ellebubi

Wow, I'm impressed! This is real-world 'Kaizen' with customer involvement. I want to add just a few remarks. AEG is part of the Electrolux-Zanussi (also Rex, in Italy) group; I suppose all low to mid-price models are produced in the North-East Italian factories and build quality should not be that different among the three brands. After sales service could be different, on the other side, and AEG could be better than others, at least in the UK. About Siemens, as far as I know they are slightly better built Bosch products. As I said in another post, my Bosch WLX16420 is very, very similar to a Siemens model that costs some more euros. Both of them are german-made. I wonder where the build quality difference lies.

First, let me thank you, Andy, for your site and your very valuable advice. It helped me a lot in making up my mind when I bought my first, personal washing machine for my new flat. It is important to know what you are paying for, dealing with all those 'shining and unmissable' models you are offered as an inexpert consumer. I recently bought a Bosch WLX16420 IT after some research and I am pretty satisfied with it, apart from a slightly noisy pump and a low max spin speed (800 rpm). But the latter is no big problem in this part of Italy, the weather is acceptable in winter and I do not care if I have to wait some more hours to have my washing perfectly dried. I paid 460 € for it (300£, roughly), part of the price is due to the non-standard, reduced depth (44 cm). If I had bought an equivalent model with standard dimensions, I know I would have paid less, but my flat is really small and space is precious. What can I add ? Well, this model is really made in Germany, also sold there with slight differences, it has a full 3 year on-site warranty. It looks solid and well built for its price. It also looks very, very similar to the equivalent Siemens and AEG-Electrolux models and I would not be surprised if I discovered that all of them are built in the same factory. My mother owns another Bosch since 2001 and runs it everyday with no problems (she had used a 15 year old Zoppas, before). I do not know if Bosch is the best value for money in the UK, but here in Italy I would surely recommend one.