Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
ARGHHHH!!!!! :eeek: The dreaded “but it takes so long”.
As well as “I only need a quick wash as it’s not what you call dirty”.
But oh, it is so. I run a professional housekeeping service. It is my job to iron some of this “not what you call dirty” laundry, after it’s had the obligatory eco wash. I wish I could find a way of telling people that their clothes stink. 😥
As you know from my previous posts, I’m washing at least twice a day. And even I don’t have a problem with long wash cycles. I just organize myself so that the washing is done when I’m around.
The real problem of course is that we consumers were never actually told that less water + less electricity = a need for a longer wash cycle. I refer back to Which?; they often single out long wash times as a negative aspect of certain washing machines. The point about older people knowing how to do things is well made. So much has been lost in translation in the last 30 odd years.
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
kwatt, so on that basis, would you agree with me that it’s ironic that such institutes like Which? and Watchdog are on one hand telling folk to go for cheapest prices, whilst also campaigning for improved quality of appliances? Because that’s how it seems to me, that the same institutions and organizations are the one fueling this whole ‘problem’ which they are trying to stop.
TBH I cannot see a time when the quality will ever improve. I think it’s gone too far now.
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
Kwatt, I like that reply very much. As you say, people are full of good promise, but money talks. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t see people boycotting the high street for the internet.
Ultimately, human beings are just not very loyal creatures.
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
Consumer is to blame yes, but indirectly. The media has done so very much to educate people into to thinking that we were being ripped off, and that the the culture of haggling should be brought to the UK. So now every man and his dog is thinking they are getting a raw deal. There is no accounting for the attitude of consumers.
With every year that passes, knowledge such as what is being shared in this thread becomes less and less well known.
My own prediction is that in the near future a lot of retail prices of appliances will rise, but the quality will continue to fall.
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
Well, “the position they hold” is, like I said, in that they were one of the institutions who has helped force down retail prices. They may not be responsible for the specific idea of sealed drums, but when retail prices are squeezed, this has to be accounted for elsewhere. In this instance it’s in making a machine which is cheaper to make, harder to repair, and liable to breakdown more quickly.
I don’t think we can rely on government intervention on this one anytime soon either. It was the (then) government who in 1998 abolished minimum price ‘fixing’ (as they called it) of electrical goods, and from there all retailers had to work out their own prices and margins, instead of being dictated the same by manufactures.
We in the retail trade never wanted this, and as we predicted Comet & Currys under cut everyone and several large electrical chains began closing retail stores. Within 2 years Tempo had gone altogether and Powerhouse was closing stores left, right & centre.
It’s also the government who has allowed online retail to become what it is. Personally, I think if governments were really all that bothered, then they’d never had allowed the changes we’ve seen in the last 15 years to have taken place.
Re: List of washers with sealed/welded tubs
Martin, forgive me for butting in on this (I came back to look for more threads about ISE), but there is to me a certainly irony that Which? are putting their weight behind a campaign for appliances which can be repaired & ultimately are more environmentally friendly.
The reason I say this is because Which? are amongst the people who have constantly encouraged consumers to hunt-down the best possible retail prices, not to mention their instance that purchasers haggle with retailers in attempt to obtain a discount off the price tag. I worked for many years in electrical retail, up until 2002, so I know a lot about margins (and how painfully thin they always were on white-goods), and to me ‘disposable’ white-goods are a direct consequence of a mission by others to drive down retail prices.
You know my own thoughts on the economics of buying new to replace broken appliances and that there is an argument that if price is the factor to go by, that replacing several cheap appliances over a period of time is now seen as a very attractive alternative to investing a lot of money in a singular high-quality appliance. I do not think this is right, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do accept it is the reality, at least it is for now.
But anyway, I am just baffled that the same people who demanded lower prices are now expecting the appliances to be built like those of yesteryear. ❓
Re: Water heater faliure
DrDill wrote:If the deal is right then a sale is sale,
Sent from my iPhone
http://www.kitchenkitsw.comWell, that’s how I do business too. Only I got the silly idea from somewhere that you weren’t so keen on me.
Anyway, cheap vacuums, expensive vacuums, I go through them all. The Sebo X4 is proving it’s price tag so I will certainly buying another within the next few months.
Re: Water heater faliure
Drdill…I have just seen your website. I will be coming to you for a Sebo X5 when the time arrives. That is, of course, if you would like me to. I am currently using an X4…not perfect but is by far the very best bagged upright on sale.
