JJ Lighting & Electrical - Home Electrical Centre

If you are after a new washing machine,  you’ll no doubt have an idea of what features you think it needs to have.  But are these the right things to be looking for?

A lot of people feel,  when buying a washing machine,  that the higher the Spin speed,  the better the machine.  So,  a 1600rpm machine is automatically better than a 1200rpm machine.

This is about the most popular misconception,  and leads to a lot of people buying low quality machines.  In fact,  one manufacturer uses high spin speeds as their main selling point.  Depsite their machines being generally unreliable and cheap and cheerful. Who? Ver.

No,  the thing you need to remember is,  any machine worth its salt will have a spin speed regulator.  A device designed to stop the machine spinning too fast,  or spinning out of control.  Put a bath mat in your current machine to find out if you have one.

If your machine fails to spin up,  then its half decent.  If it spins and just about shakes itself to bits,  then you’ve got an old,  or inferior machine.

In these modern times,  1200rpm is all most people will ever need.  A decent machine,  even a 1600rpm,  will struggle to spin towels, cottons or large loads past 1200rpm,  and will generaly only ever hit full speed on a half load.

So,  don’t be misled by cheap 1600rpm machines,  compared to more expensive 1200rpm machines.  The 1200rpm machine is the better product.

Secondly.  Capacity’s.  Up to about 5 years ago,  6kg was as big a load as you

Hell on earth some days!

could get in a front loading washing machine.  Thats 6kg Dry.  If you’ve ever weighed your laundry,  you’ll discover thats a hell of a lot of clothes!

However,  over the last few years,  there has been a capacity competition,  with manufacturers going as high as 9kg!  Thats massive!

Depending on how old your current machine is,  chances are its no bigger than 6kg.  Think about how many times you’ve needed to do 2 washes of the same type or colour of garment due to lack of capacity?  Not too often?  Then why buy a bigger drum?

The only benefit a bigger drum really gives is for doing single large items,  such as a double duvet,  or multiple bedding items.  Otherwise,  6kg is plenty big.

If you DO increase capacity (or spin speed for that matter) you must increase quality.

Take, an 8kg 1400rpm Siemens washing machine for example.  5 year warranty,  German made,  costs about £550.

Look at a similar spec Hoover machine from Curry’s,  and you’ll get a 1 year warranty,  and change from £300.

There is a reason for this.  The same reason a BMW costs more than a Rover 75.  Both can do the same speeds,  both have 4 wheels and a driving seat,  but you KNOW the BMW is the better product.  Somehow people struggle to apply this logic  to Electrical products.  Its the same with TV’s.

The other thing people worry about is “Cold fill only”.  Modern machines use

You can't get an 'A' without cold fill only

cold water,  which they heat themselves.  People assume this uses more electricity…which it does.  BUT,  it also means the machine micro manages its energy consumption,  and as such costs less to heat than if it took in hot water from your boiler.  So,  “cold fill only = good”

Another thing people consider are Washer dryers.  My advice.  Don’t bother.

Unless you live on the top floor of a tower block is a tiny flat with no balcony or space,  there are ALWAYS better ways to dry clothes.  A Washer dryer neither washes or drys as well as seperate machines.  And, as it can only dry half the load it washes, washing and dryer a full load 6kg load TAKES FOREVER.

They Take longer to dry anyway as the drum itslef needs to be dried too,  and are generally unrelaible.  If you must have a Washer dryer,  buy an AEG or Zanussi.  In fact,  get the current AEG,  as it has a 5 year warranty!!!

Something else people worry about are LCD Displays.  People are terrified of them.  25 years ago,  maybe that fear was justified,  as replacing a broken one costs a fortune.  However these days LCD displays appear on everything  From watches to toasters, fridges to radios.  They are absolutely normal,  reliable and in no way compromise reliability.  Again,  so long as you buy a decent machine in the first place.

Finally.  Filters.  A lot of modern washing machines have a “filter” on the front.  Which some people seem to think suggests maintenence.  They figure their old machine didn’t have one,  so they don’t need one.

Chances are their old machine packed up because it DIDN’T have one.

This is a typical example of a "filter"

The “filter” on the front of a modern machine,  isn’t so much a filter,  as a coin trap.  Designed to protect the pump from foreign objects such as coins,  hairclips and buttons.  If your machine stops pumping out,  this “filter” is designed to be pulled out,  enabling you to clear any blockage blocking the pump.

Inferior,  cheaper machines don’t have such a coin trap,  and as such,  require an engineer to be called out each time the machine gets blocked.  At nearly £100 a pop from the manufactuerer,  this soon proves to be a false economy.

So,  in review,  my advice is,  if you MUST buy a cheap machine,  don’t go mad on the features,  and if you want high spin speeds,  large loads or LED displays,  buy something decent.  General rule of thum.  If its German,  its decent

Hope that helps

Mook