Washing Machine Reccommendations

What would you have done if it had failed earlier?

Reply to
Andy Hall
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Reliability has a price. Some people may like to update every so often. Others may like to take a chance.

Miele owners seem to be a bit like Volvo owners of some years ago.- always praising their choice without thinking of the total cost of ownership issues.

I have been happy with my choice of Indesit - 3 in about 32 years. I have never had a repair man to it - although I have done some DIY fixes. (Brushes, door seals)

Reply to
John

On the contrary, it's precisely for TCO reasons. Apart from the direct costs of materials and labour over the period of use, down time, hanging around for repair visits or having to spend time fixing should be taken into account.

Exactly my point. There is a cost associated with the time taken to diagnose the problem, procure the parts and fix the fault. If you enjoy doing that and have the time, then fair enough. Personally, I have no interest in fixing cheap domestic appliances when they break because

a) it's usually a "distress fix" - i.e. drop everything and do it now - I prefer doing jobs and projects that I can do as and when.

b) I can use my time more profitably - i.e. there are projects and jobs with much higher ROI.

Reply to
Andy Hall

The experience of owning one is a radically different experience from any other machine I have had. It's quiet. Whisper quiet. Its the only washing machine I have ever seen that has shock absorbers as well as springs on the drum. The door and hinges are not made out of cast Mezak or plastic, but lumps of machined steel IIRC..it even has places to put te transit screws when you remove them so you can lock the drum for transport again in a few years time..

In short it looks like a washing machine that has been designed by an engineer, not a marketing department.

The difference in cost - about 300 notes as against a cheapo - is easily rationalised in terms of NOT having to spend a couple of 150 pound services on the cheapo before throwing it away.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

hear hear!

Hear hear hear!

It USED to be that any washing machine would do about 8 years before needing brushes, then after 15-16 the plastic bits would have all gone tatty.

No longer. After having had a machine tear its drum to pieces in 3, and blow the motor completely in 5, I just said 'f*ck it: Miele'

Little things like a 3/4" clearance between drum and housing - just large enough to take a sock and totally destroy it - on the cheapo..

I think we have almost beaten the 'odd sock demon' since we got the Miele.

>
Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yeah. I'll add a vote for Miele. I was slightly sceptical but we looked at it as although the machine was 800 quid it had a 10 year warranty.

80 quid a year to see us through 10 years of two small children (well, they won't be as small in 10 years obviously :)) didn't actually seem such bad value for money and a couple of years down the road I'm glad we took that choice.

However, one thing that wasn't so great was that a couple of times the thing stopped with an error code. I rang Miele and they sent an engineer but as the machine appeared not to have recorded any error his laptop couldn't find a fault so they wanted to charge us. A bit of a discussion followed and the engineer (who was great I admit) made a phone call and they scrapped the charge as "an act of goodwill". The guy then spend a fair while pulling the thing apart and fiddling with things and (touch wood) it's been fine since.

So, machine is lovely, engineer was excellent (I agree with the selecting am/pm and being able to phone for times was really great) but we did have a slightly negative dealing with Customer service.

Exactly. According to SWMBO, they aren't pretty (just looks like a washing machine to me :))

Yep. I'd certainly buy miele again (in fact, we have a miele dishwasher as well and I'm seriously considering smashing the bloody dyson and buying a miele there as well).

Darren

Reply to
dmc

That would be a good purchase as well.

I bought one of their models with variable speed control on the handle and a "beats as it sweeps as it cleans" powered brush head. It's useful for the few remaining carpets that we have. The power for the head and controls run through special compartments in the hose and the solid tubes so there are no dangling wires to plug in.

After about seven years of use, the hose needed to be replaced following an accident with it. Either one can buy the spare, which was (IIRC) about £35, or Miele offer a fixed price service and repair for about £70.

This includes, collection and return delivery, replacement of any defective consumables and parts, including tools and hoses, replacement of all filters and a pack of disposable bags.

