What choice for a UK FL Purchase?

[vacbear58]

One of my work colleagues was asking me about purchasing a new washing machine today.

She is looking for something reasonably straight forward but specifically wants a large capacity machine (9KG) so that she can wash her duvets (not just the covers) at home. She specifically does NOT want to take then to a launderette.

For normal washes there is just her and her husband so I would not have thought there would have been huge amounts of washing although they do have their grandchildren to stay some times at weekends.

She does not want to pay a great deal of money and does not particularly want such things as steam etc.

I had a look on Which and the largest/cheapest Best Buy they had was the Zanussi ZWF91483WR which I have been able to find on line at £289.

Reviews on this specific model seem good although there have been complaints about the siting of the filter on some other Zanussi models. The 40 cotton was cycle does seem long at 188 minutes but apparently it has a delay start so she could set it to come on at night to be ready for the morning if that should be a problem

Any thoughts on whether or not this would be a good choice?

Al

 

[matthewza]

LG...

Have you looked at LG? here in S.A. all our machines are euro, and the LG's are very good. Their 9kg do is pretty cool and I think on all LG front loaders you can lengthen the cycle with the intensive option, or shorten it with the time save option. And they still deliver good results with the time save selected and both options can be selected on most cycles.

I have a 7kg LG dd front load and 5 years on its still going strong

 

[BoschExxcel]

Whirlpool or Beko for me, and maybe Hotpoint/Indesit at a push.

 

[aegokocarat]

LG, Beko or possibly Hoover (personal preference)
but probably Beko I'd look at, features and performance are all in their favour and the prices are good too

 

[henene4]

Tell him not only to look at capacity in kg!!!
Where possible, he should look at either drum size in liters or the depth of the machine.
For example, Bosches 8 and 9 kg machines have the exact same drum, but different ratings.
Same with Hotpoint: Most of their 9, 10 and 11 kg once have a 71l drum.
And Panasonics 8 and 10 kg models have a 70l drum as well.
AEG only has 2 drums, as has Whirlpool, both being about 50l on their smaller and thus slimmer machines or 66l on their bigger machines.
Usually, smaller rated machines are a bit cheaper, even if they have the same drum volume.

AEG proved for me as a good deal over all. Good capacity, good results, perfect time management and overaal good value.
I still love my Panasonic for its rinsing abilitys, especially on huge loads.
But I guess the Hotpoint company produces good high capacity low price models.

 

[paulc]

Al

i have the Zanussi Lindo 300 10kg machine and am really happy with it. Yes, the wash times are long but the "quick" function will cut the cycle in half on some programmes. It copes with any size load from 1 to 10kg on cottons and the fuzzy logic adjusts the water and time on not only cottons but delicates and synthetics too. The machine is very quiet washing, a bit noisy on spin but I think that's more to do with our rubbish floors in the flat. I got my machine for £349 from AO.com. Zanussi offer an additional warranty which I took ( I would never usually) as this covers call outs invade the pump gets blocked as there is no pump filter access , that costs £3.12 per month. What I really like is the "finish in" function ( rather than a delay timer) so, if you go to bed at 11 and want the wash done for getting up at 7 you just set finish in 8hrs. The washer doesn't have loads of cycles you aren't going to use and you can set extra rinse as a permanent function ( necessary, especially if the water is soft ). With extra rinse selected there is no spin after the wash phase which reduces creasing on big mixed fabric loads . I could go on and on about my lovely Lindy!!! If you want to ask anything, feel free.

 

[aquarius1984]

Al

Without putting a hell of a lot of drivel and jargon and keeping it as simple as possible I think the only options at the moment are

Beko - reliable, cheap, plenty of programmes for weekly washing in good time lengths plus 9kg capacity for the duvets.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...4145w-washing-machine-white-10133695-pdt.html

Bosch - Personal experience of this model, does everything one needs it to do and that speed perfect button is great. Be wary of those cheap end Bosch machines, Im still suspicious about those.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...3d1gb-washing-machine-white-22095629-pdt.html

I would personally steer clear of anything Zanussi have at the mo, they are just too hit and miss for reliability. Maybe the Lindo Range will pick up but they are far too new to see at this stage.

