Approximate cost over 10 years for one daily load on a 'normal' cycle, based on 30c/kWh for electricity and $2 per 1000L for water. Excludes detergent (which can be a third of the cost).

An option for small/lightly soiled loads which shortens the selected program or reduces cycle time. May also be called 'fast', 'quick', 'rapid' or something else. Some machines also offer temperature variations in conjunction with faster washes.

Time remaining display will give you a rough estimation of how long the load will take to wash. This can often fluctuate wildly as some washers use sensors to detect how dirty your wash is, the type of load you've put in and how much you've put in, then adjust the timing.

'Delay time' or 'time delay' is a feature that lets you program the wash to start at a specific time in the future. If you're on off-peak energy, you can take advantage of this feature.

You can change the spin speed on some programs. A higher spin speed will result in drier clothes, but you might want a lower speed for delicates or easily creased fabrics. The higher the spin speed, the more likely your clothes will be stiff when they come out of the wash.

Some machines need both hot and cold water to operate; others can connect to cold water only and might need a special connector or sealing cap for the hot water inlet. A machine with a heater (front loaders only) can be particularly useful if you connect to cold only, as it still gives you the option of a warm wash occasionally. Check the maximum temperature recommended for the hot water inlet. Many manufacturers recommend a lower temperature than most hot water systems deliver – particularly solar hot water systems. You may need a tempering valve to reduce the temperature.

The amount of time the program cycle we selected took – this can range from under an hour to over three hours.

We measure how well the machines keep the dirt suspended in the water rather than depositing it back on the clothes, and how well they rinse out the detergent. We test this by adding a marker chemical to the wash and at the end, we take a sample of the water remaining in the clothes to determine the amount of chemical that's left – the less there is, the better the rinse.

This score measures how long your clothes are going to last compared to other machines using the program we test on. To check for fabric wear, we attach swatches of easily frayed fabric to the garments in each load. The area of the swatch is measured before and after the wash – the less fraying, the gentler the machine is assessed to be and the higher the score it's given.

We measure dirt removal with a spectrophotometer, a machine that's more accurate than the human eye and can detect differences of about 6%.

This shows you how efficiently a washer uses water. Water flow meters are connected to each machine to measure water use. To compare efficiency between different-sized machines, we calculate the amount of water used per kilogram of the test load of washing. The lower the water consumption per kilogram of clothing, the higher the efficiency score.

These are taken straight from our brand reliability survey, but do not add to the overall score. These scores refer to the brand only, not that particular model. If you see "Not available" as the outcome, that's because we not enough people who own the brand have replied with their findings – we need at least 50 responses to make the outcome statistically significant.

Energy star rating based on a formula that incorporates the energy used per wash and the claimed capacity of the machine in kg.

Manufacturers must declare how many litres of water are used per wash cycle of a dishwasher or washing machine, drying cycle of a washer/dryer or condenser dryer, per minute for a tap, or per full and half flush for a toilet. A WELS water star rating is derived from this. The water use and the star rating are displayed on the product's WELS label.