apologies for yet another boring question; er..washing machines?!

[mint]

Why do household machines have this nasty habit of all conking out at the same time?

My latest to need replacement is the washing machine and all before I have properly learned how to use the new dishwasher, oven, hood, micro, etc[:-))]

At this rate, even someone with my name, mint, has to exercise caution and find the best value for money.

So, having had 2 top-loaders, I am now going to revert to a front-loader.  My only concern is:  what if the damned thing gives up the ghost in the middle of a wash with the drum full of water?  How the devil will I get the drum emptied and the clothes out of the machine?

Anyway, I hope I'd get a couple of years' use before this event happens!

So, kind and wonderful and wise dispensers of advice out there: suggestions about which make, where best to buy and even some silly comments such as WB is likely to make would be welcome and appreciated.

[woolybanana]

Miele.

[mint]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Miele.[/quote]

Blimey, Wools, you don't half have expensive taste![:-))]

[woolybanana]

Lasts longer though. Bought at the end of the sales at same time as new freezer (Liebherr) so did an excellent deal.

Miele also varies in price a lot, depending on the size and fancy bits.

[Pierre ZFP]

Same thing happened to me a couple of months back. The machine danced across the floor, gave an almighty scream, let out the magic blue smoke and died.

Most machines have an 'Empty' setting which only operates the pump or if even that fails you can disconnect the outlet pipe and run the water off into a bucket.

I got a basic Whirlpool machine from ao.com in the UK.  Sub £200 and it does far more than I will ever ask of it.  Very pleased.

[Gardian]

What's a washing machine?

Is it one of those white tin boxes that lives in the utility room?

[Pommier]

We bought a Bosch washing machine for the new house. That was two and a half years ago and so far (everything crossed!) it's been great - and a good balance of quality and price.

[woolybanana]

Is that Bosch Germany or Bosch China?

[Pommier]

Goodness knows! Bosch Leclerc as far as I remember!

[Gardengirl]

We have Bosch in both homes, the UK one is about 12 years old (4+ years full-time, 7+ part-time), the one in France 7+ years part time, but that's a washer/dryer, so has had more use than that I suppose. Both seem to be going strong (maybe I should touch wood now!).

[Loiseau]

Another vote for Bosch. I have front-loaders at home and in holiday cottage, and both are doing sterling service. They were a "bon rapport qualité-prix" I remember, which is why I chose them.

Angela

[mint]

Thank you, everyone, Bosch it is then.  Can't get down to Leclerc until after the weekend.

Must take advantage of what are virtually the last of our "free" summer walks Saturday and Sunday and have to make something for the fortune du pot.  Too mean to s'incrire to a walking club but thankfully the marche nordique is still, so far, totally gratuite[:D]

Because it's been so hot and we are changing our clothes after about 5 minutes' wear, I have kept up with the clothes washing AND changed the beds, so have a few days' grace to buy a machine and get it delivered.

Thank goodness the old machine had the sense to conk out at la rentrée[:D]

[Cendrillon]

Two local supermarkets here have installed launderettes in their car parks. Excellent for washing duvets, clic-clac covers etc that are too big for domestic machines. 8€ a go for the biggest machine. Put you washing in, shop then collect washing then drive home. Job(s) done!

Maybe you have a similar facility near you Mint to tide you over.

[suein56]

[quote user="mint"]

Because it's been so hot and we are changing our clothes after about 5 minutes' wear, I have kept up with the clothes washing AND changed the beds, so have a few days' grace to buy a machine and get it delivered.

[/quote]

Sorry to hear about your wm problem; hope you get sorted out soon as being without a wm is classed as a dilemma in my book.

As far as weather is concerned here in Brittany we have seemed to be geographically far too close to the UK this year so that we have shared their variable, damp, humid weather instead of the glorious summer we experienced last year, when I swam happily until 1st November. This year has been variable in the extreme.

LG is recognized as being a good make, as to longevity of this make then I have no idea.

