Pre 2010 Candy Explodes in the UK

[nrones]

foraloysius, donprohel -- both BRAVO!

Floralyosis is right.. but there is a fact that I personally do not see that more people is rather unsatisfied. My friends are satisfied, and happy, buying Candy appliance all over again, every appliance in their home, not just washer... User revews even in UK you can see a lot of reviews that they bought Candy again after their previous lasted 12 years, 6 years (I know you can say 6 years is too low, but some people said Candy lasts 6 months!).

Maybe it"s because of habits.. Candy washers design people from Italy.. that is an Eastern country.. and I live in Serbia, and I know very wall that habits in and all round mine country are surely different than ones in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Scandinavian countries,Switzerland, UK (and maybe France)..
Do you know that we can still today buy on our market a 600rpm Candy or Indesit or Bosch aswell?
Do you know that people here mostly wash their whites at 90 with pre-wash?
Most people don"t have tumble dryers, so they don"t care.. average of our market is 800rpm, 1200 is counted as fast, you can find 1400rarely, and there is NO machine with 1600rpm.. To be honest it is ridiculous to me to see 1600rpm Candy or Indesit.. it is simply because I know that it is only FORCE.. do you know that in Italy you can not buy a 1600 Candy or Hoover, and of 42 models existing there is 4-5 1400rpm washers.. all others are from 600-1200.
So Candy basicly arranged everything on their quality, materials etc... that 1200rpm is "fast-exclusive"--- nowhere exploded machine with 1200rpm or less.. just some 1400, and most of them were 1600.

Now just to make it short:
Eastern - Whites 90 (sometimes 60), low spin speeds 600-800 average (and people even decrease often because of creasing, or thinking that high spin (that is usually 800rpm) might damage clothes), Darks 30-40 synthtetic or delicate cycle often pressing water+ options
Western - Everything at QUICK 40 or 30 (we all know that is destroying the machine), and always 1400-1600 spin on EVERY wash!

Maybe that is why here Candy"s are going just fine (and being sold very well) here, and at your places not so well.. but you can anyway read much more good than bad reviews from users (comet website, appliances-online.com, reevoo.com), and NO there is a lot of people commenting about their 1-2 years old washers, not just when they are brand new.

Also I might expect question "why are they on the western market then?" - They have every right to try, they should have not made that mistake with few machines and overpressed drum, but it seems that they are going pretty well, so why shouldn"t they sell? Anyway, at the end of the day, everything (with every brand) ends up on money..

 

[foraloysius]

donprohel,

You point of view is more a point of view from the manufacturer. But it's not a very wise one. Consumers don't take such things for a long time, they only buy a bad machine once. If a machine bites the dust too early they are not going to stay with that company. Merloni sure can testify for that. And the opposite is proven by Miele. Make a good product and your customers will stay with you.

nrones,

It's not only a matter of east and west, but also of south and north. Low spin machines are still sold in Italy and Spain. Rex in Italy (Zanussi) still has an 800rpm model in their range. Zanussi in the Netherland's basic model is 1200rpm

That said, I think we overhere in the Netherlands got the machines with the highest spin speeds first and for the lowest prices. At the time that Bosch still sold 800rpm toploaders in Germany in the Netherlands the BOL model was 1000rpm

 

[hoover1100]

At the end of the day

many people may be happy with their Candy products, and good for them, but the facts are they have a higher repair record than any of the other main brands.

Now, why on Earth, if i had £400 to spend on a washer, would I buy a brand I know has a higher repair record? It would make no sense at all!

I don't care about the company itself (and they don't care about me, or you, or anyone) all that any manufactuer from Haier to Miele is interested in is making money. I'm interested purely in the products they make, and Candy products have proven themselves to be at the lower end of the market in terms of quality and reliability time and time again.