Re: Water heater faliure
Drdill, I will search your site now. I had searched ISE but I couldn’t immediately see any retailers of it. I didn’t go to ISE own website as it never occurred to me that the manufacture would also serve as a retailer. But thanks.
As for buying the best tools, well this again is something where the business I am in is something of a departure. Sometimes I have to buy the very best…sometimes we have to buy the cheaper options if it is that something will have to be disposed of for hygiene (or other) reasons irrespective of price or quality, or is liable to get stolen. Mops, for instance. I have some top-quality mops for everyday use…I launder those…but for disgusting jobs where I have no choice but to bin them, it’s off to the £1 shop.
Incidentally, I used to work for someone who was involved with a guy who ran a printing company. Said gentleman was always giving away used domestic laser printers as he used to buy them for certain high-quantity jobs, build the price of the printer into the quotation, and then dispose of it at the end of the job. The reason? The cost of this was much cheaper than buying the inks and so on for a more commercial printer.
Martin, in that case I withdraw my comments. Either way, I am genuinely grateful for the kind comments & attention you guys have offered to me. And I do mean that. 🙂
Re: Water heater faliure
I am sensing sarcasm, Martin
Well for now I have heater & thermostat waiting to be fitted to my Bosch; assuming it works then that’ll tide me over for the now.
DrDill, it is not me who is ignoring advice here 😛 I mean you didn’t furnish me with a price for the ISE when I asked…I’m still searching that one. But in all, what I can tell you is that I am genuinely appreciative of the advice which has been given. Were you ever to meet me, you’d know I’m a really nice guy and that I mean what I’ve just said 😆
As you will recall, I said I run a home-cleaning service. This gives me a huge insight into many purchases in life…not just appliances but furniture & whole bathroom/kitchen installations. I get to see quite a lot that would open a few eyes on all sides.
I am also very much looking at the possibilty of having a small out-building constructed to house two washing machines…I live in a tiny 2-bed ground-floor maisonette, with just a cupboard in which to house one washing machine. When I had a large 3-bed semi, I had a garage attached to the house and used to have two washing machines. It was a far better arrangement.
But gentlemen, do please respectfully remember that my washing machine is little more than a ‘tool’ in course of my business. I assume that many of you also run your own businesses and have ‘tools’. To that end my washing machine is little more than a set of spanners or a cordless drill. The alternative -should I wish to dispense with the need to repair / replace / buy expensive washing machines is to close my business & go on the dole :rotfl: And that, I promise you, is neither practical or desirable for me.
Re: Water heater faliure
Hi Guys
Thanks for that…I’ve been reading a lot about the ISE. Where can I find a price? (Which? had it down at over £100O).
I have to say that even the idea of an ISE and all the benefits it is said to bring is still not yet ‘balanced’ in my own mind by the other end of the scale of buying cheap & wearing it out.
Thanks again, I am mulling over all comments.
Re: Water heater faliure
Hi guys
Ok, so, with all the comments made in reply to my original posting, I’ve been trawling the internet looking at prices of commercial washing machines. Now, having already been chastised for not considering the environmental effects of using & wearing out cheap washing machines, I dovery much want to carry on with a minimum 8kg wash load (as I can easily fill the drum with that amount of laundry every time) and I do also want a 1600rpm spin minimum, the logic behind this being that -overall- washing as much as possible in one load and spinning it as fast as possible has got to be better for the environment in terms of overall water consumption and electricity for tumble-drying.
However, the cost of a commercial machine which will do this is :eeek: :eeek: :eeek:
Literally, I could buy half a dozen domestic machines at £300 each for the same price as one commercial model. Though it grieves me to say it, I’d sooner go for the domestic models, wear them out, and replace them. There’s nothing about my current Bosch which is saying it was worth spending well over the £500 that I did…were I to replace it, I can get a 9KG 1600rpm Hotpoint Ultima for £350…or an 11kg 1600pm Hotpoint Aqualitis for a little over £500.
Now that Hotpoint is owned & built by Merloni (I have never liked Hotpoint washers when they were Hotpoint, and Merloni was never a brand which thrilled me either) I have to ask how the brand fairs, overall. And this Aqualtis jobby…it’s like nothing I’ve really seen before. Any verdicts?
Re: Water heater faliure
Hi Kwatt
Years ago I did have two washers in use; a regular front loader and a Hoover slimline toploader. The latter was used for tipping bags of cleaning cloths & mop-heads straight in. I loved it. But then we moved to a much smaller property. If I could squeeze another machine in (and I have yet to rule it out) I would. 😕
