We are looking to buy a new washing machine and have checked out the Which? site. We are after something that costs £400 or less and has 1) delayed start option 2) good rinsing 3) 6kg drum and
4) handwash cycle. The AEG-Electrolux L64810 looks like a good option. Has anyone had experience of this machine?Any other recommendations? (We have always gone for Bosch before but a number of models are now mae for the cheaper end of the market and may not be so reliable).
Miele.
Top end Bosch (do they still call it the Logixx range??) isn't bad.
It's a bit higher than your price bracket, but this:
It washes excellently, there is total attention to detail and if you want a laff, ask the blokes to deliver it upstairs to the bathroom - it was all 2 burley blokes could do to lift it over our doorstep. It is very stable during the spin cycle.
Two other things that miss your specs are it's a 5kg drum and unfortunately it does not have the delayed start option. There are models that do (and some that have 6kg drums), but they cost even more.
I still recommend it though despite that - copes with our family of 4.
Cheers
Tim
I have to say teh same. Take out a loan.
The interest on the loan will be less than the service charges you will pay on any other.
I will 2nd the Recommendation. Having just gone through the same process of selection etc. Delving around the miele site I finally pushed the boat out out and upped my budget somewhat (by about £400) going for the 1600 spin with
6Kg honeycomb drum. I thought that as my last machine (a whirlpool)lasted 10 years £80 a year was a small expense in the grand scale of things.General opinion is it's always to better to get a lower spec higher quality machine than the other way round. Especially when machine failure can be expensive and very inconvienient (more so when it's got to go up or down a flight of stairs)
:¬)
Pete
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This looks a good price for a high spec. Miele
I bought a Miele last summer - with a free 10 year parts and labour warranty. As the others say, find a little more cash and get a product that lasts.
another +1 for that company from me.
Secondhand Miele? Some fool somewhere will be chucking one out so they can buy a new one in fashionable stainless-steel 'effect' plastic.
Owain
What are they like for spares availability and price? I currently use two elderly machines. (about 20yrs)
The older, an electrolux, is still cheap for and has readily available spares. The newer, an AEG was expensive, had expensive spares which were difficult to obtain, and is now broken (won't spin, I hope it's just the brushes, but it has been a bit unbalanced recently and the drum bearings are getting past it (and only available at the price of a new low end machine)). It may be time to replace.
AFAIK Miele are the only European domestic washing machine manufacturer that also make commercial laundry equipment, in fact many of the current domestic range share parts with the commercial range, which suggests that spares availability will be good.
That said, I've never known anyone actually *need* spares :-)
Owain
Miele are *supposed* to be good in this respect.
Tim
(Miele)
Most Miele machines are sold with a 10 years parts and labour warranty so spares are a non issue within that period.
Their service organisation is among the best I've encountered. I value good service very highly as a purchasing criterion and won't accept poor service. You can call Miele's service department, describe the fault and book a call initially with a morning or afternoon appointment. You can opt to get a reminder by email, SMS or phone the day before, and after 1630 on the day before they have a recorded system which you can call and it will provide a 2 hour time range for the appointment. On the day, the engineer calls as he leaves his last appointment. They are incentivised to fix faults on the first call and carry a good spares stock to support that. Obviously this saves them money, but more to the point, it saves the customer's time.
Spares are readily available on request and don't seem particularly expensive - IIRC a longer dishwasher waste hose was around £10.
With the washing machine I have taken a view of writing it down to zero over the 10 year warranty period and then setting a limit of £100-150 that I would be willing to spend on spare parts in the event of a failure. This is roughly what the appliance insurers do.
On Mon, 28 May 2007 09:47:06 +0100, a particular chimpanzee, "Jo" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
If you have a John Lewis near you, their 'own brand' appears to be an AEG for £50 less. I've had mine for about 18 months now and (touch wood), hasn't given me problems up to now.
18 months is nothing for a washing machine in a domestic situation. Thi= s is an interesting thread for me as we only have one spare machine now. The last one to fail was about 20 years old an "Electra" (the brand name= for the old electricity company shops...). Now on a similarly aged Zanus= i, the last spare machine (a Hotpoint) is 22 years old.
Miele always get a good report but I sometimes wonder how much of that i= s down to defending the price. B-) Though a 10 year parts & labour guarantee must say something.
On Mon, 28 May 2007 13:22:22 +0100, Owain mused:
There are others, not sure how European they are thoguh, but their machines are completely different between domestic and commercial ones.
I used to have a fridge of that brand - I think they were made by LEC. It lasted donkey's years.
I hate farting about with domestic appliances. The thought of having to strip down a machine to change the bearings etc. underwhelms me.
I think that one can really adopt one of a few philosophies.
- Buy a cheap thing, hope it lasts three years and chuck it away. I don't think that the "Electras" exist any more - i.e. low price, long life.
- Mid range with reasonable spares availability and a willingness to repair or get it repaired if it breaks. I think that this works for some people.
- Quality product with long warranty.
For the last case it could be that the price is inflated to cover the warranty or that it is pay for better materials and design.
However, if one thinks about it, it would be a risky strategy for a manufacturer to offer a 10 year warranty sandbagged by price on a mediochre product.
It's expensive to pay for engineer visits. Either they need to be avoided or a way found that the customer pays.
They used to chop and change. Electra were rebadged LECs for a while; Tricity also made a lot of them (my dad used to work for Tricity).
Andy Hall typed
Miele (for the umpteenth time)
With washing machines I've always adopted philosophy no.1 and they've lasted more like 13 years than 3. Yeah, I know, I've just been lucky
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