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Hi
Would anyone know of a washing machine manufacturer in the U.K. that would consider supplying directly to a Housing Association? Looking at this website, it doesn’t look like there are many UK-based outfits but the charity-based housing association I work for (http://www.canopyhousingproject.org) are continually being crippled by the cost of replacements!
I read the post ‘The Great Washing Machine Swindle?’ (26/03/2008) and we are totally finding ourselves in the circumstances described; buying seemingly cheap models with the added extended warranty’s charge and then finding the washing machine plagued with repairs and having to be replaced not long after the warranty expires (about 3 years)!
We have not in the past found ourselves able to spend more than £300-£350.00, which includes Comet’s 3 years warranty, on a machine…probably due to the continual replacements but it’s difficult to find the capital to break this cycle (no pun intended). We could maybe push to trialling a few from the ISE range if discounts could be involved in exchange for our commitment to buying them for our properties? (I saw the models listed in the ‘Looking for a new washing machine’ post.) Any advice would be welcome.
With much appreciation
MayRe: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
There are no washing machine manufacturers left in the UK. 😥
Re: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
ISE is a UK owned brand.
As for UK production, as Jim says, there isn’t any now sadly.
ISE will look at the likes of housing associations but please don’t expect discounts as it won’t happen. That’s not arrogance by any stretch, it’s purely down to the fact that ISE can sell almost all the production it can get and that they have always said that they will not offer discount beyond any cost savings that they can get and pass on to either end users or trade.
The problem with machines in that sort of price range is that they are built to do, usually, 600-800 cycles as many cheap machines are. They are not built to withstand more and that comes down, largely, to the price people are prepared to pay for a machine. They get beyond that level of duty cycles and you’re on borrowed time before something will break.
Put that machine into a situation where the user/s don’t give a stuff how it is abused and you have a recipe for an expensive disaster, which is what I expect you have now.
It’s a stark choice really. You either choose to invest in something that is durable and repairable so that if/when it does break you can actually get it repaired for not a lot of outlay, or you choose to suffer the cost and inconvenience of replacing machines ad infinitum.
That’s probably not what you and others what to hear but, I’d much rather tell the truth as opposed to giving some sales patter that is ultimately meaningless and most likely not exactly the truth.
HTH
K.
Re: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
Cheers, I would much rather the truth also, regardless of how grim.
OK, I’ll still aim to have ISE machines installed but it’ll probably be a case of phasing them in gradually then, one at a time, over a number of years.
Hopeful
MayRe: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
Hi May
Not so much the manafacturer but what about a supplier at retail level?
There are many like myself who supply quality graded machines with warranty within the price bracketRe: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
Sorry, May, I have been absent from the board for a bit. I have to say first, that I have no axe to grind, being just an enthusiastic DIY-er.
You are trying to do a semi-industrial job with a bottom-end ,light-duty domestic appliance.
On spec, it seems that you are caught in a vicious cycle of buying rubbish with a pretty useless “extended warranty”
You should buy the ISE 10 machines….read the blurb! they are Swedish -built, have an exceptionally low failure-rate under warranty and a 10-year guarantee which is underwritten.In short , they’re the “volvo estate” of the washing-machine world.
These guys just don’t have the huge margins that the big warehouse-outlets are able to squeeze out of the makers.My suggestion:- speak to a bank or finance-house to fund a capital purchase that’s about twice what you’re currently paying…..point out the huge admin saving you’ll make, the saving in compensation, aggro, stop-gap loans or launderette fees….whatever,- you will have happier tenants who will save on electricity and water, plus they’ll have less noise and disturbance.. you won’t need to waste time sourcing replacements, and extended warranties will cease to cost or give hassle…also the design is inherently abuse-resistant, which , again saves aggro, hassle and admin.
YOU CAN NOT JUSTIFY A CONTINUING PURCHASE-CYCLE OF RUBBISH MACHINES WITH RUBBISH EXTENDED WARRANTIES.
Jeez, I sound like a damned salesman…..but seriously, the other side , you’ll be supporting the local repairer in your local community and HE HAS A VESTED INTEREST IN KEEPING YOU HAPPY!
IMHO you are being foolish and wasting valuable resources by buying boy’s kit to do a man’s job. The ISE 10 is a semi-industrial machine and I’d be amazed if you didn’t average 15 years or more from them with little more than routine replacements of stuff like belts .
I don’t have an ISE myself, as I mend and use other people’s castoffs, but if I were in your predicament , I wouldn’t hesitate.
the financial, social, moral and administrative reasons are compelling.
Send your consultancy fee to the Forum administrators 😆
Re: Trying to find a way out of the Washing Machine Swindle!
Interestingly Steve, we’ve been talking a lot about this sort of thing and it’s become quite an interesting topic.
Basically, most machines are built around the number of cycles that they are used for, not as some (a LOT of) people assume, years. It has to be that way when you think about it as, like any machine, it’s built to work for so many hours, uses, cycles or miles before something is almost certain to break. Of course the old caveat of, it’s just a machine and it will break sooner or later still stands and things can break sooner than you might expect as well but, that’s just machines really.
But what we’ve managed to glean is that a lot of cheap machines are built to last for 600-800 cycles. Given that the average UK use per annum is about 250 cycles this is about three years use, at best.
What this doesn’t take into account is family use where the amount of cycles being run can increase quite substantially over that number as the average will include a lot of low use homes obviously, some homes with only couples and elderly people will only do three washes a week.
But if you ask most manufacturers they won’t want to talk about this subject, in fact they’ll do anything to avoid the conversation. You have to wonder why.
Anyway, this led to me putting together the following graph of what you can “reasonably” expect in the way of lifespan for a typical use situation.
I am still working on this trying to refine it and make it easier to understand for most people but I’m sure you’ll get the idea.
Basically the lines are the cost of the machine and how their chances of survival tail away as they get older. This is based on what figures that we have, what we see in the way of failures, what we write off as beyond repair, parts going obsolete and the cost of repair being too high causing beyond economical repair.
So it shows the chance of a machine living 20 years in percentage terms.
What we see as well is that many of the cheap machines, largely under £400, are not even looked at, people just bin them and buy another. You can also see that very few these days will see a third, never mind a fifth, birthday.
The scary part is when you work out the cost per wash cycle where cheap throwaway machines are used instead of something decent. The costs increase rather dramatically.
This is the situation or trap that many light commercial use organisations (as well as normal users) seem to fall into. What they see is the low initial price of the cheap machines, ASSUME that they will perform the same way and for as long as a good machine when in fact nothing could be further from the truth, it is actually much, much more expensive in the long run.
And, that’s not even taking into account all the costs of delivery, waste and all the inconvenience or hassle.
K.
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