Hoover Vision Washers

[sydneybiker]

Hi there

I have always been a huge fan of Hoover products, particulary their washers. This was likely passed down from my mum who has alway had Hoover. I had a Logic machine for 11years and replaced it with the New Wave 1500 simply becuase the Logic was old and had a slow spin speed. I had the new wave for 7 years and was bowled over with it. it was a great machine but was dropped by removals. The insurance company had me buy a new machine from a particular retailer and they did not stock hoover so i opted for a Bosch 1400Exeel.

I haven't really been happy with this machine. The main catch for me on a washer is the final spin cycle. And this is where the bosch is a disapointment. It only hits 1400 for about 30 secs where as the hoover spun at top speed for 3 mintutes and the results were fantastic, sometime being able to take shirts straight from the machine and iron them.

Hoover seem to have had a bad rap over the last few years, but I've read that they have got there act together now and the latest Vision range of washer from Hoover are great, particulary the VHD 816i with an inverter motor.

I am seriously considering dumping the Bosch and buying one of these. I just wondered if you had heard anything about these machine or whether anyone on the forum had any experience with these?

I've even been looking on Ebay, hoping to pick up a second hand new wave machine - My mother has the 1400 new wave (9years and going strong) but inspite of the bribes , she won't part with it ;-)

Many thanx

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

I too was a big fan of Hoover washing machines. They were never the best, but for a while, in the 70s, 80s and early 90s they (for me) managed to get a good balance between cost, value for money and reliability combined with good reparability. At one time Hoover washing machines routinely lasted at least 10 years and it was common for them to last 12 - 15 years. I also saw many Hoover washing machines that lasted over 20 years - the longest lasting one I used to repair lasted 30 years.

The reason for this was simple, Hoover washing machines were made to a decent standard and were easily repaired. They were easily repaired for three reasons, first they gave independent washing machine repairers throughout the UK lots of technical support, publishing technical books easily available to the trade. Second, they were designed and built in a way that made them easy and economical to repair, and third the spare parts were reasonably priced. These three factors ensured that although they weren't a "quality" washing machine, they were well enough made, and easy enough to maintain to ensure they lasted. What's changed? Apart from being bought out by the Candy group, they are now like most other washing machines, manufactured in such a way that some future repairs will now be uneconomical to carry out. The best example of this is if the drum bearings fail they often need an entire new outer tub instead of being able to knock the old ones out.

I wouldn’t try to get a New wave washing machine second hand though on the grounds that they are old now, and some parts are obsolete.