Matt

 

[nrones]

Floralyosis,

Well, I know I didn't wrote some sides of the earth correctly. But I tried to focus on much bigger needs in places where most bad comment are comming from

I can't agree that donprohel is wrong, because (as you know) Candy, and Merloni are much more sold than Miele, and people might not want so much their washer to last 20 years, I think that for most of them 6-7 years is fine (and most Candy and Merloni are capable of lasting that long).. I am telling you that, because I saw a bunch of reviews like ''our 6.5 year old Hotpoint broke, we bought Hotpoint again now, and we are very sattisfied''. Ofcourse there are people who don't think like that and buy more expencive machine to have it for long.
But anyway, again people don't think like we doo. They simply say I want big load, or some performance, and yes they want it to look good, I know a lot of people that don't even now what brand their washer is.. they just don't care about it at all..

 

[foraloysius]

If a cheap washer breaks down after 60.5 years some people might think they got something good for the little money they spent. But if it breaks down after 1 or 2 years people think quite different. And I know that because I read a lot (and I mean a lot!!!) reviews about washers.

BTW, it's foraloysius (for aloysius), not floralyosis. ;-)

 

[nrones]

60.5 years xD

I think you might wanted to say 6.5 years.. no matter how much you pay 60.5 years you went good!
I am just not sure that people think like that, because if they did, Candy or Indesit surely wouldn"t be sold as they are now. I know they are not so much sold in germany, or netherlands, but where I live, as I said they are 2nd most sold, just after gorenje.. similar in countries arround, and it is in UK maybe sold just under Beko, and Hotpoint. While Bosch/Siemens, Miele are not best sellers anywhere (maybe in germany only)...
Also I know that some people just don"t want to give, for say, 300pounds, so they only have some washers in the range, and for example (if so unlucky) after 2 years of Candy, they buy Indesit, after 2 years Beko, and then they say maybe they changed something in their technology in past 4 years, and buy it...
but we reply to each other kilometer long posts, knowing that it will all end up on money with both customers and manufacturers, and very often when money comes in there, everything logic come out..

 

[haxisfan]

Lost for words

There are so many things I'd like to say after reading this thread... but at the moment I think I'll just stick to my own experience with Candy appliances.

I don't have any really recent experience with GrandO and Vision machines as I haven't yet deemed appropriate replacing my current perfectly working 2004 Candy-Hoover Nextra, however I'm appalled by the vitriol contained in this page... in all honestly I just see it as a massive chip on some1's shoulder! Still, I would be very surprised and very disappointed if half of it was true. Clearly, the whole thing is being inflated measurelessly; they can't even produce the right pictures in some of their published articles... it proves to me lack of accuracy and seriousness. These exploding washers are related to a single faulty component which accidentally went overlooked during the manufacturing process and not to the imaginary and fictitious fact that Candy is low quality or is worst or it has a poor reputation. It's manifested mainly in Germany where Candy has taken appropriate measures, and it was bound to happen again as those faulty components might have shipped to other countries and they did... but long before it even started to happen in the UK (I remember reading an article about this on "Which?" after the German lab findings), Candy was advising customers to get in touch with them if they suspected to own one of the affected machines as they relevance in the UK was to low on not worth a recall.

I believe that Candy appliances are the best value for money 1 can get offering reliability, performance and the least economical impact for some1's wallet (running costs) and the environment, given the fact that they manage to deliver great performance still optimising the consumption of resources. Some people on here are mentioning consumer reports, reliability records and such like trying to draw their attention only to the negative ones... but what about the good ones? There are many of them... and in some sites Hoover models get top marks sitting just below Miele (which we all know as being the queen of appliances here in Europe) and if (as someone suggested) you read reviews thoroughly you would know it (still, reviews are not the answer by all means, as most angry reviews come from ppl who had negative experiences, the ones with good experiences often don't even bother to review an item). By contrast, "Which? Magazine" had "below average" reliability records for Hoover up to a couple of months ago and "average" for Candy... now they're saying that they haven't got enough data for the latter... I'm not aware of the reasons as I also found myself inclined not to continue with my subscription with them for a while!

