Buying a new machine - need advice (UK/Ireland & Europe)

[newwave1]

David,
Have to say the electrolux machines are very nice. Though i'm glad that i didnt buy one to realise it is as stingy on water as my mums AEG (thankfully you can make that do high level rinses!) Rinsing for me is most important. Its my most important factor infact. My clothes are never majorly soiled, so aslong as it washes plausably and rinses brilliantly i'm happy!

Having read and heard from people in the trade, electrolux arent doing to good at the moment, their profits have dipped! surprisingly!

Darren

 

[MrX]

I had a look in a local curry's in Dublin today -

Headed into the local branch of Currys near me in Dublin.

The customer service was shockingly poor - I was ignored for over 30 mins and then walked out without making any purchases. I don't understand any store can operate if their staff are ignoring customers!! I asked for assistance about 4 times.

Curry's are also quite new to the Irish market and this kind of thing is not going to go down well with customers. We have a few home grown retail chains like DID etc that also have wearhouse size stores and generally better prices and much better service. Also, Harvey Norman has a big and increasing presence here and is much better value than Currys and a lot nicer to deal with!!

I won't be shopping there again in a hurry!

What surprised me though was the range of machines on display. It was totally dominated by Hotpoint / Ariston and Indesit i.e. the indesit group ... not really the norm elsewhere here where BSH and electrolux tend to dominate.

 

[newwave1]

So far i've had no issues with my current hotpoint *touches wood* Though i never bought it with reliablity in mind, i change my machines quite often.

It washes rinses and spins brilliantly i'm happy to say! With decent water levels!

Darren

 

[carlstock]

You change your washing machines as often as you change your clothes, don’t you, Darren?

Also, Darren has pretty much all of my dream machines, which makes me intensely jealous!

Carl

 

[panthera]

Inexpensive (relatively speaking) Miele

Was out cruising the new washers with a friend yesterday when we saw a Miele going for between 750-850Euro.

I wish they'd had this in 2000, I bought the LG instead because the Miele honeycomb drum is bad at removing cat and dog hair (to be fair, the LG has been a perfect machine, never broken once).

The drum is the "older" Miele drum with the standard size perforations. Saleslady says Miele has always had one or two unusual machines in their line-up - one priced specifically to compete with the better B/S/H stuff, one aimed at folks who want the quality, but like different design. No idea - but here's the price-leader, Waschvollautomat W 1514 WPS:

According to the salesfolks - and they will tell you whatever they think you want to hear, of course, so get out the grain of salt...Miele didn't cut any corners, just used technology which has already paid for itself, like the drum and the non-soundless drive. I don't know if I'd want a Miele that didn't sound like a Miele...

 

[brisnat81]

W1511

Hi Panthera,

After inflicting a range of 80's second hand FL machines onto my mother, I recently bought her the W1511 as a cheapish good quality machine.

The machine has the new wash profiles of the new 4000 series, but the drum etc that was found in the old W520. The joys of being able to do a simple computer upgrade.

Its the cheapest Miele in Australia at $1499 and $100 cheaper than the W520 that it replaced.

The best thing they've done, is introduced the single line LCD display to the entry level machine, its much more fully featured, than the low end machines ever were.

Mum is as pleased as punch, its pretty quiet, the 1100 spin is on par with the old Miele it replaced.

What amazes me, is how solid the door is, for something that has an entirely plastic frame. It still shuts with a satisfying chunk.

 

[MrX]

Maybe the cheaper brands can introduce a little recording of a Miele door clunk as you shut the door. In the same way as digital cameras give you a 1950s style shutter snap noise

 

[MrX]

Change of plan!

The slot in the kitchen is exactly 600mm wide and the Electrolux is also 600mm wide, it'd be a very tight squeeze and there's a risk that it might vibrate the kitchen cabinets.

So, I had a look around and the least worst option is a 1600RPM Ariston/Hotpoint Aqualtis as it's 595mm wide and fits the space.

Also the electrolux protrudes much further.

 

[2drumsallergy]

Aqualtis AQGD169S

Hi Mrx,
The Aqualtis is an excellent machine, very quiet(Inverter Motor System), great wash performance, outstanding spin performance (43% residual moisture) and good water levels during the rinses. The cycle times can be a bit on the long side @ 2:45 for Cottons 60ºC without options but the results are impressive.
I had the AQGD169S which is the 8Kg model in silver.

