howdens "lamona" appliances question - any good?

loates123

glad ive seen this post

was going to get a lamona built under integrated fridge and freezer for under the counter and get the engineer to do it all

i now know you can buy better brand online myself

how hard is it to fix the old intergrated door to the fridge and frezzers

loskie

Just buy the appliances elsewhere like John Lewis where customer service and warranty cover are generally good.
We were quoted a Magnet kitchen and the hob and over were still after discount overpriced by 25%. I would buy the kitchen only and source your own appliances. Sizes are standard so should be no worries there.

Howler

I posted on another thread but my experience with Lamona has been very poor. Since you buy through a builder Howdens don't take responsibility for the Warranty and once the builder has installed and got his money he will just point you at Lamona. And they have been very poor at resolving the issue. Too many links in this chain, buy from someone who can take responsibility for everything, so if you have problems you know they will sort it out. And definitely hold back some money until everything is working and installed to your satisfaction.

ImpulsePowerOnly

Just tried to get Lamona's service to repair our dishwasher under warranty - just under 12 months since we moved into the house.

We only have the builder's invoice number, which was good enough several months ago when they came to a problem with the freezer, but now they want a copy of the builder's invoice, which we don't have, and the builder has gone into liquidation.

Howdens have also informed us that the warranty starts on the date of the invoice. Okay if a builder is putting a kitchen into your new extension, but not so good if you buy a new house that was on the market for more than the 12 month warranty. Our warranty effectively expired before we moved in!

If someone else is fitting Lamona appliances for you, make sure you get a copy of the invoice, otherwise the 2 year warranty they now offer is worthless.

Better still, don't buy Lamona appliances. They are not particularly well designed or built and we've had problems with the freezer and now dishwasher within 12 months. I hope we don't experience the well documented oven door glass breakage.

Lamona's approach to warranty seems to be inappropriate for the market they sell into.

The Howdens kitchen units are overpriced for what they are, and the painted oak shaker style doors we have in ours, do seem susceptible to twisting.

In our last house, we had all Neff appliances fitted and a Siemens dishwasher, thinking Neff was a reliable brand. The wave stirrer failed in the combi microwave, seals failed on the oven, and paint peeled off the hob burners. The plate warmer drawer failed just out of warranty.

Warranty was dealt with very efficiently, with the engineers arriving carrying the spares necessary to fix in a single visit.

So we found Neff possibly less reliable than Lamona, but design, build quality, style and warranty response considerably better.

hannhol

we have just bought a Howdens kitchen (being fitted as I type so hopefully no problems!) Howdens themselves told us to source our own appliances and it worked out a lot cheaper. Our builder is then fitting everything. We bought our own integrated double oven and hob, and free standing washing machine and slimline dishwasher and fridge freezer. We preferred being able to choose our own appliances. We mostly went for Samsung and Zanussi in the end). Neff etc completely out of our budget, but we are very happy with what we chose

Contessa

I had a Howdens kitchen fitted a couple of years ago. I have no complaints about the units but would never buy their appliances again. The electric oven gets very dirty and is hard to clean. A plastic door cracked inside the freezer and a hinge broke on the fridge door. I've never had integrated appliances before and won't buy any again. In fact I found the fridge and freezer much too small and difficult to access and recently replaced them with American Style fridge and a freezer.

cos_2

I've bought a variety of white goods from a variety of name brand suppliers over several decades.

Some have been great; some not. There has never been a statistical link to any brand.

This thread could have replaced 'Lamona' with any other brand known to man and received similar replies. Bosch is rubbish. Electrolux are great. Etc.

This isn't really a great site to use for factual information on product reliability

cddc

cos wrote: »

I've bought a variety of white goods from a variety of name brand suppliers over several decades.

Some have been great; some not. There has never been a statistical link to any brand.

This thread could have replaced 'Lamona' with any other brand known to man and received similar replies. Bosch is rubbish. Electrolux are great. Etc.

This isn't really a great site to use for factual information on product reliability

I think if you read this thread in full, it is not really the reliability of product, but the difficulty in getting good service that is the problem when things go wrong. This is where the other brands you mention score over Lamona.

Do agree with you that almost all of the name brands are not what they were in terms of reliability though.

sykesaeh

Hi,

We're also having a Howdens kitchen fitted and after reading the reviews on here I'm going to steer well clear of their appliances.

But, if I'm not going to have Lamona appliances installed, what other appliances will fit? I.e. built in dishwasher, built in fridge/freezer?

Will other manufacturers products fit?

Thanks.

LEJC

I believe they are all standard sizes ....so any fitted appliance will fit...
Although just to balance things...we had a howdens fitted in a rental property and the lamona goods are performing fine!