Which fridge and washing machine to buy?

W.Ford

Firstly I hope Ive posted this in the right section, I could do with a little bit of advice, im moving into a flat next week due to my girlfriend leaving and I need to buy myself a fridge and a washing machine as she is taking the current ones.
Ive budgeted about £400 for the two and was thinking £150 for the fridge and £250 for the washer would be a good split. both items need to fit underneath a worktop and i would like a fridge without a freezer compartment as ive already got a freezer. Can anybody suggest a good choice for either of them as I know very little about them, low electric usage would be a bonus as money will be very tight.

Thanks in advance

ema_o

I would suggest looking in sales to get the best value for money. I noticed on Currys website they have a washing machine reduced from £379 to £279.
I use this theory when buying wine too

LandyAndy

Fridges are simple and generally very reliable while washers are more complex and less reliable. So, I would buy the cheapest fridge I could find, possibly even second hand and spend most of my budget on the washer where quality counts for more. Bosch washers have a good reputation and are, unsurprisingly, expensive while Hotpoint, for instance, are cheap and have a poor reputation for reliability (As far as I remember from the Which? report).

HTH

W.Ford

Thanks for the replies, im often a bit dubious about buying sale items because i work for a large retailer and I know our sales prices are lies, the products sold at a high price in the minimum percentage of stores for the minimum number of weeks to comply with trading standards, then dropped to a price slighly above reasonable. Is the white goods market a bit better for this?

I dropped into my local currys today to start a bit of research today and was recommended a hotpoint wml540p which is about £230, the woman told me that the 1400 spin would get my clothes drier than a 1200 and i noticed it had a AAB energy rating which seems about right for the money, but now Ive read that hotpoint arent that great anyway which is something ive gone through life never realising, damned advertising! lol Thanks LandyAndy

I might go for a beko fridge because they seem cheap, under £100 in some cases and have a A energy rating as well.

Inactive

Agreed Hotpoint WM's are not very reliable, go for a Bosch, well worth the money.

LandyAndy

W.Ford wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, im often a bit dubious about buying sale items because i work for a large retailer and I know our sales prices are lies, the products sold at a high price in the minimum percentage of stores for the minimum number of weeks to comply with trading standards, then dropped to a price slighly above reasonable. Is the white goods market a bit better for this?

I dropped into my local currys today to start a bit of research today and was recommended a hotpoint wml540p which is about £230, the woman told me that the 1400 spin would get my clothes drier than a 1200 and i noticed it had a AAB energy rating which seems about right for the money, but now Ive read that hotpoint arent that great anyway which is something ive gone through life never realising, damned advertising! lol Thanks LandyAndy

I might go for a beko fridge because they seem cheap, under £100 in some cases and have a A energy rating as well.

I bought a 'shop soiled' (dented panels) one of these about 12 years ago for about £65. Its still going strong although now relegated to 'beer fridge' duties in the garage:cool: .

debbie42

W.Ford wrote: »

the woman told me that the 1400 spin would get my clothes drier than a 1200 and i noticed it had a AAB energy rating which seems about right for the money.

I'd treat this as advertising spin (npi!). If you can get a cheaper machine which "only" spins at 1200 as opposed to 1400 then I'd opt for the 1200 every time.

dweeby

LandyAndy wrote: »

now relegated to 'beer fridge' duties in the garage:cool: .

Excellent! I thought we were the only ones with a beer fridge!

dweeby

debbie42 wrote: »

I'd treat this as advertising spin (npi!). If you can get a cheaper machine which "only" spins at 1200 as opposed to 1400 then I'd opt for the 1200 every time.

Many years ago, I discussed this with a washing machine repair man. He told me that the quicker spin speeds cause breakdowns when the m/c gets older, and also that the slower machines dry the same - just spin for slightly longer.

Can't say for sure that this is true...

oilit

Ive got bosch wm & dryer - both amazingly reliable (touches head).

IM experience - brands which have been reliable include Zanussi, Bosch, Baumatic, Neff.

Brands which have been absolute rubbish = Siemens (hard to believe I know), Hotpoint.

I heard bad things about Beko, but got offered a w/m at a ridiculous price back in January -so I bought it - its in a rental house and is used every day from what I can see - and touch wood/head all seems ok at the moment.

mikeandrach_2

hi, i am a store manager of a large multiple selling electricals. i'd agree with the comment about fridges being reliable. not sure if this helps but the following is worth bearing in mind> hotpoint, indesit, ariston, all the same thing. all equally rubbish, they ar ejust trading names of the parent company merloni. they also make cannon cookers which are actually pretty good though. don't touch hotpoint/indesit/ariston with a barge pole they are guaranteed to let you down. bosch, neff, siemens, again, all the same thing and pretty good. zanussi, aeg, electrolux, all the same thing, good build quality and much better value than bosch/neff/siemens. returns rate on bosch washing machines though is pretty high so wouldn't totally agree they are worth the money. they do come with a 2 year guarantee, which is useless if they go wrong after 2.5 years so if you buy bosch because of the 2 year guarantee you are making a mistake. beko are cheap turkish brand, very basic but pretty reliable. if you can afford it buy a miele washing machine, they will last forever, they look old and dated but they are the very best built wasing machines you can buy. wouldn't normally agree with which, but if they say hotpoint are bad they are 100% correct. please don't buy a wasing machine just because which say they are good, in my experience which is a pile of bulls*^t.