How to find a decent washing machine

Feral_Moon

Fosterdog wrote: »

I've said on similar threads before my Beko is the best machine I've ever used.

It has a rapid was (2kg max) that takes around 15-20 mins and a daily quick wash (7kg max) that takes between 39-58 mins depending on my chosen temp and spin speed. I use the daily quick wash for most things and it does a good job.

Mine only cost around £230 six years ago and is used most days, it copes well with OHs very dirty work clothes and being overloaded when we wash the dogs beds. I just run it on a 90 wash with white vinegar every couple of months to keep it nice, clean and smelling fresh.

If it failed today I would happily buy another one, I know it's not one of the "premium" brands but it does a fantastic job for the price.

Previous machines have been Hoover, Hotpoint, Indesit and Zanussi and I would never buy any of them again.

I know you said you want a hot and cold fill but they are very hard to come by these days, you understandably have a cheaper hot water supply but for most they are a lot more expensive to run. A cold fill A+ rating machine only costs around £30-£40 a year to run so hardly rediculusly expensive in the long run, it's probably very little of that being used to actually heat the water and more going into the spin cycle which you would have with any machine.

Totally agree with this. I also have a Beko and can't fault it. My regular daily wash cycle is 40 minutes. I can also do a small (2kg) wash in 20 minutes if I just want to refresh clothes I've worn that day.
These are the most frequently used cycles then I was bedding and towels etc on the cottons wash which takes a couple of hours. Can't fault it.

Feral_Moon

SmarterNotHarder wrote: »

Going to sound silly here sorry! - I occasionally want to do a 95 degree wash but it takes over 2 hours in this machine. How do I tweak it so i still get a hot wash without it taking so long?

On the Beko machine I've got you can change temperature and spin speed on any of the programme cycles. So, for example, on my daily wash if I wanted to select 90 degrees then that would increase the wash time to 90mins (on 1400 spin speed), or 60 degrees would take 60mins. The quickest wash I can do is just 12 minutes at 30 degrees on a low 600 spin speed.

Haffiana

One thing to consider is what your average wash load is. Whilst the larger capacity machines may seem attractive, they are not recommended for all small loads...

It may seem odd, but some 2kg loads in a large drum may shorten the life of the machine because the load will be unbalanced, putting a strain on the bearings. So washing one or two small-but-heavy-when-wet towels is a Bad Thing for a large capacity machine, and the manufacturers will recommend that you fill it with towels before doing a wash. This is true of smaller 5kg capacity machines as well of course, but you need a fair few towels to fill an 8kg machine.