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Do to unavailability of spares, I am struggling to restore my old faithful washing machine and may need to buy another.
New machines are not always built to last and i have heard they must meet stringent eco regulations.
My question is whether new machines actually wash as well as old ones. A large part of the process is the rinsing as it takes out all the dirt that has been caught by surfacants. New machines use much less clean water for this. Is it possible for a new high tech machine that uses 40L of water per cycle to do the job as well as one from the 1990s that consumes 100L?
I just don’t see how less water can dilute the dirty soapy water as well? I suppose a faster spin between rinses might help. Any opinions would be intersting.
What year did these rules start to come in?
There is a whole raft of information via this link in fact there is so much I would make a cuppa before you start.
Especially read the section on sealed tubs.
Don
I read that article. Basically brand new means it will soon go wrong and be unrepairable. The article about 2nd had also warns that many are sold because they are worn out so high risk of problems, so you pays yer money…
At least with older designs though, you just need to buy a decent one and can keep fixing it instead of buying a whole new machine every couple of years.
The following are for sale second hand.
1. Is a Hotpoint WM52 “First Edition” – 1990s and made in Great Britain. £40 There seems to be good availability of parts on parts websites.
2. A Bosch Avantix 6 Vario Perfect. The picture looks like it might be model WAE24366UK or similar £70 . I would guess these models came out about 15 years ago.
Q1. Are Bosch machines from this era easily repairable i.e. can you replace bearings, etc as needed? I am leaning toward the Bosch but the Hotpoint is nearby and I might be able to see it running but I won’t with the Bosch. I think the Bosch might have been taken out of a property that is being renovated so is not connected.
Q2. The Hotpoint is twice as old and very basic. It does not appear to have a 30 degree programme which is essential for me. It does have a quick wash and eco mode that mixes hot and cold fill but does not heat in machine. I have external valves on the hot and cold plumbing so could I adjust the flow to get the mix about 30 degrees? I can check in the drawer with a thermometer. Would that work?
Q3. A review I saw says the machine has a hidden silks program half way between G and H on the dial. This was because there was a more expensive aquarius model sold with more features that had a silk delicate program. The same programmer was fitted to the WM52 but not labelled. Would this silks program heat in the machine to 30 degrees?
So which is better to go for?
The hotpoint is a very old reliable machine that is easy to work on but bear in mind that you are try to do somethings on that machine that its not designed for 30 degree wash and altering the water flow will affect the wash times and I would be surprised of it starting to rust at that age
The bosch is one of the best built machines of the wae range they made bear in mind that the parts will be more expensive every year on these machines and yes you can change bearings but they are not as easy to do as the hotpoint.
If I had the choice I’d go with the boschUnfortunately I missed the bosch Avantix 6 Vario Perfect because gumtree blocked my messages for no reason, but I now see a Bosch WFF2000 within reach. It looks like it has a little rust but parts seem to be available even though it’s about 25 years old.
WFF2000 It looks like a well bult machine with good water levels, hot and cold fill and is repairable.
I think the Avantix would have been ideal as it was not that old but still good quality and repairable. A newer Bosch came up but it has sealed drum so i’m skipping that.
Am I crazy getting this old WFF2000 and will I end up constantly having to fix it? Or maybe it’s a classic?
Common issues on a WFF2000 they will be about 25 years old as you say. The pump will be on its last legs, the bigger risk is the drum spider about to fracture as that is obsolete, motor brushes wearing out can be 28 odd quids worth of brushes (or cheap as chips pattern stuff which I do not recommend) BUT could be 76 quids worth if different motor fitted than is usual. Drum bearings via external cast iron spider pretty easy to change. Suspension worn out? Go and look the thing up on Bosch spares own site and check out what is what. Would be handy if you know the version so Wff2000/01 or /whatever
You take on a machine that is that age and expect no problems, well that would be silly Note anything on their spares site that says out of stock really means obsolete . There are a fair few pattern parts but some of those are rubbish making you only to choose genuine parts which can be expensive and therefore high risk e.g spend 8K on an wretched Audi engine rebuild (yep fairly common that one at 50k miles) only to have the bloody g/box fail or an electrical senario 6 months later which would leave any man to cry into 4 boxes of tissues – most have tissue deliveries on constant speed dial and you do not want to be in the same boat with an old washing machine..
