My Zanussi is on its last legs - the bearing is rumbling, and it looks to be a complete PITA to change it - so the hunt is on for a replacement. I've heard good things about ISE washing machines, apparently designed by repair engineers, with an emphasis on reliability, simplicity and serviceability. Sounds good on paper, but has anyone here had any experience of them?
Regards,
I don't really know about ISE machines but I would recommend you get a Miele washing machine.
This is a helpful link:
"Our aim is to reduce the quantity of domestic appliances sold in the UK each year. To achieve this we needed retailers who also have a vested interest in durability and reparability rather than volume sales. Therefore ISE is only sold by Independent repairers who would rather fix your old machine than sell you another one or specialist retailers of environmentally friendly products who we link to a local repairer to install and service the products sold."
Now which other industry is taking the same stance with their products?
Sounds as if there are built in stock faults, easy to fix and easy money for independent repairers!
No first hand personal experience to draw from regarding the machines themselves, but they're made by companies who have signed up to agree to build to standards set by a group called UK Whitegoods, as you probably already know. I can recommend them as a company and their website's extremely useful.
I've only ever been to them in connection with a fridge and they were top notch - only downside being they couldn't explain why it didn't launder very well.
That would be rather self-defeating, as the top models include 10 years parts & labour.
Wonder if the claims translate into reality
Its a funny thing, but we never used to pay =A3800 for a washing machine that lasted 15 yrs.
NT
That's kind of why I posted the query. The specs ( for the ISE5 ) look good, and the ethos is appealing - especially the low-cost parts and serviceability - and the reviews seem to match the comments posted by owners on the whitegoods forum, but I'm inclined to think we're a slightly-harder-to-please bunch on this forum.
I'd be reasonably surprised if modern machines didn't work out cheaper when you factored in purchase price as a percentage of the average weekly wage, operating costs, functionality and effectiveness.
Regards.
It looks and sounds rather like the Asea models of quite a few years ago. Have ABB spun off their appliances company?
But can joe public buy spares for them when out of warrantee, I cant find anything listed. At least with Bosch parts are easily obtained for diy repair, at admittedly inflated prices.
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They sound serious about it, but they might be less than perfectly skilled in the design dept, resulting in the claims not working out in practice
I guess so. Thats 2-3 decades of inflation for you. Certainly WMs are far more common now than 20-30 yrs ago, which seems to confirm that.
NT
Depends how much they were involved in the design. From what I can see these machines are built in various factories to a list of requirements ( such as a particular spec of bearing, placement of the motor etc. ) and I'd assume that the factory designers work with those parameters. In my own profession I'd be more than capable of speccing an instrument - the design I'd leave to those better qualified to sort such things out. From what I've seen on the faq pages they seem to know a few things about what makes a machine reliable and serviceable.
People do far more washes these days - my mum's old machine used to take the best part of half a day to cope with a wash...the Zanussi will do ( and often does ) three or more in that time. Modern machines also handle the sort of washes that used to be done by hand and certainly run at far higher speeds on spin. When my mum's old machine got replaced it was still working - but it simply wasn't able to cope with the ever increasing demand placed upon it.
Mind you, it looks rather academic - I showed swmbo a piccy of the ISE5 and she said she didn't like its looks, said it had a 'sticky-out knob' ( yeah, I know ). That leaves Miele, Bosch, Seimens and, apparently, John Lewis's own brand.
I might try sulking a bit.
Regards,
All these machines are pretty much a standard now. Although, saying that, the materials used on some, do have issues on reliability in use. A well known brand name is not a guarantee of quality these days, either. I think the only way to find out if any of them are good enough, is to ask others who have braved the sales floor and bought a particular one.
Tell her indoors that you ended up being a good reliable purchase, even with your sticky-outy-bits. :-)
A few things isnt enough. Do they know it all? It only takes one oversight, & its not hard to do. And of course there are other ways to go wrong,
can always trim the knob & spindle if necessary.
NT
Asko, the quality-equivalent of Miele, pulled out of England in 2000, but they make for ISE. My folks have had their Asko for at least twenty years and have seen an engineer once in that time, who himself said (in the style of a wide-mouthed frog) "I don't see many of these".
I have changed the drum bearings on our Zanussi (22 yrs old!) twice in the last 9 years and it's still going strong.
Gwan.................it's not as hard as you think. Bearing from local supplier was £6
Heh! I'd forgotten that one!
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