Worth Repairing 11 Year Old Aeg With E66 Fault And Small Leak?

[Leif]

We have an AEG Lavamat Turbo 16810 Update (914601605/02) that has worked flawlessly from installation 2004 up to yesterday. Now it stopped in the middle of a washing program. I set it to "Drain" program and it emptied, but if you try to start a program again it stops after just a minute or so. The stored error code is E66 (this does not show unless you go in to the menu by keeping buttons pressed and turning to spin).

At the same time that this happened, there was suddenly also a small leak underneath the machine, about 10cm in from the front and 10 cm from the right. Strangely, when pulling out the small grey drain hose next to the filter and opening that, there is NO water at all but the leak still continues until water has emptied from underneath. The filter is clear.

So - E66 is "heating relay fault" and it seems it could be the relay, the PCB or the heating element. In addition, there is the leak. A fixed price repair is quoted as £129 and a new equivalent machine is ~£550.

On the face of it, £129 seems attractive compared to the price of a new machine, but obviously the machine is 10 1/2 years old now.

Advice from the forum?

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

One thing to bear in mind is that a new AEG washing machine will not be as well made as the 10-year-old one. But to counterbalance that thought washing machines don't tend to last much longer than 10 years these days as the average life is only about seven years.

If the fixed price repair is through AEG it might be worth giving it a go. I don't like fixed-price repairs but it sounds like you may get a decent deal if it needs a new PCB. Fixed-price repairs work by overcharging the majority of people which subsidises the ones needing more expensive repairs but they often have clauses which allow them to write your machine off and charge you a call out if it's going to cost over a pre-set amount. Some of them even charge the full price if they decide it's going to cost them too much more than the fixed charge - so make sure you read the terms and conditions.

So for example if the leak turned out to be a hole in the tub I doubt very much they would repair it for £129. They will probably tell you it's beyond economic repair. So if considering this repair check their terms and conditions and check what they would charge if they consider it is beyond economic repair.