| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Stacey |
A washing machine quandaryOur W/M has broken down again. It breaks down about once a year, maybe twice at a push. It's never anything major and one of the dads from school is an engineer who fixes it for around £30 a time. Anyway, we don't have £30 this time so my stepdad has offered to pay - ace! My mum has just rung and said they've come to the decision just to buy us a new one. I've said thanks but no thanks as it might only be the belt or somesuch.Now she's offended and I'm confused 
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| Nick |
I'd seriously recommend the British Gas home appliance insurance thingie. A few quid a month, and everything's covered. If they can't fix it, they buy you a new one. And they turn up 365 days a year. | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
If your old one can hot-fill then worth keeping it running as I gather hardly any of the modern ones hot fill.
If your washing machine can be fixed for a reasonable amount I think it's better the devil you know rather than a new machine that might only last a couple of years and be much harder to fix. |
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| Brownbear |
If you are buying a new one, get a commercial model. Far fewer bits of electronic tomfoolery to go wrong, they just wash clothes. They last three times as long and therefore the extra cost is more than compensated for in longevity. They are also much easier to fix. | ||||
| Cathryn |
Where Brownbear? I need to buy one. | ||||
| Brownbear |
This is one place - the top loader model is a reasonable price, and simple design - and like most commercials has hot fill. http://www.ogormans.co.uk/commercial_washing_machines.htm |
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| Cathryn |
Many thanks, I will have a look (but a toploader wouldn't fit). | ||||
| dpack |
industrial good | ||||
| Silas |
I can highly reccomend the Zanussi washing machines. | ||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
I heard a modern automatic top loader can do a load much quicker. Is that true? | ||||
| lottie |
Yeah until stuff gets to the age when it's liable to fritz then they won't renew the insurance
p.s. had a toploading industrial I left with my son as it wouldn't fit here---bit old fashioned but it had never broken down. Most models no longer have hotfill but I found an L.G. with it for here as I've usually plenty heated by the multifuel stove. |
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| lottie |
The one brown bear posted is the one I used to have---exactly same make and style---doesn't seem to have changed much over the years---it washed for 7 of us for years and never once broke down and is still going strong at my sons. |
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| gnome |
washing machines are notoriously sensitive instruments, and can break down a lot - but if you know how to fix them, they are usually cheap and easy to repair. in fact, if you described what happens (or doesnt happen) when you try to use it, i could probably advise you what's wrong. The Haynes Washing Machine Manual by Graham Dixon is the repairman's bible - it covers all the basic faults and how to fix them. i picked my copy up at a car-boot sale for a couple of quid. | ||||
| Chez |
You can fit a shower mixer thingy to mix hot and cold before you plumb in the cold fill. | ||||
| gnome |
forgot one important peice of advice - don't take the top off unless you are a qualified electrical engineer. even when it is switched off and unplugged, the capacitor can pack a whallop that can easily kill you, or at least throw you clean across the room. |