Tumble dryer - care plan?

dmc88

We've had a Heat Pump tumble dryer since Nov19, it's worked well until this week when it stopped warming up, therefore wet clothes. Only a Logik brand so standard 12m warranty well out of date.

Being somewhat handy I started taking it apart, then quickly realised there is no heating element to replace, it's more like a refrigerant unit. Continued stripping it down and managed to carefully extract the very heavy condensing unit, cleaned all the fluff out with hose etc. It was full, couldn't see torch light through the fins. Upon reassembly I caught the unit badly on the plastic base and split a pipe, releasing all the gas. Very annoyed with myself!!



Anyway, can't find replacement assembly online, not even guaranteed to fix the problem anyway. However the fact you cannot remove these parts easily for a deep clean I think it's a serious design flaw...

So, replacement. Condenser Vs heat pump no brainer go for heat pump on running costs as it pays for itself if it lasts more than a year, which it will. Therefore, with my experience of 3ish year longevity, do I take out the 5 year warranty policy, as due to their (I believe?) design flaw I think its highly likely it will suffer the same fate?

I know self insurance is generally preferred around these parts but thoughts on this particular situation?

Many thanks

Dan

grumbler

IMO, these policies are worth considering only if they guarantee repair or replacement. Otherwise they often just pay the remaining value of the appliance if it deemed 'beyond economical repair'. And after 2-3 years this value is peanuts.

ThisIsWeird

Any chance they could have a get-out from any claim, if the cause is blockage-by-fluff? Could they try and pin that on a lack of maintenance such as filter-cleaning, or even it being run without one?

It's seemingly not a 'fault', as such - tho' you could (are) argue a 'design' one.

macman

Why pay for a 5 year warranty from new when some manufacturers and retailers will give you two years inclusive? Bosch, JL...

dmc88

macman said:

Why pay for a 5 year warranty from new when some manufacturers and retailers will give you two years inclusive? Bosch, JL...

Because a £450 machine with a 5 year 'extended warranty' is cheaper (in theory) than a £600 machine with a 2 year warranty

@ThisIsWeird, I guess it's a possibility, I hadn't considered that. You genuinely cannot access these parts without doing this (below!), but there's nothing to say they couldn't argue I wasn't using the filter...


@grumbler the Currys policy, having read it in bed this morning, seems alright. The MIL has successfully claimed from Currys and Argos in the past with little trouble, and she works her machines hard with little mind paid to maintenances and such

ThisIsWeird

dmc88 said:

macman said:

Why pay for a 5 year warranty from new when some manufacturers and retailers will give you two years inclusive? Bosch, JL...

Because a £450 machine with a 5 year 'extended warranty' is cheaper (in theory) than a £600 machine with a 2 year warranty

@ThisIsWeird, I guess it's a possibility, I hadn't considered that. You genuinely cannot access these parts without doing this (below!), but there's nothing to say they couldn't argue I wasn't using the filter...


@grumbler the Currys policy, having read it in bed this morning, seems alright. The MIL has successfully claimed from Currys and Argos in the past with little trouble, and she works her machines hard with little mind paid to maintenances and such

Kudos to you for taking this machine apart - I'm fascinated by how it works :-)

My concern with extended cover here is whether they'll simply try and claim "If the filters had been positioned correctly and/or cleaned regularly, then the condenser wouldn't have clogged up. Since the cond has clogged up, we conclude you didn't maintain it properly - no valid claim".

I have no idea if this would be the case, of course! And, if you didn't clean the filter regularly, surely that would mean less fluff gets through to the cond?!

Summat strange is going on that allows fluff through, and it could well be as you suggest - whatever filter system they have designed just not good enough to prevent fluff getting through. You reckon they'll admit that, tho'?!

grumbler

dmc88 said:

macman said:

Why pay for a 5 year warranty from new when some manufacturers and retailers will give you two years inclusive? Bosch, JL...

Because a £450 machine with a 5 year 'extended warranty' is cheaper (in theory) than a £600 machine with a 2 year warranty

JL sell varios brands with 5-year warranty as standard (not 'extended' extra).

dmc88

@grumbler my cursory glance this morning didn't reveal any but I will of course do a more thorough search when replacement time comes.

@ThisIsWeird having the space to do it is the main thing! As it wasn't working properly anyway, even if I broke it during disassembly it didn't really matter. I wasn't intending to break it of course, but I'm in no worse position now that I have!

All I needed to use was an impact driver and a T15 and T20 Torx bit, and copious cursing...

In hindsight I should've swallowed my pride and just contacted an engineer, but there we go, but I have a feeling a call out charge plus whatever parts and labour required would set me back nearly a new machine anyway - this is the problem with appliances these days, they are not built for repair. It drastically needs to change.

grumbler

dmc88 said:

@grumbler my cursory glance this morning didn't reveal any but I will of course do a more thorough search when replacement time comes.

TBH, I'm not sure about white goods. I judged mainly by various TVs at JL posted at HotUKDeals

benson1980

dmc88 said:

@grumbler my cursory glance this morning didn't reveal any but I will of course do a more thorough search when replacement time comes.

@ThisIsWeird having the space to do it is the main thing! As it wasn't working properly anyway, even if I broke it during disassembly it didn't really matter. I wasn't intending to break it of course, but I'm in no worse position now that I have!

All I needed to use was an impact driver and a T15 and T20 Torx bit, and copious cursing...

In hindsight I should've swallowed my pride and just contacted an engineer, but there we go, but I have a feeling a call out charge plus whatever parts and labour required would set me back nearly a new machine anyway - this is the problem with appliances these days, they are not built for repair. It drastically needs to change.

Thanks for posting with your findings- read it with interest as we have recently bought a HP tumble drier and similarly to you, I've always fixed (or attempted to fix) white goods myself and on the most part been successful. The weak point on our old condenser dryer was the pump that pumps water from the collection tray at the bottom to the collection drawer thing at the top- we were religious with cleaning out the filter but fluff would get through and it would get blocked up. But...that part was £13 on amazon and evidently these machines are a bit more complicated.

This video is interesting- and would perhaps suggest your removal of fluff (prior to mishap obviously) would have potentially fixed the problem?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgVX_k3xvf4

Therefore I think with the best will in the world perhaps fluff will eventually get through and start building up on these parts but you were on the right lines?

dmc88

@benson1980 I hadn't seen that video, sort of wish you hadn't shown me because I now don't think it was my evaporator assembly that went wrong, it was probably that stupid diverter valve thing! He kind of gets half way through explaining the easy fix then moves on to the timing section which doesn't really help. When he was lifting those coils out half way through, I can't believe he didn't break them bending them up like that, I was much less rough with mine, I removed the black VERY HEAVY(!) cylinder on the left with it and they split open.

It's really annoying, because I was meticulous with cleaning the filters out,I even used to get on all fours twice a year and use a cocktail stick to drag fluff out of the front of the condensing unit that mere mortals can get to that made it past the rubbish filter assembly in the door. Mine was less mucky inside than the example in the video too, maybe it was a sensitive pump mechanism.