Replacement washing machine

[JieBie]

I’d like to buy my mum a replacement for her 10 year old Zanussi Aquacycle 1000. Its been repaired a few times and the last engineer advised her it wouldn’t last much longer.

I started by looking at sub £300 machines on Google Product search, but after reading the article about “The Great Washing Machine Swindle” I’m not so sure what brand, if any, to trust.

She needs a machine which will deal with three people in the household. She doesn’t have a dryer so she prefers to do frequent small washes rather than fewer full-load washes – this is because space for hanging clothes to dry is limited. The clothes being washed are usually lightly soiled after having only been worn once or twice so she quite often uses quick washes which do a reasonable job.

After looking at LOTS of machines from various retailers online I’ve came to the conclusion that buying from John Lewis is probably a good idea, mainly as I figure two years warranty are better than one.

Here’s the two sub £300 machines I am considering:

Zanussi ZWG5125

Hotpoint WML560P

Both come with a two year warranty. Extending either to a five year would cost an extra £129, but rather than do that I could buy her this instead:

AEG L64840L

As you can see this one comes with a five year warranty. Here’s the catch though, the warranty terms and conditions state that:

“We shall not be liable if any part or component is no longer
available or is out of manufacture. In such event we shall not
consider the equipment to be beyond economic repair.”

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I read this as meaning that if I buy this machine, and 30 months later a part which cannot be sourced fails then AEG won’t repair the machine OR cough up the cash for a replacement. Is this right? If so, then what was the point in spending all that extra money!? If that were to happen then I might as well have gone for a sub £300 machine.

You can call me paranoid if you like, but it would be easy for them to stop making any particular part which proves unreliable. No parts available mean the warranty isn’t worth the paper its written on.

Which makes me think I should just spend £270 on one of the cheaper machines, take the two year warranty and hope my mum gets 3 years or more out of it.

Thoughts?

[don]

Re: Replacement washing machine

Hi JieBie

First off leave the Hotpoint machine well alone, they do suffer with poor reliabilty of what essentially is an Indesit machine in a skirt.

from the other two the AEG while value for money is the better deal with the extra warranty does she really need all the extra bells and whistles let alone the large digital display? Sometimes simple can be a better option 😉 and add on the five year warranty.

Manufacturers will normally keep functional spares available for the useful life of the product which these days is about eight years, cosmetic spares usually less.

HTH 🙂

Don

[JieBie]

Re: Replacement washing machine

don wrote:Hi JieBie

First off leave the Hotpoint machine well alone, they do suffer with poor reliabilty of what essentially is an Indesit machine in a skirt.

from the other two the AEG while value for money is the better deal with the extra warranty does she really need all the extra bells and whistles let alone the large digital display? Sometimes simple can be a better option 😉 and add on the five year warranty.

Manufacturers will normally keep functional spares available for the useful life of the product which these days is about eight years, cosmetic spares usually less.

HTH 🙂

Don
Hi Don

Cheers for the heads-up on the Hotpoint. Out of the two cheaper machines my mum preferred the Zanussi anyway, mainly because her last Zanussi washing machine worked for more than five years before having the slightest problem.

She certainly doesn’t need any fancy bells and whistles, in fact she explicitly told me to keep the replacement reasonably simple.

£269 for the ZWF5125 plus £129 for the extended warranty works out at just shy of £400. A fair bit more but worth it if it guarantees my mum a working washing machine for at least five years.

Anyone got any experience of this machine or trying to make a claim on the JL extended warranty?

[don]

Re: Replacement washing machine

John Lewis don’t do things by half, if they are prepared to put their name to it then it’s worth having.

Just going off topic 😉 we recently renewed our car insurance through Greenbee ( not realising at the time their connection with JLP) the benefits they offer are better than most in the market place nowadays 😀

Don 🙂

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