Bought A Great Washing Machine Thanks To This Website

[nlappage]

Many thanks to you for your website’s information. It helped my fiancé (now wife) and I decide on what washer to buy since our Hotpoint broke down again. I suppose it’s wasn't bad after 7 years but it has been repaired four times. It had been vibrating very badly during the spin cycle and there was a lot of dark grey grease and powder under the machine but it’s finally decided to no longer sense that the waster has emptied out before spinning. I cleared the sump filter as you mentioned on the website (found half a bra, 72p in change, some chain and a small mosaic stone).

Anyway, we decided on a Miele 526 and got it at a great price from our local Comet in Leicester’s Fosse Park. They have a branch closing down sale and we got our machine at a bargain £494!!!! And with a five year parts and labour guarantee that can’t be bad. So thanks to you we’ll hopefully have a good future washing (how sad is that?) with no more worries about breakdowns for a long time to come.

We took it home with us straight away and installed that afternoon. Amazing how big a Mondeo is inside when the rear seats are folded down.

Yes – it’s a heavy machine to transport. The shop assistant said it must be one of the heaviest he’s moved.

Miele do a great job. It’s very easy to install – just remove two packing rods from the rear of the machine with the supplied tool and place them in the supplied location on the back of the machine (a great idea as I lost the last machine’s transport bits) Also you don’t have to dismantle everything to remove any packing or transport bits like my last Hoptpoint did. Make sure the machine is level on a solid surface then simply plumb and plug in.

It seems that they’ve thought of most pitfalls. The fluff filter door is opened with a little tool which is contained in a convenient location in the detergent drawer. The controls are very easy and to use – no scrolling through digital menus – and they have a positive feel when using them.

The door opens to the right as you say and it’s really easy to shut – just a gentle press – no slamming (which I hate).

The machine needed an initial wash cycle without load or detergent and without a spin cycle. Then it was all ready to work.

It’s very quiet even when spinning, so I can only imagine that the really expensive ones (quoted at 42dB?) must be almost silent.

I was a little apprehensive as I was filling in the guarantee card as I’d already installed the machine in a fairly tight space. Where’s the serial number. I though to myself ‘ I bet it’s on the back where I can’t get to it without removing the machine again. NO it’s on the inside of the door. Very easy and another thing thought about by Miele

Overall I’m more than happy with the expense – particularly as the 5 year guarantee covers parts, labour and callout and was free. That’s something that would take a cheaper machine almost back up to the cost of the Miele.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Thanks Nick. You make a good point about a cheaper washing machine costing just as much by the time you've added an extra guarantee. Many people buy the cheaper washing machines, only to be talked into covering it with an extended warranty when the salesman frightens them with tales of expensive breakdowns. They end up paying the same amount, but with a much poorer quality washing machine :-)