Lamona

[DaG56]

I’m thinking of buying a Lamona single gas oven & hob & was wondering if anybody had any good or bad experience of this make. They are sold “exclusively” by Howdens which makes me a bit concerned about spares availability.

http://www.howdens.com/product-range/ap … -gas-oven/

Also, (after the wife makes her mind up) we might be getting an Ikea’s own make of oven (electiric.) Again I’m after info on Ikea’s stuff, they give a free 5 year warranty so I’m not over bothered about spares with this one.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60156220

[mj62mj62]

Re: Lamona

I have 3 appliances from Howdens.

One Bosch and 2 Lamona.

The 2 Lamona have problems and the Bosch one is great.

Howdens service for fixing the lamona ones is ‘okay’ (over 1 week to fix washing machine and it broke again out of warranty) but the warranty seemed short. Lamona is just a re-badge of other (cheap) makes…

Don’t buy Lamona!!

[gandh1]

Re: Lamona

dont “not buy lamona” – its just lamona is expensive from howdens 🙂

id personally buy a widely recognised non-rebadged model such as a new world nw60g.

thing with buying exclusives from howdens or ikea, is that spares go thru the repackaging roundabout, meaning as end-user you end up paying for 2x or 3x amount of handling required to stock it.

the ikea looks like a bosch but at that price, is probably italian made out of the same factory as a baumatic or something similar, but dont quote me on that and dont start me on baumatic, lamona are just rebadged whirlpool beko or candy, with a nice price tag.

also. fan assisted gas cooking? i thought stoves had a patent on that… regardless, they had so many issues with the rotostar gas ovens they dropped it iirc.

PS dont be fooled by a “5yr warranty” it means nothing if only the spares are covered when fitted with a paid call out, if the call out is £100-ish !!!

[mj62mj62]

Re: Lamona

Also….

I’ve been using Which to look at replacement appliances.

At least with known brands you can look up best buys and know you’re making a good 5 year investment.

[RocketMan]

Re: Lamona

Lamona: be careful. I’ve had two recent contacts with this brand.

First an under counter integrated fridge which a landlord purchased to replace a BER one – the quality was to say the least – pants – not really happy with it and even warned the Letting agents and LL that it was garbage and won’t last long. eg – hinges so thin and flimsy, they are never going to take the weight of the door, trim and contents for very long. That was a Beko job. I actually used to think Beko were ok in the grand scheme of things when it comes to modern quality standards but this was awful….

Secondly I had to try and find an outer door glass for top oven for a new Lamona double oven. It was smashed during install on 13 December. Turned out to be a Stoves badge job – absolutely no spares in the country. Stoves told me parts due in 8 Feb but couldn’t give a price. I rang on 8 Feb and cost of glass over £85.00 – no trade discount as I don’t have an account with them. Got the LL to purchase part and I fitted it. The quality was well pants !!!

I have an account with Howdens and regularly look at the appliances in there. The quality varies greatly so tread carefully. Oh and as it’s a trade store the price varies – I got quoted £340.00 for an intergrated fridge, then got it down to £295 but the LL who buys more on account got it for £225.00…………

[seahorse22]

Re: Lamona

All I can go by is my own experience, and my experience is that I would NEVER purchase this brand again.
My ceramic hob is only a few months old, but the rings cut off when they reach a certain temperature – normally i’d think ‘well, that’s good, isn’t it?’ Not if you’re trying to boil pasta or make jam, it isn’t! It is incapable of reaching and maintaining a rolling boil.
So I called the engineers as it was still under guarantee.

When I booked the call out I was asked if there were any parking restrictions where I live. I told them the wardens were everywhere and the engineer would have to find a metered space. He was due here today and arrived in the area, but rang me to say he couldn’t find a meter close enough so he’d have to cancel his visit.

Apparently ‘health and safety’ prevented him from carrying his equipment from a parking space to my flat! God forbid they should ever use a little trolley or something like that – because that would be far too logical. (Makes me wonder how I,as an elderly lady, manage to get my shopping from the bus stop to my house!).

When I rang the repair centre (I knew it was a bad idea. . .) the telephonist said ‘oh yes, they have to be able to park right outside. They can’t leave their van and bring everything to each job’. Was I hearing this right?? ‘But you know from my address I live in central London, and I told you he’d have to park a few street away.’ I got the usual sorry for any inconvenience, when shall we rebook etc, etc. If they think I’m taking another day off work, they’re wrong. It’d be cheaper to buy a new hob.
‘
And what’s more I sucessfully made the raspberry jam at my sisters house last weekend, on a ceramic hob made by Zanussi, which incidently, cost less than HALF THE PRICE of this awful lamona hob – and has far more features!

My advice is DON’T BUY LAMONA PRODUCTS or you’ll find you become a moaner 🙁

[kwatt]

Re: Lamona

seahorse22 wrote:They can’t leave their van and bring everything to each job’. Was I hearing this right??

I am afraid that you are and, it’s been a growing problem in cities across the UK, if not the world, to service providers for years now as they all go “anti-vehicle”.

Apart from the cost of parking, the difficulty in access you also add time and therefore cost of the engineer trudging back and forward which, given the low cost of appliances and service charges, often just cannot be absorbed.

I wil grant you though that it seems to be worse in many areas of London than most but, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Exeter, Bristol, Cardiff and many, many more all have the same issues with access.

Local councils seem not to have thought that people living in these areas may just need services from people like us, plumbers, electricians and so on and that to provide that we need to get to people relatively easily.

Especially for warranty service where the rates paid are usually very low, there just isn’t the margin to be able to allow the extra time to accommodate such a service for many brands. I suspect that’s most likely the case here and do bear in mind that normally, at best, the profit in a service call is about £5-10 per call so even a £2 parking charge is a huge chunk of the actual profit never mind having to walk a couple of blocks carrying a heavy toolbox.

K.

[Martin]

Re: Lamona

Makes you wonder though, who fitted this hob and where did they park? No doubt it would take far more tools and far more time to fit out a kitchen in Central London than it would for someone to call by and fix it when it went wrong. Where did they park?????

[kwatt]

Re: Lamona

They’ll park up and ditch the tools onsite Martin, they do that at building sites and where the jobs are large enough to justify it as they have to return.

Or, just price that into the job as such things are usually a quote first thing.

Fixed cost service is a different proposition.

K.

[Author]

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