Washing machine for 2 person household

[Confused Mike]

So there’s a lot of information on here but can anyone recommend any specific models for a reasonable price?

I see most of this website seems to say you must spend £800 plus to get anything decent but surely in this day and age there are some decent models at £200-£400?

Is it that most models will clean your clothes all right but you pay for longevity?

Any help appreciated.

[kwatt]

Re: Washing machine for 2 person household

We don’t say you need to spend over £800 to get a washing machine at all. Or, at least, I don’t think that.

We do say you get what you pay for but, that’s largely true of most things you buy.

You can buy a Tesco Value lasagne and it’s fine so far as it goes. Or, you can buy the mid range effort and that’s fine too for the price. You can go all out and buy the Finest version and that’s okay too.

Or you can say, stuff it I’ll go to M&S as theirs is better. But, it costs more.

It is entirely up to you what you want and what you are prepared to pay to get what you want also. Free market economy and all that.

How good each tastes or cooks is largely down to personal preference. As well as how you cook it, what in, what you serve it with and so on that determines how much you enjoy the dish.

The same is true for PC’s, Mac versus Windows or free using Linux. Cars, a Ford versus a BMW, a Vauxhall, a Honda and so on. Hi fi, TVs, light bulbs, the list is literally endless with almost infinite variables dependent on personal circumstance and so on.

In other words, there is no right or wrong answer. Just sometimes more right or more wrong.

The thing I’d ask you is, for even £400 on an appliance that you will expect to perform duties for the best part of a decade or, about £40 a year doing 117 washes per person, what do you expect to get of that?

For perspective, that’s less than 3p per wash, per person, per year. Detergent to do that is up to 34p per wash. Electricity, about 15p per wash.

Domestic washing machines, even at the top end, are really ludicrously cheap by comparison.

K.

[Confused Mike]

Re: Washing machine for 2 person household

Thanks for the reply, kwatt.

Totally understand your general comparisons to other products and the economy of a top range-ish washing machine.

I suppose where I’m coming from is that we are buying quite a lot of new stuff for a new house so £800 on a washing machine would seem a little too much at this stage, especially for only 2 of us.

And bearing in mind that the Indesit machine we have at our flat seems to clean our clothes and some people will say their £200 washing machine has lasted for 10 years without any major problems, I am more inclined to buy cheaper one now and look to invest in the future if it indeed becomes a false economy.

I just can’t find any good guidance on standard models and there’s so much out there that I don’t really know where to look – Argos had some 400 odd washing machines on their website alone.

So are there any ‘starter’ models out there that are half decent for under £300 that would clean your clothes well enough but may not last 10 years or be at the top end in terms of efficiency?

Thanks again.

[kwatt]

Re: Washing machine for 2 person household

The trouble is, you often won’t know how good a particular model or series is until it’s been out there for a while.

Which? is one of the sources that many people draw on for info on newer models but even they struggle to keep up with the volume of different models and, do keep in mind that products with their own proprietary service arrangements we do not see until some way down the line. Therefore brands like Bosch, Hoover, Hotpoint, Indesit, Siemens, Neff, Miele and so on we often know very little about beyond the sales floor and brand reputation.

How well many machines perform is another can of worms with Which? only recently berating several for not reaching temperature and therefore, not washing correctly. Funnily enough, all seemed to be lower end machines.

That said, the Bosch machines seem to be okay according to most but the low end ones are not as good according to reports.

Beko are okay and, although they break, they’re reasonably cheap to repair when they do normally.

The only thing I’d say is that, at that end of the market, don’t expect anything fantastic.

Here’s why: http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/buyi … kdown.html

For the money, you’re not really getting all that much in reality.

K.

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