AEG seems ok but costs a fair bit,

Hotpoint Hoover et al very mixed reviews and opinions here. New models with loads of gimmicks but no real reliability results.

Miele, well nuff said there.

Vestel aka Servis, Swan, Russell Hobbs - Mike can fill you in on those.

 

[aquarius1984]

Paul has a Lindy Lindo - sorry Paul to tread on your toes there - I hope yours is reliable.

Lindy certainly is a stunner .....

 

[optima]

What choice

Highly recommended

Vestel Servis Hydrodrive, can't fault it. A fantastic well made Machine.

 

[optima]

HYDRODRIVE

Spin & the start of the 1st Rinse.

 

[haxisfan]

Is 81l drum enough?

Good morning... I was mentioning the 81 litre drum of the new Hoover Dynamic Mega which are declared as 13kg machines... so... while 81l drum might not be big enough for such a huge amount of laundry, it might still be enough to satisfy your requirements.

To me Is Hoover hands down as from my consolidated experience they are smart, reliable and great performers... albeit a bit noisy especially if you land on a BOL or MOL model (this Is not the case with the Dynamic Mega as is a silent inverter model.

I would also go with one of the Elecrolux Lindo range machines... based mainly on specs and looks: in fact I'm expecting delivery of one myself... I'm so itchy to see it in the metal and squeeze every possible cycle out of it ;-)

 

[Marky_Mark]

I'm sorry I don't have any specific suggestions myself but I think Henrik and Haxisfan make a really good point.  If one of her main requirements is that she can wash a duvet, it's important to check that any machine she buys can accommodate it.  If she buys a 9 kg machine then the duvet will presumably weigh a lot less than that, so no problem there.  But will it actually physically fit?

 

Henrik, it sounds like what you're saying is that there isn't necessarily a strong correlation between the capacity in kg and the volumetric capacity.  But when Alistair is helping her shop around for a machine, what's the best way to find out which machines have the largest volume for bulky items?  I didn't think it was normally stated, but I'm not sure.

 

Last week I washed my king size comforter (which I use as a duvet).  It dried easily in my Miele T1 dryer with its 120-litre drum rated for 8 kg.  However trying to load it into the Miele W1 washer (also 8 kg) required careful loading to make it fit as the drum is obviously a lot smaller (I don't even know its volumetric capacity but I would like to find out).  The cycle did need more water than normal.  It used 35 litres for the wash and 115 litres in total.  Some machine may not adjust and cope as well.

 

Alistair, I reckon you might need to take your friend and her duvet down to a retailer and see which machines it will fit into!  Good luck and have fun!

 

[electron1100]

EH?

Why waste money on a 9kg machine just to wash two quilts.

I use two summer quilts clipped together in the winter, each one I can wash in my 4.5 kg machine without any problems what so ever, I normally do them on a D which is a cottons 60o wash.

The only thing I ever think about Beko, is they are prone to maim or murder there owners occasionally............Beware

Gary

 

[paulc]

I forgot

to mention, I can fit a 10.5 tog king size winter duvet in my machine. I've had lots of experience washing duvets from feather to acrylic to hollow fibre as my sister's boyfriend had a house fire , his oil fired central heating system caught fire, the house was terribly smoked damaged with thick black sticky smoke. I took all the duvets home with me to wash, all came up like new on the duvet cycle.

 

[henene4]

If one can't compare drum sizes in person, machine depth is a good comparison.
Usuall, machines of 60cm depth can easyly accomodate most items. They have drums of 60l or more.
Slimmer machines (usually, 55cm) have smaller drums, usually 52l or less, which usually gets tight.

I know that AEG states the drum of the ProTex (exact same drum as the Lyndo) as 66l.
Bosch mentions their drum sizes usually.
Panasonic does, Samsung sometimes as well.

 

[aquacycle]

Another vote for Beko here! One of the only brands to offer a quick wash cycle that will actually wash a full load. Daily Quick with Extra rinses selected (which will do a full 3 rinses and a full spin) takes 50 minutes. Brilliant for day to day clothes. Even a full cottons cycle on takes 1:58. 9kg, induction motor, very easy to operate and very cheap on parts and labour should anything go wrong.

http://ao.com/product/wmb91242lc-beko-washing-machine-white-21426-1.aspx