Washing Machine

The last machine I had up until a few months ago had the bearing replaced 4 yrs ago the second time they where renewed, it was something else which caused me to replace it in the end.
The machine we replaced it with was under £300 as there are only the two of us and it doesn't have heavy use at all.
I would replace the bearings and get a couple of more years use if it.

I have got a Bosch Eco Silence Drive and it is incredibly quiet . It wasn’t expensive - middle of the road price and I am very pleased with it.

Midgey , At 7years old it's done well, a repair would cost at least £50 call out charge , plus parts which could well take ages coming from abroad as in my experience and it took a couple of weeks to arrive, you don't have to spend a lot , I replaced my hotpoint with Indesit 2 years ago, I have no complaints with it and it was under £300 , I would buy new ,

When we moved nearly four years ago we needed to buy a new fridge, freezer, induction hob, oven, washing machine, dryer and a vacuum cleaner, so there were basically more things needed than money to spend on them.

Apart from the hob and oven, we bought what we needed from a reliable DIY store that DH has sworn by for years. This means everything was a cheap brand made for that particular chain of DIY stores. We paid roughly a third of what the well-known brands would have cost, and everything works perfectly. The cheap washing machine is especially good, with water and electricity saving programmes.

I was told by a repair man that it was worth replacing the bearings, as it was a lot cheaper than a new machine and may give me a couple more years.

A new machine may only give you a couple of years before it needs repairing.

I decided to replace my old AEG machine ( over 12 years old) when I moved house, it still worked but looked a bit tatty in my new kitchen! I bought another AEG which cost about £150 dearer than some models but after almost 8 years it is still like brand new. I have been buying washing machines for over 40 years and an only on my third machine - all AEGS.

Mind you, now I have boasted about the longevity of my machine, it will breakdown next week!

My 'cheap brand' washing machine lasted about 20 years . I only changed it because it was starting to rust.
I would suggest going for a basic one - all these fancy electronic ones are a waste of money, because we don't use half of the programmes. My frig freezer is about 15 years old, dishwasher, about 10 years.

Also was told (same man!) that basic machines are more likely to last, and more likely to be repairable if they go wrong.

I think that a basic machine (from a reliable brand) has less to go wrong with it. There's no point in having 15 programmes when you only use 3. I'd probably check the latest Which report in the library first.

I’d think I’d done well after 7 years no matter what I’d paid for my washer. I don’t think they’re built to last nowadays.
I had an expensive Miele with a 10 year guarantee.
After 8 years it broke down.I had to wait weeks before they could repair it. I spent a fortune at the launderette and after a week or so it broke down again. Couldn’t afford to wait weeks again to get it fixed so bought a cheaper one. That’s what I’ll do in future buy cheap and often

Buy a cheap one and a 5 year warrantee from John Lewis.

I've just replaced my Bosch, 19 years old finally gave up, it's been a real work horse, so can't complain. Have bought another Bosch hope this one will be as reliable as the last. I think the old one was £300 ish this new one was £500 it has a two year warranty. Once a machine gets over about 8 years or so, I think my thoughts would be replace rather than repair.

I don't think warranties are good value, myself. I tend to buy from John Lewis as they're the best installers and the one time something went wrong (which turned out to be one of my daughters bra wires going through one of the hooles in the drum) they fixed it for free even though it wasn't a fault, as such.

We've bought ours from John Lewis, we always do. We have always had our machine in an integral garage, along with a tumble dryer and freezer. Annoyingly we're having to have a plumber come separately to plumb it in as JL no longer carry out such a task if the garage doesn't have heating, new policy of theirs apparently Never heard such rubbish!

JL, in common with other companies, is out-sourcing a lot of work. This is probably a proviso by one of the companies they use in which case they should change the contract, Fat chance!

We buy nearly new from gumtree. I have never spent over £100 on a machine and the last one was brand new. It didn't match the new kitchen we were told. It's a Bosch and we have an indesit dishwasher.
They get daily use but I always wash on cool. I did a bit of research online but they are all much of a muchness unless you can afford top of the range. We can't. I wouldn't buy a fridge or Hoover secondhand.

The advice we have just had from a white goods engineer was to go for a mid-priced appliance.

He shook his head at the suggestion of some of the cheapest ranges but said that the more expensive ones were no different and had the same parts as the mid-price ones.

JL offers 2 years warranty but you can get an extra 3 years on top of that at the moment with some manufacturers.

My Beko machine was 30yrs old when it went.

It only went as far as just outside with a sign on it saying "excellent working order. Free!"

It was taken in less than an hour and I was so pleased!

They don't make them like they used to!