Sue

[Théière]

Had Bosch for a while but the latest machine doesn't get things clean despite being thoroughly cleaned over and over again, whites go grey quickly. I put new brushes in the motor the other month as they wore out.

My new machine will be an 11kg LG as they are so quiet  ssssshhhh

The silly old french machine holds about two sheets and a duvet cover (singles) and I can't stand it any longer

Family have 11kg LG still going strong for 4 years now, still just as quiet   sssshhhhh.

[mint]

Hi Sue, you are welcome to some of our hot, hot, hot weather and so much sun everything has been baked, the earth, sheets on the line (when the wm was still working), fruit on the trees.  Plus I notice that all the paint on the gates and the balcony woodwork is all flaking.

I am sorry to hear you haven't been able to swim as much but, hey, I have been a veritable sloth...very little walking, what with the heat and les travaux chez nous!

No rowing machine, naturally, as it's too hot to row even early in the morning or late at night.  Still, slightly cooling down now and I had a go a couple of times but am now so unfit and the asthma so bad that I could last barely 2 minutes before feeling my heart pounding and my lungs bursting..........pathetic.

The horrible consequence of all this is that I have put on goodness knows how many cm round the waist as trousers and skirts are getting very "juste" and I am refusing to look at any full-length mirrors.

Teapot, I'll go look at LG?  Strange you should say about the new machines not cleaning properly because only this morning I was telling OH that I bet the machine we left in the house we sold is still cleaning clothes good as new and this one that's just busted, it's the same make (Faure) and it's not a patch on the initial one we had.

I reckon they are now deliberately making them not only with built-in obsolescence but less efficient to boot to make us all dissatisfied and go out and buy new[:@]

[idun]

We have an AEG. We had another german one before this.

Neither liked powder, so have to use liquid washing product, the powder never dissolved and clumped.

Liquid is fine though.

The thing that both do has only happened with my last two washers and that is that when I put a duvet cover in with the pillow cases and sheets, the duvet cover manages to get them inside, swallows them. Now maybe I could fasten the duvet cover first, but I don't want to. I just don't like having to fish the other bedding out of the duvet cover. Why this happens, no idea, but it always does.

The other thing about ALL washing machines is when they finish and you hear that last spin stop, WHY WHY WHY do the darned things take a further two minutes to actually stop and release the door. They do a couple of turns, as if that does anything at all, it does not. And that couple of minutes drives me mad. How many times have I thought, just peg the washing out before I leave the house and then I hear it stop and then am stood around like an abrouti waiting for no reason whatsoever.

[Chancer]

4 months ago I would have had no interest in the subject, I would also proclaim that I would never have a tumble drier as long as I am still drawing breath.

 

Tourist rentals put paid to all that, I now have a pair of American Maytag commercial washer and drier, they get used twice every morning by me and as I type American guests are doing their second load tonight.

 

Most of the new energy efficient low water consumption machines have a real problem doing what all other machines have done for décades, that is washing clothes clean, and its getting worse.

 

My suggestion Mint is for you to buy one of the old fashioned top loading machines that are still popular and cheap in France, several advantages, bearings on both sides of the drum = faster spin speed and never ever bearing failure like all front loaders, if it does die full of water like you are concernned about then you can still fish out your clothes without the water pouring over the floor, they are simple, uncomplicated, old school and still do what they say on the tin.

[mint]

Chance, my last 2 machines were top loaders and I do like them because they are discreet takes up less space and can be tucked away and do not seem so in your face than front loaders with their hublots do.

However, in my present house, the machine is in the bathroom so it's not "on view".  However, I now don't like all the washing liquid and the vinegar which I use instead of soft rinse, running out of the dispenser as I close the door and I think of it all mixed up in the machine even before it fills with water.  The one that has just died the death also needed to have the door HELD open for unloading as the hinge got tired and old.

So, despite the higher cost, I am going for a front-loader again.  I saw a Haier one last night for sale on the Darty site but wouldn't buy it until I have had a chance to read up at bit on it.

So, anyone know this make, svp?

And Cinders, yes, we have a couple of those machines outside Leclerc's and thanks for thinking of me.