I actually hated Candy when I was a little boy as my auntie had her Candy washing machine (from the 70's) parked in our garage as she was moving house and when she got the machine back and found out that it was broken, she blamed me for having played with it while it was at my parent's place. My parents replaced their old Zerowatt front loader in 1988 with another Zerowatt, but this time it was Candy made (Zerowatt had been bought out by Candy in 1985) and in all honesty it was a world of difference from the previous one, with his reliability, sturdiness, stability and having a wide selection of cylces and options. I am also stunned by the RESPONSABILITY this firm assumes towards the consumer as for the fact that I can still easily obtain spare parts for this 23 year old washer!

I have grown even more enthusiastic about Candy brands since I bought my Candy dishwasher in 2003 as it has ever since been working hard and delivering brilliant results everytime (although I wouldn't mind a better drying performance... as it's rated "B" for drying), it never had breakdowns, although I've seen the occasional spot of rust recently in the inner basket which I remedied myself with a bit of enamel paint. Hoover Nextra was next in line and a must for me to fall upon the Candy group once more... and that is what makes me feel so strongly about the reasonable quality of this brand. Never mind the presence of multiple cycles and options (which is still rather important to me), what counts is the fact that it's renewed my wardrobe by simply washing clothes, the fact that it's halved my electricity and water bills, the fact that it's been a tireless workhorse ever since it put its bearings into my house and it's never had any issues or repairs. All in all, they are not the best quality products (otherwise they'll be called "Miele") but they do what they supposed to do for a reasonable number of years reducing the chore related headaches to a minimum... and all at a reasonable price. I am sure most of my thoughts can be applied on lots of other brands too out there, including Indesit-Hotpoint… but that it’s not my call

 

[foraloysius]

Miele are not best sellers

Well actually I don't know how it is at the moment but for many years Miele was the best sold washing machine in the Netherlands. AEG was second IIRC, although there was also a time that they had about the same market share in the Netherlands, both 20%. This was when AEG was still AEG. Two brands that had 40% of the market, the rest was left to all the other brands.

 

[nrones]

foraloysius, I am shocked!

Just as I said.. like 2 whole different worlds. Here most sold are Candy, Indesit and Bosch (always going on 3rd - 4th place)..

Now for serbia: (all informations are from a big store that I called for all information - they know me personally because they were amazed with my interest, so they were happy to answer):
Gorenje and Candy are togeather having more/less 70% of the market (depending on year). In this 70% gorenje has around 40% because it is a "domestic" brand, and when it was all Yugoslavia 40 years ago, only Gorenje machines could be bought, and Candy had like a better status and their macines could be sold on their name), but there were in Yugoslavia "domestic companies" that made foregin machines (Zannusi-Koncar ; Indesit-Obod...)(there was some kind of restricton, for protecting domestic factories I think) but they all went down in the 90s (war), and today, when people see Indesit, or Zanussi, it is a complete new brand. A lot of them don"t even know what Miele is, because it is not sold anywhere except in their "showroom". So people in stores told me that people buy Gorenje and Candy because of history and previous experience, also they are only ones that left on the market under their name.

Whirlpool and Beko are like second group, but they are sold less, and then Bosch.
Someone told me that Miele last year sold 7 washing machines here xD

 

[solsburian]

@ Haxisfan

I don't think there's any exaggeration at all and their response for UK customers is not acceptable. It would be different if was something less serious as faulty soap draw etc. but this is quite something else.

I'm sure the Candy apologists would think differently if it happened to them.

Also, any environmental credentials a machine has in running costs could easily be negated by the environmental impact of scrapping it prematurely and the financial impact of having to buy a new machine every 5-6 years.That of course not only applies to Candy/Hoover but other low end manufacturers as well.
[this post was last edited: 2/6/2011-08:09]

 

[nrones]

solsburian?

Did you called Hoover service?
and asking again, Is your HOOVER washing and drying?

