Hoover are made by Candy
and Hotpoint are made by Indesit. All the old European names are still made in Europe (Italy mostly) but a lot of them have been swallowed up by other companies (Indesit group, Candy Group, BSH and Electrolux being the main players)
Problem is once great brands like Hoover, Hotpoint and AEG are now just names slapped on products which bear no resembelance to their former glory. They are now low end brands (AEG being the exception) and they have all suffered from a massive decrease in quality, reliability and durability.
Even the flagship brands for these companies, such as Indesit, Ariston and Candy are now shadows of their former selves, build quality has dropped, quite dramatically in most cases, across the board (Miele being the exception).
I would personally rate machines such as LG and Samsung above brands like Hoover, Hotpoint, Beko, or their equivalents. The only problem is the Korean machines tend to be extremely overpriced for what they are, mainly because of all the r&d that goes into their wacky features like the "silver nano" wash and "steam" functions. They also have higher percieved value by the average consumer because of their modern, "stylish" looks and the fact they have all the bells and whistles under the sun.
These machines which fit in a standard size cabinet and claim to be able to hold 9 or 10, even 11kg of washing have all seem to have drum volumes of roughly 75litres, that holds 7-8kg in my books, lol.
Matt
www.which.co.uk
