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[Andy H]

Not a good time for the current machine to rip a concrete weight off and drop it on the floor.

It is a Hotpoint Ultima 1400. It has been a good machine but it needs a new plastic tub (and probably a new lump of concrete) and they cost about £170 from what I can see on the internet.

Went and picked up some presents from Argos earlier and they have basic white Hotpoint machines at around £210.

With one little one in washable nappies (and another due in February) it gets used almost daily and the 1400 spin makes a big difference to getting stuff dry afterwards.

Any comments? It is difficult to get excited about household appliances. The £1200 Samsungs look quite nice but I can't believe they are that much more effective and whatever we buy is going to be stuffed until the door barely shuts despite anything I dare say about it being overloaded 

[Toledodude1973]

The cheapo hotpoints will let you down, mines broken 3 times within first year with average use so probably is worth spending  a bit more when you rely on one

[pauls]

Our machine broke down last week. So went out and bought new samsung £320 lighter now but at least my clothes are nice and clean now

[Andy B]

....
and whatever we buy is going to be stuffed until the door barely shuts despite anything I dare say about it being overloaded 

Different machines have different size drums obviously for a bigger load. Our last washer came from Costco, a Maytage 'Intellisense' 10kg 1400rpm spin ... supposedly weighs the contents before it washes to save energy etc IIRC it was £400 something

[Crazycarzowner]

We've had a Bosch washer now for over 12 years and.......touch wood........its never missed a beat. It is getting a little noisy now and does a good foxtrot across the kitchen on a fast spin but I cannot fault it really. So much so that I went for a Bosch dishwasher to replace SWMBO stop SWMBO moaning  and that is good too.

[Kevin Wood]

Cheap washing machines are built down to a price and most up to the mid range in cost terms aren't repairable these days. The drum is plastic welded together so you can't get it apart to remove caught garments or change the bearings.

If it's getting heavy use washing nappies, it probably pays to stump up for something decent IMO.

[Andy H]

I bought this one about 15 years ago from Joe Grahams in Luton. He started as a washing machine repair man and got an excellent reputation for repairs and selling refurbed machines from a corner shop in Dallow Road. About 20 years ago the business moved into an industrial unit and expanded the sales side. I bought this one after asking which machine they had to do least repairs to. I think I paid about £400 then.

After 6 or 7 years the drum bearings became noisy so I replaced them and it has worked apparently OK ever since. The tub is plastic but it can be split to allow the drum to be removed

From the comments above it looks as though I need to pay about £400 to get something that might last

PS - having moved to Cornwall it isn't convenient to go back to Luton for a new one..........

[STEMO]

If it 'ripped' the concrete block out of it mountings then it surely must have not been balanced properly? It takes a lot of vibration to shake one of those buggers loose.

[Crazycarzowner]

If it 'ripped' the concrete block out of it mountings then it surely must have not been balanced properly? It takes a lot of vibration to shake one of those buggers loose.

Its what happens when the bearings start going

[STEMO]

As for your new one, I reckon it's a bit of pot luck, along with usage of course. I've got a hotpoint in the garage but when we moved in here there was a beko one already plumbed in. It's been faultless for about 15 months now, 2 or 3 washes every day 

[Andy H]

If it 'ripped' the concrete block out of it mountings then it surely must have not been balanced properly? It takes a lot of vibration to shake one of those buggers loose.

Two years ago it got noisy again so I bought some new bearings. When I went to fit them I found that the bolts holding the concrete blocks had worked loose and tightening them seemed to fix the problem. After that we moved it to the garage/workshop so that I could rip the kitchen out and build an extension.

What I wasn't aware of is that the bolts must have worked loose again - the holes in the concrete block are now twice as large as they should be and the plastic lugs on the drum wore away to almost nothing (before finally snapping) 

[JasonH]

Buy one of the cheaper Bosch models - they seem to have the same basic innards as the much more expensive models.

I've found they really get your clothes clean and ours has been on almost every day for 10 years. It did need new brushes and it did need a new display but the important stuff is all fine still.

[biggriffin]

Typical oof faffing.
 go to Argos buy what you can afford, take out the insurance, if goes wrong, ring up they come and either replace machine with new one, or repair, job sorted.

[Andy H]

Typical oof faffing.
 go to Argos buy what you can afford, take out the insurance, if goes wrong, ring up they come and either replace machine with new one, or repair, job sorted.

I want a washing machine that works as well as my old one used to. What I can afford isn't the issue.

What I can't afford is to be spending time on the phone trying to get someone to come and solve a problem that could have been avoided by buying a properly engineered machine in the first place.

[STEMO]

Have a look at this, Andy:

http://hubys.co.uk/news-information/2/who-really-makes-your-washing-machine