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Since you guys guided me through replacing the drum bearings on my Zanussi FJ1296, I have come across similar machines oin e-bay with knackered bearings. The machines vary from 3-5 years old.
The final thing is that someone has dumped a washing machine near my flat: YES – A Zanussi washer with the same “small” drum as mine. Perfect condition; a look inside at the drum; yes, knackered bearings!
So, why is it the bearings like to fail on these Zanussis????
Oh, anything else that tends to fail: I could rob some parts of the dumped machine???!!
(tight arse!)
Re: What is it with Zanussi washing machine drum bearings?
rob marshall wrote:So, why is it the bearings like to fail on these Zanussis????
Not just Zanussi’s, as Hotpoint can hold well in that department 😉
Most premature bearing failure is due in the main to a combination of badly designed inferior quality materials being used, coupled with an added touch of limescale, fluff and detergent ingress and just a dash of user overloading and BINGO!!! …time to buy a new machine 😆
Martin
Re: What is it with Zanussi washing machine drum bearings?
ADD TO THAT:- Over dosing detergent, failure to keep the filter clean, as well as expecting too much out of a product that has been cheapened over the years in line with the demands of retailers.
All too often now products are being sold at a price where the manufacturing levels have to be reduced to keep within the perameters.
30 years ago a new auto W/Machine was sold for nearly £300 (Hoover 3243H) and it lasted 7 years. What was the national average wage then? £30 approx. I can remember quoting customers £20 to renew the timer on a keymatic back in 1974. If you bought a machine today at 10 weeks wages you would expect a lot more than 7 years.
I’ll let you do the sums.
Alex
Re: What is it with Zanussi washing machine drum bearings?
rob marshall wrote:, I have come across similar machines oin e-bay with knackered bearings. The machines vary from 3-5 years old.
You mean someone is flogging these on ebay? 😯
Re: What is it with Zanussi washing machine drum bearings?
It comes down to one thing really and, one thing only.
Cost!
If the manufacturer can save £1 on production bear in mind that that will equate to possibly 100,000 appliances a year then it’s a substantial saving.
Then factor in that you will pay roughly four or five times the raw production cost at the till, often more, that adds £4-5 to the price retail thus making a £299 machine cost £304 and therefore not meeting the price point that the appliance is aimed at. It is massively about marketing, not the quality or longevity of the machine and they are generally built to a price, not a specification.
If it looks nice, great. What the actual level of engineering is behind the pretty front is seems not to matter too much these days.
Where the customer loses in that is that the expectations of the appliance are higher than the engineering and, very often, the level of backup service available as there is simply not the financial ability in the price to pay for it.
Now we see more and more product being made in China and former Eastern Block countries where labour is cheap and the quality, IMO, is questionable at best, how much would you care if you earned what some of these people do? You can see it if you look around, just look at Dyson, they’ve moved production to Malaysia, Electrolux to the Eastern Block along with Merloni and many others, German branded appliances built in Spain (but they don’t tell you that), the next time you do buy an appliance it may be worth asking where it was actually made. As I said in another post, I doubt that many retailers would be able to tell you.
The changes are due to demands from certain retailers, as Alex suggests, as well as from consumers directly. If you want better built and engineered appliances then ask for them and be prepared to pay to get the quality and backup that you expect, tell the manufacturer/s what you want. Partly that’s the reason we run polls on UKW that are often deemed to be controversial.
The only way that consumers will get what they want is to become more informed and vote with their feet, the mnufacturers will soon get the message.
Sad but true, it’s the world we live in. 🙁
K.
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