Its interesting that Miele are good for 10 yrs as that is how long our Ariston has lasted. It still works ok but it moves around a bit and is also noisy, and only has 800 spin speed.

My mums low end Miele washing machine has a 10 year guarantee on it... The bloke in the shop was saying that they have 25 year old ones where there are a few minor things gone wrong such as a seal, but that the parts are still available and that on average 20 years shouldn't be unexpected.

They also said well you know that extra money is spent on building them to last so £500 spread over a minimum of 10 years vs £200 or £300 spread over a minimum of 1/2/3 years you can see which works out cheaper per year.

EDIT:

I have seen indiset and Service washers in recent years and I have to say even when you own them from new they are starting to fall apart a bit after a year. We had a service engineer out 3 times in the year after teh warrenty expired (although luckily John Lewis had thrown in an extra year so we didn't have to fork out)

My indesit has survived 8 years of me cramming far too much stuff into it and is still going strong.

If I cleaned it , it would still look like new

I took Andy (Kentish) advice and went for the Miele. I thought pay expensive now and not have to replace for a long old time, so it's £500 for 10 years+ or £250 - £300 every 4 or 5 years.

I think you will be very happy with it, and as Kentish said, average life on the things is 20 years, that isn't bad

If you have an engineering mentality or are just curious enough to look inside a few machines to see how they are built, then Miele is the no-brainer must-have brand.

If your only concern is statistical reliability and you believe that any of the nerds like Which collate consumer stats in a meaningful way, then Miele, Bosch, Tricity Bendix (surprisingly) and Siemens all seem to do better than any of the other brands. Note that means 3 German brands in the top 4 - best avoid Italian brands. Usefully, they also all wash clothes.

Note that many brands are cross-OEM'd and badged, so you don't really know what you're buying with the popular brands.

I'd buy Miele in the same way I'd rather have a BMW M3 over a Kia, even though the Kia would be more reliable. It an engineer's thing.

Steve

We bought a Zanussi washer (condenser)dryer about 5 years ago, 3 1/2 years in we had the bearing(s) replaced, possible that we over loaded it one to many times...

Nope, it will be because Zanussi made washer dryers now use the bearings that they used to only use in the 800 spin models instead of the bigger 1000 spin bearings they used to use. The much greater loading on the smaller bearings is too much for them. Sadly the accountants have dictated otherwise and is purely a cost cutting exercise.

aahh... and this a 1200 spin washer as well...

SWMBO has taken to hitting it to get it to work properly now the electronics seem to have taken on a life of their own!

Randomly beeping during wash cycles, after selecting your wash cycle you press start and it just wipes the settings you've just put in.. great fun! :lol:

I'm so glad I finally looked at this thread. I was about to buy an Indesit condenser dryer, but now I think I may look for a more reliable brand.

Muchos

I think ours has finally given up... it's now stuck on a dry cycle and wont do anything else :(

Another vote for Kentish here I used to be in the "loyalty to brand name camp cos 10 yrs etc" until Mr K advised us that (a) they don't make them like that any more and ( of revised ownerships.

Kentish, can I ask about condenser dryers as you appear to be in favour? I went from an AEG vented (loved it) to a Hotpoint Ultima (about 4 years ago) which, all by comparison, took forever (elec bill), filled the room with steam, and was unacceptably noisy. I asked for a replacement thinking it must surely be faulty. It was replaced, but with no improvement re above. Does "condenser-dryer" also equal "Miele", if you see what I mean?

Many thanks

Mo

I have ended up getting.................................................................

An Ariston 1600 spin 7kilo AAA rated washing machine

My Miele condenser dryer takes not much longer (actually about 5-10 mins) to dry a full load, however time is never noticed as it's sensor dry and itself decides on the time taken to get to the required dryness.

I would suggest the quality line for condenser dryers is this..Miele, Siemans,Bosch,Zanussi (AEG, E/Lux and Bendix included) then everything else.

Condenser dryer running costs are no greater than vented dryers.

Thanks for all the information Andy , going to keep this all in mind when I come to getting ours

Got our new washing machine delivered today at 9.30am.

Got a phone call from the wife at about 1pm.

The washing machine had blown up:eek: :eek:

I know some of you said that they weren't built too good these days but surely they are expected to last more than a few hours:rofl:

Anyway wife phones Currys and they are replacing it. Not getting a replacement Ariston though:finger: . Getting a Bosch this time. They also knocked another

Got a phone call from the wife at about 1pm.

The washing machine had blown up:eek: :eek:

Unbelievable..

Is your middle name Lucky ?

------------------

BTW even though I've not personally benefitted from this thread I think it's brill that Kentish has offered so much advice / input / whatever.

Good on yer mate !

Hope lots of others give you the big Thumbs Up !

Hopefully your Bosch will be as good as ours!

Chris

... I know some of you said that they weren't built too good these days but surely they are expected to last more than a few hours:rofl: ...

Didn't their advert go something like "Goes on and on and on, Ariston" ? Ooops! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Hope you have better luck with the next one, fingers crossed.

FAO Kentish: Ta for info re condenser dryers

Regards

Mo

Didn't their advert go something like "Goes on and on and on, Ariston" ? Ooops! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Oh if i had a pound for every time i have heard that in the last 24 hours i could buy a Miele.

We bought a Hotpoint Aqualtis last year and it is very good. 1400 Spin

and so silent.