Dear cfz,
Judging from your collection, it does not look like this is you only laundry appliance operating for several hours many days each week to do all of your laundry. Many fragile machines will last quite a while if they receive light use. It's not so much the washing, but many people who have bought these in metropolitan areas do not have access to a clothesline so they count on these to do the drying. Since only half of the washer load can be dried in the machine at one time, it makes for a long washday by the time the second load is finished drying. If the only place you have to hook it up is at the kitchen sink in a apartment, these quickly move from the status of dream machine to PITA when you need the kitchen for preparing meals and cleaning up after them while this is at the sink or near it, using the faucet for condensing water for drying. Remember, these are not people who have the option of drying the load by hanging it outdoors. Many who buy the machine are naive (which is EVIAN spelled backwards) about the realities of laundry machinery and expect the machine will dry laundry as fast as a regular, full-sized dryer. Having the only sink tied up for hours gets old, according to people who report on their experience and the many hours of operation do take a toll on these machines.