David

 

[rolls_rapide]

Panthera / Brisnat81

Nice looking Miele; reminds me of the Titan washer with the removable drum.

I'm glad to hear that the Miele exudes quality in the plastic door department, as I too had my doubts when I first saw it on the internet.

 

[islingtonsteve]

Just wanted to put my bit in on large load machines. I had the 8kg Hoover vision washer which I found superb but six months on it got damaged in my house fire. I last week took delivery of a new hoover 9kg 1400 vision with the induction motor and I am thrilled with it. It is completely silent during washing and mostly during spin as well. THe only time you can hear a faint noise is when it gets to 1200 and above and you can just about make out the motor changes.

For a 9kg wash load the programmes are nice and fast . You can change the length of the wash time on all programmes. a cotton 40C cycle taking between 1.27 and 2.07 depending on how dirty you decide the load is.

It does 3 rinses as default and upto five with sensitive care selected. It has some nice wash actions due aparently to the new induction motor that has much more torque. And the final spin is very very impressive. I have the 1400 model and the clothes feel just cold when they come out of the machine. Probably due to the large drum size and the final spin being 13 mins long( two short slow bursts, then 800 for 1min, 1000 for four mins, 1200 for four mins and 14/1600 for two mins)

The final two rinses are very high level. in fact when I first used the machine I got a bit panicy as more nad more water was taken into the rinse . I've added a couple of pics.

we all know that hoover haven't come up with the best quality machines recently but I really think they have got there act together with these machines. I was really suprised at the weight of these and well put together they are when you take a look inside.

View attachment 11-5-2007-03-23-55--islingtonsteve.jpg

 

[islingtonsteve]

Second Rinse on Cottons

 

[islingtonsteve]

(bad) pic of the display

 

[newwave1]

Congrats on the new vision steve! Hope it makes up for the loss of the last one! Is it better?! Much difference? Those waterlevels are awesome!

Darren

 

[liberator1509]

Why not....

buy a Maytag (Asko)? Assumming you can push the money-boat out...IIRC, they are very, very expensive back home in Ireland - but fantastic (and uber-stylish) machines...the 1800 spin model in particular!

 

[islingtonsteve]

Hey Darren

Yeah, glad to be rid of the bosch Exxcel AGAIN! I'm pretty amazed at the machine actually. It's a completley different machine compared to the vision 8KG I had. The wash patterns are very different. It says in the manual that it uses a pulse system due to the torque on the induction motor so at some points it jolts from standstil to distribution for a couple of turns and then the other way almost straight way. It also seems good at sensing how loarge the load is and cutting time off the wash to compensate and I still quite beleive how quiet it is. As i said earlier you can't here a thing until after it reaches about 1200 and then you can just about make out the motor changes.Also impressed with how quiet the pump is.
The only annoying thing is they have added a 1-2 min wait after the wash before you can open the door! Why have they started to introduce this feature on most machines agan?

 

[MrX]

It's installed!

Well I've installed the Ariston/Hotpoint Aqualtis 1600 spin.
Cool machine, it did it's first wash of a huge basket of towels and it was so quiet that boiling the kettle drowned out the noise!

The spin was really silent too!

Excellent machine from what i've seen so far.

Also, nice wash action..

 

[2drumsallergy]

Congratulations

Hi Mrx,
You will love the Aqualtis they are great machines, excellent wash, rinse and spin performance extremely quiet too. They are proving to be reliable machines so I'm sure you will be pleased for years to come.
What model did you get? The 7.5Kg AQXXD169PM in White or the 8.0Kg AQGD169S in Silver.

Happy washing.

David

 

[MrX]

Wow - it's sooo silent!

I'm blown away with how silent the machine is. When it's washing it's almost completely silent, you literally hear a slight splashing noise if you're very close to the machine ... Is far quieter than even my very quiet bosch dishwasher!!

The spin dry at 1600 rpm with a full load of towels is almost as noisy as a microwave cooking... It's very impressive!

Ariston-Hotpoint seem to have really done a good job on these machines...