Old washing machines maybe classic but unlike cars and bikes are not worth a carrot………or even a parsnip, as few folks are interested in old stuff one jot e.g. the soviet made Siberian 3 twintub might well have been an improvement on a Hoover twin tub (and it was!) but unless you are really into this as a hobbyist and know the right people or/and in this case fluent in written Russian your going to seriously flounder as very few are interested there too as they also are only interested in the lastest piece of modern junk and modern life hussle full of BS. As Soviet times, both the good things (and there were) and bad things fade into a distant history.
If you go to awmronline.com then click onto drum bearings old Andy has done a list of sealed tanks and non sealed tanks brands which is of some use and is more up to date.Hotpoint wm52 uses programme H as a 30 degree wash. It takes in, from memory hot and cold, and the programme ends in 30 / 35mins. The machine does not heat up on this programme so whatever it fills with it washes with. as for this silk programme never heard about this secret programme unless they are on about the use of the economy programme, think that is a tall tale someone is spinning. It was a flexible machine when used with economy button= out means selected. What this does is cut out the heater so just supposing you use the 1 hour prog F = 50 degrees (when I owned one – WM56 – this was my most commonly used programme but with the economy button not used) with the economy button it`ll fill hot and cold skip the heating cycle and so washes with what it gets from the taps but it really comes into its usefullness on the main wash so for example the 60 degree wash (hot fill only programme) is too hot for your washing but you know that your hot water supply isn`t going to come in at 60 degrees and nuke your beloved undies if economy is selected you get a long wash at say 48 degrees instead of 60 so in other words more or less like prog F but longer and with a faster spin
Commom faults on old WM 52 and the equally common WM56: lower suspension wears and twists the tank so you look – open the door and see if the plain of the tank assembly runs parallel to the chassis front. Lower suspension kit is now really expensive. Top suspension springs break so check that too, although that is cheap to fix. Drum bearings and rotted out spider is a common issue – if you do land yourself with a citrus special, because today everything is great but tomorrow out of blue no isn`t, take the machine to pieces first before buying any replacement parts (TIP IF the drum bearings are just fine leave them alone but you might want to clean then lightly grease the oil seal because what used to happen is that hapless engineer would start knocking out the bearings only for the aluminium bearing housing tube cracks = good bye machine so where only the spider was duff now the whole machine is duff – the pattern bearing spider is ok and so are the drum bearings kit as replacement parts BUT the new spider often comes without the shaft C clip and if so this must be fitted to the new spider. By passed door locks too. Motor brushes worn out – the WM series some have white cartridge brushes and they are well know to wear out fast or split and jam, some machines were fitted with a much better motor made by FHP these were far more successful. Pump issues and of course the drain filter is at the rear of the machine – Hotpoints era of a warped sense of humour!
Since I actually owned a more or less the same machine, I actually installed the thing but when the owner died, I got given it and it was still in good shape until I too passed it over to my house buyer when I moved house in 2023. Verdict: my machine was pretty good after I did the motor change mod to the FHP motor and I still have a fond memory of the contraption but compared to something newer it was noisy, nothing wrong with it, just noisy operation compared to todays stuff and it sometimes threw a noisy banging wobbler with a poorly balanced load despite the lower suspension and chassis being perfect. Spare parts are reasonable over all with pattern parts to keep the thing going but they are old machines now and I reckon the spares supply will dwindle away especially now as Hotpoint merges with Beko. The Wff Bosch series was a better made machine at the time and had a better reputation but parts are not cheap but then you would not expect them to be and worse still there are fewer pattern parts and even fewer pattern parts that are much cop.
With old machines from 25 years ago you might struggle but then you will/ or might not getting a “newer”.machine without a sealed tank – if that fails it is scrap with no chance of a repair.
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