The big question!

[oxydolfan1]

Is Blomberg any good? My aunt has a top-load horizontal axis machine that I liked...

I also noticed, in France, a LOT of homes have the top-load tumbler machines, and I think there would be a market for them here....the brand name I was trying to remember was "Arthur Martin".

If the European brands are all owned by the same multinational corporations that own ours, I wonder if we won't see some of the European designs over here, labeled Frigidaire, Whirlpool, etc.

Whatever happened to the brand name "Matura", whose machines I loved as a child?

 

[panthera]

They aren't

Actually, we don't have nearly the concentration the US has. Since Europe is always a good ten years behind the US in the young-dynamic-manager-fad-of-the-week, sometimes we learn from your mistakes.
Sometimes.
The lower-end is pretty much all Italian.
The top-end is pretty much all Italian (folks who want design over all else.)
Everything else is more or less B/S/H or Electrolux.
(I know, I know, but nobody wants to read 400 lines on who owns what.)
Blomberg is German; I think they buy in their technology from Electrolux and B/S/H but could be wrong there. Sort of like "EBD", but better quality. I might be wrong. Ralf? Louis?
Matura is a Quelle brand like "Kenmore".
Some were AEGs, some are custom built in Italy, some had/have some pretty incredible technology. The big advantage of them is parts and service availability. When the logic went out on my 27 year old Matura Dryer, the repair guy just shook his head, muttered "they don't build 'em like they used to" and popped in a new relais.
The top loading H-Axis are wonderful, I think STABER is the only US manufacturer to build them (and they use Whirlpool technology for everything except the drum and sheet metal). You get the same big capacity with all the advantages of a US TL, much narrower cabinet and all the advantages of the FLs. They also (obviously) do not suffer from the boot problems so many FLs have.

 

[vivalalavatrice]

Electrolux...

Try to find the corresponding Electrolux appliances in US...guess what! The site reload you to Frigidaire!!!

 

[MrX]

Make sure you get a machine with a very high spin speed. That way you'll avoid a lot of time in the dryer if you have to comprimise on it. A 1600rpm spin will actually allow you to air dry clothes on racks very effectively.

 

[panthera]

Frigidaire

Belongs to Electrolux.
At some point in the 1980's, American firms realised that they weren't going to make real money in capital goods or value addition, so they switched to making money in the financial markets.
M/A's and leveraged buyouts, etc. followed.
With very few exceptions - and I credit Whirlpool for this - nobody in the US-domestic market gives 2cents for either the consumer or the shareholder. It is only about making the managers as wealthy as possible.
At least Electrolux improved Frigidaire's quality.
Not that that would be hard...
If we - and by that I mean the US and Europe don't very soon re-orient towards making profit through value addition, the Chinese and Indians are going to wipe us off the map.
Off me soap box and back to Pete: Silly question, but why can't you hang or support a dryer in your bathroom? Or elsewhere, mayhap. They aren't that heavy.

 

[foraloysius]

Merloni

Besides the Indesit company there is also Merloni (there are two Merloni brothers in the whitegoods business). Merloni makes Ardo, Nordland, Servis, EBD, Edy, Upo etc. etc. etc. They bought up small manufacturers in many European countries and used these names to sell their own product on those national markets. These Merloni products are low quality.

I'm not sure about Blomberg, IIRC that company was sold to a Turkish company, they are no longer the quality products that they used to be.

In a thread on the Imperial Forum about European washers, a lot was told about the Matura brand. It doesn't exist any longer as an independent brand, but the name is indeed still used by a German mail order firm.

 

[passatdoc]

for vivalalavatrice (Italy)

Electrolux in USA has long sold vacuum cleaners under its own name. Most Americans think of vacuums when they hear the name "Electrolux".

Electrolux also now sells high end kitchen appliances under its own name: refrigerators, ranges, ovens, cooktops, and dishwashers, as well as vacuum cleaners. This is why www.electrolux.com allows you to view both the Electrolux-branded and Frigidaire-branded appliances on the electrolux.com: they sell kitchen appliances under both brand names, with Electrolux being high-end.

They do not sell laundry machines in USA under the Electrolux name, which is why you were re-directed to frigidaire.com....simply, there no Electrolux-branded washers or dryers sold in USA through normal retail distribution. (an import firm could get you one, but you can't buy one through a normal store)