 

[Gardengirl]

Interesting. I've never had a bearing go on any of my front-loading machines and they can be opened if a machine breaks down, with water pumped out before opening the door - this happened to me once in all these years, I put a washing up bowl onto some plastic bags and pulled the clothes out into it. A bit messy but easily sorted.

I prefer washing liquid to powder and the washing looks clean, never compared it with anyone else's though - this reminds me of the ad on TV many years ago comparing clean clothes (was it Persil?) or the 'which twin has the Toni' ad.

I've not heard of using vinegar in the rinse and don't use softener - if that what it's called at the end of the wash.

Good luck, whatever you buy, Mint - hope you have many years before you need to think about any other machinery in your home. Maybe you should put a guide to choosing together using these threads as the basis!

Sorry to read about you suffering in the heat; we left France a few days early as I couldn't stand the heat, but it's been a poor summer here in SE England and we've put the fire on during quite a few evenings even in August and the heating during 2 evenings.

[suein56]

Be careful mint as Haier apparently have shoddy build quality and dreadful customer care.

Look at any avis des consommateurs.

Sue

[Cendrillon]

We have a Haier w/machine in our Fr house. It is only 1 yr old and has not had a huge amount of use. It's a front loader and easy to use. (Our guests have managed to kill two top loaders over the last 13 or so years!) This Haier does have a rather small drum capacity.[:(] but fits the space in the bathroom.

We have Bosch in U.K. and that seems to have stood the test of time.

Can't remember the name of the machine we have in the I gîte but will check. Again that's a front loader but not had a lot of use.

I quite liked the top loaders we had.

[idun]

 I had a wonderful philips top loader, fantastic spin on it and I could just pop the clothes on the airer in front of the fire overnight and all dry by morning.

And after 13 years it broke down. So I bought another one with what was promised an even faster spin. Only the washing never felt as dry when it came out, and never ever dried in front of the fire over night, still damp the next day.

I complained several times, and was met with people I can only consider 'sot'! Incapable of any reasoning or thought processing at all.  Whatever it did not last long in spite of the price.

It was then I had to buy a drier. We had no radiators to speak of then and damp washing which won't dry, starts to smell!

I then bought a different make, a good french make of top loader (not cheap), and it was a different system as to where the product went into the washer, it was actually in the lid and within a few months it stank, I am not exaggerating it stank to high heaven. I tried pouring disinfectant down, then bleach and still the stench remained. I had people out to see it and they said that there was nothing wrong. And it broke down about a year and two days after I bought it.

And then we moved onto the german ones, which are front loaders and they don't like powder and the duvet covers 'eat' any other washing in with them.

[Gardengirl]

Having never heard of Haier until I read posts on here, my attention was caught by a report about a Haier washing machine, or rather 2 of them. Apparently they are bringing out double washing machines so that 2 loads of washing can be done at once, having separate ones for whites and colours, or woolens etc, stacked one above the other, with only one water inlet. No prices as yet.

[mint]

Reading all your posts, I laughed my head off and I couldn't help but think, "now what have I started"?

Between Id's machine that stank to high heaven and everything else, I am not now sorry that I posted.

Might have to grasp the nettle and pay for a Miele as nobody, so far, has contradicted Wooly's post that Mieles are worth the money.

I have had some unfortunate experiences with 2 English so-called artisans and am in the midst of sorting out all the less than workmanlike things they have done in the kitchen and the dressing room.  It wasn't that I was looking for English workmen, it was just that the French ones either didn't reply or said they would just do, for example, putting up units but not the floor or the decoration.

The upshot is that we have had to pay double for the shoddy work, getting in French artisans to re-do what les anglais did wrong.

I look back with nostalgia to when life was altogether simpler, machines were made by Hotpoint or Proline or Candy or Indiset; there was no worrying about whether a Bosch was made in Spain or China and all you did was go to Curry's or Comet and they'd deliver and mak[:D]e sure it worked and you were up and running.  There were no "opinions" unless you subscribed to Which and you somehow just got on with life......