Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

[admin]

I’ve had this machine for about seventeen years and it’s only ever had one minor breakdown (£15 to repair it) before this. I’ve seen that a bearing can be bought from this site for 12 quid, but it looks like a major strip-down job to me. Unless someone can tell me it’s really easy to change, I’ve decided that I’ve had my money’s worth and it’s time for a new machine. With this in mind, can anybody suggest a suitable replacement? I was looking at the Hotpoint WF860 but I’ve heard their customer service department are a bit of a nightmare?

What d’you think? Go with Hotpoint again and hope for another 17 years’ reliability (yeah, right 🙄 ), or pick another brand? If so, what models? I live on my own so it’s not going to get hammered. High spin speed would be nice as I don’t have a drier, but then again anything on the market is going to be faster than the one I’ve got. Build quality is a consideration; it’s going to live in my delapidated old conseratory and thus subject to whatever temperature and humidity that our weather can throw at it.

[Penguin45]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

Pound for pound I don’t think you can beat Bosch. 2 year warranty as well. Don’t be led astray by manic spin speeds by the way – there is nothing to be gained by going over 1200rpm except increased component wear.

Regards,
Penguin45.

[admin]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

Thanks

I’ve noticed the Bosch machines in the £300-£400 price bracket are only rated B for spin efficiency. I’m sure I won’t notice the difference, only using it for a couple of loads a week, but is there anywhere I can find out how these ratings are worked out, so I can understand it a little better?

[Penguin45]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

The wash is generally “A” class, spin performance will be “B”. You don’t get an “A” spin ’til you go completely loony tunes with it – and there is no point.

The actual classifications are done with standard loads, soap dosages, water softness etc. Given that your average user finds one or two programmes that work for them and then slaps in everything it’s all a bit academic really.

Sorry, bit of cynicism there.

Regards,
Penguin45.

[Martin]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

Rojo Habe wrote:so I can understand it a little better?

“B spin rating” on a Bosch machine that spins at 1200rpm is just sales speak as being less efficient than one rated “A” able to reach speeds up to and above 1600rpm.

If you want the bearings to wear out quicker on your new machine then go for “A” rating every time 🙁 If however you want a good and efficient spinning machine that will last for years I would go for “B” for Bosch.

Perhaps also if you can stretch your budget to around £400 that will buy you a 1400rpm Bosch , also B rated but a hell of a fast spin speed, way beyond what your old machine did. 😆

Martin

[kwatt]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

I did a quick search but there’s no obvoius place to see how the energy rating is worked out exactly on an appliance, but I am looking into this for the future.

Purely by chance I was involved in a discussion not so long ago about spin efficiency and energy labelling as well as stability issues in the UK market, big problem you see on wooden floors. Anyway, I was told that appliances undergo what is known as “the rope test”, they get a big lump of very heavy rope (the kind they tie up boats with) and the load is weighed, shoved in a machine and it spun. Of course being nicely rounded and pliable this distributes nice and evenly around the drum, so virtually no instability. They are also tested on stable concrete floors, not what we have in the UK and so the dampneing is not optimised for our type of flooring in Northern Europe which would, of course, cost more. That said the German machines are normally pretty good with the instability issues, pity we can’t say the same about others.

I have some issues with the EU Energy Labels and have had since their inception as, whilst they may well give an indication of power useage, they do not inform the user at all of how the appliance or device actually performs in the real world. This is often missed by consumers and the point I’m making is that whilst the EU label will indicate power it does not mean that the appliance is any better or worse in performance terms that the one sat next to it with a different rating.

To take it a bit further, on a washer it is entirely possible that one will wash in 1.5 hours and produce decent results with a “C” class rating whilst one with an “A” class rating could take 2 hours and not do as good a job. We have seen this to be the case in the field.

So I would agree that the EU labels are a fair indicator in the manner in which they were designed, but not in the manner with which customers often read them as being and they are certainly not the only thing you look at when you purchase an appliance in my opinion.

They are however a legal requirement and a nifty sales tool. 😉

K.

[admin]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

Thanks again; this is all helping.

Last night I had a Bosch model in mind: the WFX145S, £249.95 from Comet. Then after reading your posts about spin performance I thought maybe I’d be better off looking for 1200rpm instead of 1400: I found the WFX2467, which Comet don’t do (at least, not on line). Currys do but it’s twenty-five quid more expensive than the 145 (which they don’t do so it’s hard to make comparisons)! John Lewis don’t do either model. It seems like every store has an entirely different range for a given brand.

😕

[kwatt]

Re: Hotpoint 9524 bearing gone. Time for a new machine?

Rojo Habe wrote:It seems like every store has an entirely different range for a given brand.

Then they can all claim that they are the cheapest in the UK for that model, given that they are the only ones that supply it. 😉

K.

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