 

[solsburian]

Yes I did, they are coming out on Tuesday, so much for blowing me off! It is still washing and drying as well.

 

[nrones]

P.S

--- I'm sure the Candy apologists would think differently if it happened to them. ---

Do you think we love torturing ourselves?
I was the one that told exact same things about Indesit, that I am telling for Candy right now. But then I got Hotpoint Aqualtis, that gave me bad experience, and broke after 8 months, and I didn"t like their programmes at all. Do you see me telling that Indesit is good now? NO.

Yes, I might have said, the all fact is that we don"t see ANY of this in reality with US, or people around us. As I said, I have lot"s of friends with Candy washers (half of mates from my class had Candy) and I know that they are are at least "non-unhappy", but some of them are telling good things, and buying them over and over again. And I will buy them all over again, if they serve me as they did.
If my Candy GrandO Plus broke in few months, I would deffinatley NOT tell a single good thing about that. Only the thing that is "apart" from quality are programmes and washing ability. Aqualtis was bad in that too, but Candy is doing it"s job fine.

 

[nrones]

--- Yes I did, they are coming out on Tuesday, so much for blowing me off! It is still washing and drying as well. ---

Well, that is opposite from your story, not mine! YOU said that their service is horrible, and all that.. I just thought that if it is washing and drying fine, why call the service?

What is wrong with it, how that problem looks/sound? I didn"t understood well from previous posts...

 

[hoover1100]

2004 Candy-Hoover Nextra

Will actually be quite a lot better made than the machines they produce today if you ask me.

I'll repeat again that nothing that has been said here is fictional at all. People haven't just suddenly decided Candy machines are poor quality because of this drum weld scandal, we've known it for decades, this just adds to the reasons why (for me) a Candy made product isn't even considered when I purchase appliances.

@nrones whether it still washes and dries, if it is making a squeaking noise at such a young age, then it is faulty, why should anyone put up with that?

Matt

 

[solsburian]

>>If my Candy GrandO Plus broke in few months, I would deffinatley NOT tell a single good thing about that

Well unfortunately I'm having that experience with my machine, hence my not so positive view of Hoover/Candy. Downplaying or discrediting my concerns about my appliance will not change anything.

Funnily enough, I think Indesit are probably worse then Candy, I have seen numerous Indesit Machines in showrooms that have holes between the plastic fascias and metal work and of course they are notorious for their poor PSB’s.

It may not be nice reading negative things about a brand you like, but the fact of the matter is that their machines are exploding and they are not doing enough across here to resolve the situation or alleviate any concerns. Furthermore, comparison wise, their quality is not as good as other brands. That of course also apples to Indesit/Hotpoint as well.

 

[solsburian]

@hoover1100

I like the look of the Nextas (and the Hoover Six range). Assuming the Nextra drum was the same as the discontinued built-in Candy I saw in Homebase, it's drum is probably thicker then the current generation and the seam is not welded. One of their Nextra Washer Dryers also scored higher then their current models on Which as well.

Looking around, Zerowatt and Vyatka sell machines that use the Hoover Six facia, cabinet and appear to use the old style drum as well.

 

[hoover1100]

Nextra and Six range

Were certainly a lot better made than todays Candy, and are the same as their intergrated machines as far as I can tell.

My Mum had a 2003 Hoover performa (a Hoover Six with a smaller drum) After a year and 3 months it had to have the PCB replaced, then about a year later the replacement PCB was failing too.

By 2006 the machine had been replaced, they just aren't made to last sadly.

Matt

 

[solsburian]

They are not - the Hoover Engineer who came the last time said mine should last up to 5 years.

 

[nrones]

Didn"t wanted to make a new trhread, so I ask you here

Well.. like a non-Candy post.
It seems really that I don"t know how to use my Whirlpool tumble dryer that is TIMED one... clothes are always smelling abit toasty, and smell of softener is often totally gone. It"s a vented one (AWZ 3303)
Can you help me, tell me how to use it, or tell me how you use your timed tumble dryer?