left.

The lint trap in the front of the dryer is easy to remove, but we found that the “door” to the trap is a bit difficult to open. There was frequently enough lint or hair collected after every cycle to clean it out. The space between the vents is small, so we found it was also a good idea for the sake of the best drying to clean it out frequently.

The machines come in three colors—White, Fingerprint Resistant Black Stainless, and a warm Champagne, which we would describe as more of a light bronze than a crisp gold.

Capacity: Deceivingly large

The Samsung Smart Front Load Washer has a 4.5-cubic-foot capacity. This is standard among front-loading washing machines today. One drawback, particularly for the front-loading uninitiated, is that clothes can tumble out of the machine when you’re loading, especially if you’re planning to wash a large stack. What’s more, the drum, which is made of stainless steel, is quite dark. Spotting wayward socks or washcloths may be difficult if you don’t give the drum a quick spin after unloading.

The Samsung Electric Dryer with Steam Sanitize Plus DVE45R6300 has a 7.5-cubic-foot capacity, which we found was plenty spacious enough to dry a set of queen sheets, pillowcases, and a queen quilt with ease. An interior light, which shuts off after about 30 seconds, makes seeing all the pieces of the load easier.

Efficiency: Intuitive design cuts down on laundry load

Both the washer and dryer are ENERGY STAR-certified, meaning they will help save electricity and water (and therefore money). 

Standard washing machines require you to specify if the laundry load is small, medium, or large, but this Samsung washer doesn’t have that option. Instead, the machine “detects” the load size and adjusts both the water and cycle length accordingly. In fact, the only thing you need to control as far as laundry size goes is how much detergent and other liquids you add.

A small pull-out drawer in the upper left-hand corner of the machine has spots for high-efficiency machine detergent, bleach, and fabric softener. You just need to add the liquids before the start of each load. There is no reservoir.

The same is true for the Samsung dryer we tested. When you input your preferences for the drying cycle, the timer automatically sets a dry time. But, as the load progresses, the Sensor Dry feature may cause the timer to go down (or up) depending on how “damp” the sensor detects the laundry to be. This helps protect the clothing from unneeded exposure to heat, which can break down threads of some delicate materials and shorten your clothes’ lifespan.

Cleaning Performance: Excellent cleaning capabilities

The washer offers 12 wash cycles and nine wash options, and you can also control the spin speed and temperature level. However, you can't always change what you want in all of the settings. Some things will max out, or not go any higher. For example, when we did a normal wash, it wouldn’t let us select the highest two temperature settings. 

We liked that necessary but often overlooked cleaning options—we really love the Super Speed option—are part of the presets of the washing machine. Standards like Delicates and Bedding are on there, but so are Activewear and Whites. We found that these precise load descriptions make selecting the right settings easier. 

To test the cleaning capability of the washing machine, we did not use any stain remover on clothing or bedding. In every case but one, stains or soiled spots came clean without the additional pre-treatment. This is likely thanks to the ability to set the “soil” level of the load. For heavily soiled items, such as clothes we washed after a muddy hike, we told the machine the soil level was a five out of five. The clothes came out spotless and had no lingering musty odors.

However, some pillowcases that were stained with makeup and mascara did not come clean on their own. While the makeup was gone, a small smudge remained where the mascara had been. A future spot-bleach moment is coming for that pillowcase.

The Samsung WF45R6300 offers a great Steam option, too, which the brand promotes as a way to get stains out without pretreatment. We used this on some decorative pillowcases that might have been damaged with a regular wash, even on Delicate. We found this setting helped refresh and clean a few spots from the covers. 

The hottest setting, Sanitize, gets water temperatures to 150 degrees so that you can kill bacteria. This could come in handy after an illness or bug invasion. We ran one cycle of the Steam function on towels. Keep in mind this level of hot water can cause some harm to fabrics, so only use it when necessary. The hottest hot water setting is still quite hot, even if it’s not to the level of “Sanitize.”

One thing we noted about the washing machine after the first use is how much water builds up at the front of the machine, under the rubber flashing. This is to be expected with a front-loading machine. But to prevent mildew or foul odors, we left the door slightly ajar until it was dry.

Drying Performance: Sensor Dry setting saves time

The Samsung DVE45R6300 we tested was an electric model. It’s also available in a gas version (DVG45R6300V), so keep in mind that the performance of that model may differ.

This dryer has several features that make it worth the price tag in our experience. First, as mentioned, the Sensor Dry adjusts the time as the load tumbles and tosses, cutting off early to save energy and potential damage to clothes. 

What’s more, you can make many adjustments to the dryer’s settings from the machine itself, increasing or decreasing temperature and dryness levels. You can also minimally adjust the time. Some settings do not let you make alterations beyond a certain point. If you want highly specific settings, you might find working from the app a better choice as it lets you exact better control over the specifics of the cycle.