The service is booked by phone and a packing box arrives by courier on the appointed day. Inside there is a sheet of instructions with illustrations of what to pack where, bar code labels and so on. The courier takes the machine away and it is returned (again on agreed day) a few days later - in other words everything worked out to cause minimum disruption for the customer which is how service should be.

In the event, we received a new hose and complete set of new brushes as well as the service which I think is a pretty good deal.

Acid test of would I buy one again? Certainly.

Reply to
Andy Hall

It's not often we get such unanimous agreement on uk.d-i-y ;-)

Yup - Miele washers designed by engineers with minimal if any marketing interference. Internally they look like the engine bay on a new VW - every single cable routing and clip has been carefuly worked out, along with designed in service access. Not a single bit you would look at and say "that's a bit of a cheesy way to do it".

I made a service call on my brand new machine - it worked perfectly - apart from the "minutes to finish" time display. Service call was as perfect as everyone here is describing.

I've got an 8 year old Miele vacuum as well - and I wouldn't say the differentiation is as strong. It certainly well made, but I wouldn't say it's that much better than other vacuums.

Reply to
dom

Quite. We have a Miele washing machine, also.

We have a Sebo vacuum, and I feel much the same way about that as I do about the Miele washing machine. It's a super bit of kit.

Reply to
Huge

Yep - second that too. The Miele Revolution hoover I have is the best "cylinder" hoover I have ever seen, mostly because it has a decent powered head to do all the carpets.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim Southerwood

*They* didn't fail earlier. If any of them had, I would have made a mistake buying it. I can live with the suspense.
Reply to
Stuart Noble

But *they* were cheap washing machines you bought 13 years ago.

Cheap washing machines one buys today are probably even more shoddily manufactured.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

The recently failed 20 year old Electra (aka a Servis) has shock absorbers...

Stainless I hope...

That idea I do like.

I'd agree if I'd ever called out a washing machine service engineer but I haven't, faults that have occured I've fixed myself or the machine is dumped after >>10 years service... We only have one "spare" washing machine now and that is a 22 year old Hotpoint, admitedly it hasn't done anything for the last 8 years and the door needs fixing (have the, plastic, parts not the round tuit).

All the machines I've played with/fixed have been quite old. I don't know how modern middle of the range machines match up in build.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I have just got an AEG L86810 from John Lewis, chosen basically due to its low noise. Has free 5 year parts and labour warranty as well. It is very very quiet, even when spinning @ 1600rpm which means one can run the washing machine whilst using the kitchen table without being drowned out. The incoming water and sloshing waste in stand pipe makes more noise than the machine running.

Reply to
Ian_m

The fact is when I bought my first (Hotpoint) machine in 1984 or thereabouts, it cost 300 quid.

It was a cheap washing machine.

Its still going.

The cheap one I bought 5 years ago for 300 quid (Hotpouint) has been replaced with the Miele.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Then you were fortunate.

I can't.

Dealing with 600mm footprint white appliances when one is regularly several days away from home can only be done by having something that can be reasonably counted upon to be reliable in the first place and which can be fixed with virtually zero hassle by a phone call.

I am quite happy to take risks but the return potential has to be high enough to make it interesting. In other cases, a reasonable degree of certainty and someone who will take responsibility for fixing problems quickly and efficiently is far more useful to me.

Reply to
Andy Hall

I think you would be in for a nasty surprise in terms of how much "value engineering" goes into them.

Reply to
Andy Hall

Thanks all, we bought a Siemens machine with a 10-year warranty. It's being delivered tomorrow.....can't wait!

Reply to
Jo

In article , Jo writes

Siemens, Meile can't go wrong:)

Reply to
tony sayer

Unless you're maintaining these machines yourself, is all this really relevant to d-i-y? Even if 'reccommendations' isn't a correct spelling...

:-)

Reply to
Frank Erskine

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