Page 1 of URGENT, please recommend your washing machine (around £200)

Our trusty 15 year old washing machine just went kaput on Tuesday, with the inner and outer hubs deciding to become one mangled mess :/

I am now washing the whole familys socks and pants, Arrgh, as the wife refuses to deal with them.

We are going to buy a new machine this weekend.
Please recommend a good buy, and what shop ? around the £200 mark.

We need specifically a short wash programme, standard size , free standing under worktop, white colour, reliable machine.

Any Indesit model ,My first one lasted 10 years and got the second one 3 years ago and no probs ,we got ours from Factory shack very reasonably priced (over £100 cheeper than elsewhere)
Good luck :)

We`ve just had to replace our Hoover machine, which went very rusty after a disappointing 8 years. We replaced it with a hotpoint!

www.qed-uk.com is well worth a look.

From the horror stories I`ve heard from customers, I wouldn`t buy any white goods from an online retailer.
Not to say I wouldn`t buy one from a "delivered" service like Argos etc, just not a distance seller.

Second, the "big" players, ie: Comet n Currys tend to be easier to get to solve problems in the first 28 days as we both exchange if faulty, but I know there will be some who will disagree.

Sorry to say the "£200" washing machine market is generally very limited machines, with the likes of Beko and Servis dominating.
Another £50 to £100 puts you into "premium" brand territory too. Machines are generally larger, quieter, faster spin speeds, nicer looking etc etc.

So, recommendations? Take the wife with you, the one she likes is the one you buy ;)

Seriously, Hotpoin, Ariston and Indesit are all the same now, Merloni Electronics own them so you pay for features, but a pain in the A for problems to get dealt with.
Hoover? Wouldn`t take one if you gave me it free....
Zanussi are generally very good, very quiet and very well specified, but generally last 3 to 4 years then pop.
Tricity Bendix and Electrolux are also same group as Zanussi (Electrolux group), and even looking at the soap drawer on a Zanussi now mentions E-lux.

Beko, deffo not for me, Servis generally ok but not so nice looking and a bit awkward on servicing sometimes, but offset by the inital price tags.

Candy is Hoover too btw, if you happen to spot one of theirs.
Machine we currently have is an LG DD machine, very quiet, good wash cycles, good efficiency, but doesn`t allow selection of simple things like spin only.

What to look for:
Good programme selection (really there are only 3 or 4 programmes, the others are break downs of one of the three, but look for one that lets you select spin only, spin and fabric softener only etc)

A Rating for power performance.
A or B rating for spin performance
Cold fill only can also give better results and cost less to run

MOST IMPORTANTLY make sure the machine is A rated for WASH performance. Even at £160 these days you can get A rated results, so don`t skimp on that no matter what.

And soz if that aint helped much :/

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

This item was edited on Thursday, 24th February 2005, 21:14

avoid indesit like the plague the parent company merloni is really really really bad for customer service.

Quote:
Hoover? Wouldn`t take one if you gave me it free....

Bought our first Hoover machine in 91 - lasted 8 years with only a shock absorber breaking - £10 part fixed myself.

On our 2nd one - 6 years old now - only thing that`s needed doing is a wire to the drier element broke off and needed a new connector - 25 p fix.

Pretty good value if you ask me - like everything else in life, it`s the luck of the draw.


why take life so seriously..its not like you are going to make it out alive

Don`t buy Zanussi, unless you enjoy having to get them repaired all the time. Hoover is better to get.

"Don`t buy Zanussi, unless you enjoy".......... space travel.????

Surely any thing sub £200 is gonna be similar... cheap and cheerfull.....

My missus always said min 1000 spin and staty away from washer / dryer units....

Also in Curry`s.. any thing ending in£***.97p is a clearance item... should get a good deal.....

Zanussi, like I said, tend to pop after 3 to 4 years, but work great until that point...*usually*
There WILL be anomalies that last less time as with everything, and conversley there are exceptions to the failure rules.

On the Hoover points noted above, glad to hear you`ve had fantastic life out of both of yours, but to say you did two repairs yourself kinda taints it slightly. I know these were years down the line from purchase, but although you, and in this case, I, are equally confident to fault find and repair a washing machine, not everyone is. That £10 or 25p repair would have cost someone £60+VAT for an engineer to call out and do it for them :(

(ever stood and listened to a customer screaming about paying almost £100 for a stupid 50p part to be fitted....? lol)
Hoover *were* good. Probably why you haven`t really experienced any problems with them as their reliability dropped about 5 to 6 years ago.

The Sub £200 market doesn`t necessarily mean "cheap n cheerful", there are many customers I know who have had a £200 machine for around 5 years and they`re still going, it`s very very "luck of the draw" and how heavy it`s used :/

1000 spin is a minimum, especially if using with a dryer (although it`s getting harder to find any 800 spins these days), and the 97p thing is right.

Although, 98p means its almost clearance.... ;)

Oh, and BTW, I aint slagging off any particular manufacturers, I`m giving yer *my* opinion of `em...and if I drop into the shop later today, I`ll see if I can spot anything in the £200-ish area ;)

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

Ours went recently as well. Got a Bosch (might be a bit above your price range) from LXDirect - found a 10% off discount voucher on rpoints.com too. Best thing is, there`s an option you can tick when ordering for them to take away the old appliance - free! This may only apply to certain items, but worth checking out.

HTH