A queen quilt and sheet set were dry in under an hour, despite the machine initially saying it would take one hour and 30 minutes. A load of heavy towels was dry in under an hour, too. The touch test, after each load was complete, confirmed the linens were indeed dry.

Additional settings like Active Wear, Refresh, and Air Fluff are unique additions to basic dryer models. Time Dry is also an option on this machine, increasing in increments of 10 minutes. You can always just turn off the machine when you’re done, too. We used the dryer to remove wrinkles from a few shirts and cut it off after about five minutes before the cycle was complete.

The Steam Sanitize option on the dryer, just like on the washing machine, is a good selection if you ever need to sanitize clothes (at temperatures of 150 degrees) to kill bacteria. We tested this feature with a wrinkled linen jacket, which only needed to be steamed for the sake of appearances, not microbes. The jacket did steam well, but it needed to be hung up for a few minutes before wearing to cool down and dry a bit so that it wasn’t damp to the touch. The fabric was quite hot when we removed it from the drum.

Compatibility: Smartphone-enabled but with limits

Both machines can be connected to Wi-Fi and controlled from your phone—but with a lot of limits that can be quite frustrating. When we first sought to connect the machines to our smartphone, we had to download three apps before finally getting the right one (SmartThings in the Apple app store).

Then, we had to go through a registration process both for Samsung and the machines before we were able to connect the devices to the app. The actual process of finding the Wi-Fi signals of the machines and linking them to our home Wi-Fi network was easy, as both the app and machines did precisely what the instructions said they would.

However, we were disappointed to learn that the smartphone control didn’t really offer as much control as we first thought. You can do things like adjust settings, customize wash cycles, and select favorite cycles on your phone, but these are available only if you are physically in your home and connected to your Wi-Fi when doing so. You must select “Smart Control” on each machine in order to enable the smartphone takeover of the functions. If you are across the street at your neighbor’s house and want to start that load of laundry, you won’t be able to. You’ll have to stand in front of your machine to connect and approve the transition from machine to phone.

Despite this, Samsung’s app does have some handy capabilities. As mentioned, when it’s connected to each machine, you can create custom cycles, select from “recipe” choices (which enable you to customize down to the type of clothes and materials you’re washing for the best garment care choices), and make selections like rewash (on the washing machine) or “wrinkle prevent” (on the dryer) if your clothes sit too long after the cycles are finished. You can also store information like drum clean history so you can remember when it’s time to complete a cleaning cycle on your machine.

If you choose not to use the smartphone capabilities, however, you can rest assured that the machine is still totally high-quality and efficient.

Noise Level: Not remarkably quieter

Laundry is a noisy business. Samsung says these machines are made with VRT (Vibration Reduction Technology) Plus that’s said to be super quiet. We did find that the washing machine is sometimes quieter than a normal washer would be; the gentle nature of some of the cycles means the machine isn’t rapidly vibrating. But that’s not the case when the high-press spin is going. Overall, we didn’t find that the noise level was dramatically changed from our previous (and much older) machines.

Price: An investment

Basic washing machines and dryers are several hundred dollars. A good set, without the bells and whistles of smart technology or highly specific garment cycles, could easily set you back $500 per machine. That makes these machines double the cost of most entry-level sets.

However, for that extra money, you’re buying a great deal of garment care and technology. Clothes are an expensive investment, and too much time in machines can be hard on clothes—which this set’s intuitive design and settings (particularly Sensor Dry) address. Plus, the appliances’ ENERGY STAR certification translates to savings in the long-term, too.

Samsung WF45R6300 Smart Washer and DVE45R6300 Dryer vs. LG WM3900HBA Smart Washer with TurboWash360 and DLEX3900B Smart Dryer with TurboSteam 

Both sets feature a lot of the same electronic and intuitive appliance design upgrades—Wi-Fi connectivity, Sensor Dry, and steam settings—but the LG Electronics options (the washer and the dryer) cost about $100 more per machine. They also are limited to two colors: Black Steel and White. 

One benefit of the LG appliances is that they can sync with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The two Samsung appliances do not. Both the LG Electronics and the Samsung machines have built-in maintenance reminders and sensors. The Samsung washer has a Self Clean feature, and the LG washer has a TubClean Cycle, which is also a periodic cleaning cycle. Plus, the LG dryer has a FlowSense Duct Clogging Indicator, which tells you when your dryer’s ducts need to be swept clean. The Samsung dryer has Vent Sensor, a continuous monitor of air ducts for lint build-up, and Vent Blockage Test, a two-minute process that detects and reports blocked duct issues.

So what’s the $100 dollar difference for? A few more wash cycles, it seems. The LG washing machine has 14, while the Samsung just lists 12. They both have five wash speeds and five wash temperatures. But remember, Samsung offers highly customized wash settings from within the smartphone app.