How many years should be the life of a Washing Machine

goodmorningsunshine

My 2nd hand ones have lasted as follows;-

1st 2nd hand - 5 years
2nd 2nd hand - 16 years washer/dryer
3rd 2nd hand - being used at the moment washer/dryer

PS Also bought a fridge 1989 (also 2nd hand) and only threw it out when I moved 2 years ago, but was still working perfectly, hmmm - why did I throw it out ????

GRM

3rd vote for Miele. Bought with the 10 years parts and labour warranty, has averaged around 12 washes a week through baby and toddler stages. Never missed a beat, wouldn't buy anything else now.

cynicalgit_2

ariba10 wrote: »

We have a Bosch wft2800 that is also eleven years old.

Cost quite a bit more than some machines from what I can remember.

Used almost daily and not one problem so far. (Having said that now I hope I have not bewitched it)

Had the same model lasted 14 years and used daily.not sure the newer Bosch models are as well built.

moneysaver

keystone wrote: »

AEG appliances haven't been German designed and manufactured for over 15 years. Sorry.

Cheers

We have an AEG washing machine, bought 9yrs ago Made in Germany.


Moneysaver

Mikes_The_Name

We would certainly hope the minimum period a washing machine should last, with average use, without problems is 5 years.We purchased a Bosch Washing machine over 3 years ago. It had the added incentive of a free extended 5 year warranty so with the extended warranty and the brand reputation the decision was a "No Brainer". So far we have no cause to call out an engineer. Previously because of tight finances at the time we brought a Bottom of the range Beko and that lasted 4 years. Considering the low price paid we thought that was very reasonable.
If some manufacturers can offer 5 year warranty, it goes to show they have confidence in their product. My view is if the manufacturer is only willing to offer a 1 year guarantee then the product is almost certainly unreliable.

WTFH

Miele here, 10 year guarantee.

Bought it for my wife when we were dating about 5 years ago (I know, I'm just an old romantic) after her Zanussi (which was about 10 years old) went up in smoke.

My suggestion would be either buy something cheap and accept that it's cheap and might not last, or buy something with a 5+ year guarantee and a bigger price tag.
So, spend £200 on a machine now, then set aside £2 a week. Every 2 years you can afford a new machine when the warranty runs out - and if the old one doesn't break, then bank the money.
Or, spend £700 on a machine now, set aside £1.35 a week and every 10 years when the warranty runs out you can buy a new one.

If you stick to that plan then extrapolate it out, for the first 14 years of washing machine ownership, you're better to buy a £200 every 2 years. Buying a £700 one every 10 years is cheaper from year 15 onwards.

HitAndMiss

(My suggestion would be either buy something cheap and accept that it's cheap and might not last, or buy something with a 5+ year guarantee and a bigger price tag. So, spend £200 on a machine now, then set aside £2 a week. Every 2 years you can afford a new machine when the warranty runs out) -

The above concept was the one we considered and took the option of buying a Samsung Eco bubble for £400 including delivery which had a free 5 year extended warranty. The idea of buying a cheaper machine was an option that we muled over. We dismissed Zanussi washing machines, as our only lasted under 3 years. Even the sales person said Zanussis reputation has plummeted over the past few years. The other possibilityfor a cheaper machine was a Hotpoint (with a 2 year extended guarantee at John Lewis) but we decided on the Samsung Eco Bubble, as the reviews seemed reasonable, which is due to delivered next week.At least we know we won't have any repair bills for 5 years.

kwatt

There are a lot of misconceptions on this topic.

For one, machines are built to a level of use and then priced accordingly in line with the build cost.

Over the past 20-30 years retailers and the people that buy machines have demanded lower and lower priced products that perform ever more efficiently due to legislation in part and, additionally, due to customer demand. Manufacturers have met those demands as best that they can but, in order to do so, compromises have to be made on quality and in some other areas.

In large measure the old adage applies, you get what you pay for.

The current trend due to concerns in this area is to offer longer warranties so you see five year, ten year and so on being advertised. Dig deeper and you will find that all of them have restrictions on them, they are not open-ended and will not cover absolutely everything. It is really pretty unreasonable to expect that.

So you have the likes of LG that will warranty a single component or two but, not the bits that break or are liable to wear out.

Miele that will only warranty up to a certain level of use.

Parts only warranties but, with a high labour charge.

Even the one I'm involved with, ISE, doesn't cover absolutely everything.

But then, look at the costs involved. If you were to warranty a machine through British Gas or Domestic & General for example, the warranty would cost you more than the machine plus the manufacturer warranty over the same period in almost every instance. It's not rocket science to work out that yes, they cover more but, they also cost an awful lot more since they don't supply any physical goods and they have you paying them money every month, you're a constant, ongoing source of revenue to them.

To the manufacturer offering a warranty on broken bits, you're not a cash cow.

To throw some perspective on that, I've called to many a machine in a customer's home where the value of the laundry in the machine is far greater (for one single load) than the machine cost new. Yet the expectation is that the machine should be able to wash for years repeatedly without incident that and much more. In many ways when you stop and think about it, a lot of this is very ironic and the cost of the actual machines, incredulously low but the lifespan expectation often incredulously high.

In large part though how long a washing machine or, any appliance, will last comes down to how much you use it and how well you look after it.

Most are built on averages which actually came as a bit of a surprise when I looked into it. Turns out that the average number of washes per year is 117 washes per person, per year. Most low end machines are built for around 600-2000 cycles very roughly. This rises into the mid market and jumps up considerably at the top end.

In essence how long it will last usually will come down to the numbers. How many people you wash for in the home or, how many cycles that you do. Then atop that you have to consider if it is being used correctly and so on as things like overloading (extremely common) can hammer the bearings and cause several other issues as just one example.

(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)

The point being that, all reports of how long a machine lasts will depend largely on circumstance and use. Of course the quality has a bearing but, in each segment of the market, there are general expectations in that regard and there are always the odd exceptions but not as many as you may think.

If you want to save money on washing machines it is possible to do so but you need to take a bit of care and understand what you're doing with it. Many, if not most, people seem not to.

You can save more money by using it correctly than you could ever dream of saving on the ticket price.

People appear to hope that the machine will last for whatever length of time that they hold as an expectation of lifespan in their heads. The reality is not that at all as washing machines are primarily mechanical devices and as such are subject to wear and tear, some more than others but it's subjective and, that's the point.

HTH

K.

freeganneist

My current Zanussi washer-dryer is over 20 years old and still working fine, although some cycles seem to be taking longer. It worries me to read that new machines are less resilient. I've been looking at the Which? recommended AEGs (5-year warranty) as potential replacements if mine dies, but don't want to shell out a lot of money if even the good machines don't outlive their warranties.

Ben84

The trouble is that all these really old machines are likely very different to the ones being made today with the same names on them. In general, with the exception of brands like Miele I think the newer ones are typically much poorer quality than before. Thankfully they tend to be cheaper, although not better value over time I suspect.

I'm sure the manufacturers know how many cycles they'll survive on average, although they'll probably never tell us. Around 500 for a cheap one sounds very likely however as that's a couple of years typical use in many households - about how long many budget machines last. I also suspect that lower quality machines are much less tolerant of being overloaded. I can usually hear them grinding when overfilled and I've seen fairly new ones broken from what seemed to be just a few excessively heavy loads. So I wouldn't cram them full or put in lots of highly absorbent items at once. Wet washing is very heavy and towels and jeans for example add up fast.