*&%$$£ Washing Machines!

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 20:19

My washing machine is knackered

. We tried calling Ariston/Hotpoint or whoever, and they tried to flog a maintenance contract. When that didn't work, they wanted £100 or something ridiculous to look at it.

So we found a local small business a couple of miles away who charges £35 plus parts, and came out next day. He narrowed the problem down to the motor or the electronics, and came back today with a motor, but that didn't fix it. So it would be £140 for a new controller plus his £35 for labour. He also said that once the electronics start failing, it's liable to keep failing

.

So he's going to try to find a reconditioned machine for about £100 instead, hopefully by Monday.

Another thing he said was that they don't have a user cleanable filter any more. After 5 years or so, an engineer has to clean it out, if the machine isn't knackered by then! He found a £1 and a 20p coin, and a 5 Euro note in it, so that will help a bit!

If it was just for me, I'd go back to my hand operated Wonderwash, but it's shared by everyone who lives here.

Modern technology and throw away consumerism is wonderful, and so sustainable

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 28 Oct 2010, 21:42

Washing machines are an easy to fix item, pump, motor, heater, timer/electronic controller. There's not much to go wrong really.

Most parts can be bought on the internet.

Also, if he couldn't decide wether it was the controller or the motor, did he not check it?
Pretty easy, get a volt stick, see if it lights up when it should, or if the motor hums... Or use a mutlimeter and check if the PCB gives the required output to the motor when it should.

This modern diagnostic system of replacing parts until you've got the right one is very lazy and just one of those things that drives me to distraction.

Proper diagnostic tools are essential, for everyone.

Post by **adam2** » 28 Oct 2010, 22:15

I buy secondhand washing machines for about £100, and normally get several years use out of them.
I replace the water pump if it fails, other parts are more costly and seldom justified when another secondhand machine is easily purchased for £100 or less.
I have had the same dryer for years but very seldom use it owing to the energy waste.

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 28 Oct 2010, 22:19

John - check out some "whitegoods forums" and post a question on there. I've discovered how to repair a few things myself in that way (getting belts around tensioners etc)

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 22:40

I'm thinking of all the things we can use the old machine for. Conversion to pedal power?

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 28 Oct 2010, 22:51

Get a Bosch. Not cheap, but they last forever. (Well, maybe not forever, but probably for the remainder of industrial civilisation

)

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:01

Ludwig wrote:Get a Bosch. Not cheap, but they last forever. (Well, maybe not forever, but probably for the remainder of industrial civilisation )

The idea is to get a really solid, simple, long lasting machine if/when my project here gets off the ground, as it would be for shared use by several households. Until that happens, I can't spend the money, so that's why I'm going for a cheap reconditioned one.

Tawney · Post by **Tawney** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:03

As someone who once tried to live without a washing machine, I have a feeling there might be a connection between the rise of said machine and the parallel rise of obesity. A PO world will be a smellier, brawnier armed world.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:07

I know what you mean. I've run out of clean clothes. The only hot water we have comes out of a kettle (until the oil for the Rayburn arrives

), so hand washing would be a pain!

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:17

Get yerself a thermometer then! Although I've found that hand-rinsing doesn't get all the hand-washing soap out, and it reeks. So I always do a rinse and spin in the machine.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:19

Bandidoz wrote:Get yerself a thermometer then!

I meant pain as in pain in the arse, rather than burning myself on over hot water

.

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:27

John, I don't have a washing machine here although I do have access to a shared machine which I use for sheets, jeans and heavy stuff. I wash a lot by hand (I dye wool which needs to be washed and rinsed and we've an awful lot of goat's wool clothes!

) and it's very hard work and time consuming and something I could do without. I've been trying to think of a solution to buying a normal machine and a big pure sine inverter.

I've just bought a machine which was recommended to me by a friend and I've seen second hand ones on DODGY TAX AVOIDERS for less than £90. I can't recommend it yet because the inverter I have that's big enough to run it has just packed up. (Just in time for winter.

)

One I get a new (A few !) inverter/s, I'll let you know how it goes.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 28 Oct 2010, 23:41

This is the sort of thing I was thinking off. What, if anything, is most suitable depends on what happens here, and that's a big unknown at the moment.

Catweazle · Post by **Catweazle** » 29 Oct 2010, 08:58

I've repaired a couple of washing machines that looked like faulty controllers, they would just stop halfway through a program, by clearing the soap-powder residue from vacuum pipes hear the pump. These pipes run to a diaphram switch near the controller and tell the controller when the machine is pumped empty and thus when to go to the next step.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 29 Oct 2010, 09:10

Catweazle wrote:I've repaired a couple of washing machines that looked like faulty controllers, they would just stop halfway through a program, by clearing the soap-powder residue from vacuum pipes hear the pump. These pipes run to a diaphram switch near the controller and tell the controller when the machine is pumped empty and thus when to go to the next step.

I searched a few forums last night, and someone suggested a faulty pressure switch. Whatever the problem is, my point was really about the whole system. Products designed to be difficult to repair and having short lives, and big companies trying to sell maintenance contracts and insurance, rather than producing equipment that lasts and is easy to repair. Not ideal in a post peak world.