Washing machines

mirrorwall14

Looking for advice from parents. We currently have a 9kg hotpoint which was bought second hand as part of our house purchase (included in sale) and is starting to give problems. We have never bought a washing machine as they’ve always been in the rentals before this!

Any advice on brand/types/washes I should look out for? We are a household of four. Two boys and parents. There’s plenty of washing so I’d probably prefer not to drop in drum size

shesty

Stick with your 9kg anyway!!We have had 2 Bosch in 11 years and they served us well!

bee06

We’ve a whirlpool one. It’s 5 years old and never had any problems with it yet.

Athdara

Make sure you try and find out cycle length. I bought a Zanussi recently and the average cycle length is 2 hours compared to 45 minutes on my last machine. I have a 30 for 30 wash but that no good to me for sheets, towels, underwear & sportsgear that need a hotter wash.
Impossible to fit a quick wash in in the mornings or between kids activities like I used to.

jlm29

We have a Bosch too. It’s never complained about it’s large workload!
Edited to add- ours has a large variety of cycle lengths

mirrorwall14

Athdara wrote: »

Make sure you try and find out cycle length. I bought a Zanussi recently and the average cycle length is 2 hours compared to 45 minutes on my last machine. I have a 30 for 30 wash but that no good to me for sheets, towels, underwear & sportsgear that need a hotter wash.
Impossible to fit a quick wash in in the mornings or between kids activities like I used to.

This is what I’m worried about. Just reading manuals and the times aren’t listed? Like why? Clearly I need to know this!

cruizer101

I would have thought most have a variety of cycles. On ours we mostly run the eco cycle which is over 3 hours but there is a 60min and 15min quick wash, as well as many in between.
One handy feature on ours is the delay timer so you can set it up at night to run so it will be just finished when we get up in the morning.

shesty

Athdara often there's a "shortcut" button....on ours all the cycles are 2-3 hours if you are going for the full environmentally friendly length cycles, but there is a button to knock a good hour or more off all the cycles.
Often it's cunningly disguised as something long-winded like '"vario speed cycle" ....I operate the "push all the buttons in combination until you find it" method of identifying it.
Worked on my dishwasher too!!!!

handlemaster

Neff Bosch 9kg

Del2005

Athdara wrote: »

Make sure you try and find out cycle length. I bought a Zanussi recently and the average cycle length is 2 hours compared to 45 minutes on my last machine. I have a 30 for 30 wash but that no good to me for sheets, towels, underwear & sportsgear that need a hotter wash.
Impossible to fit a quick wash in in the mornings or between kids activities like I used to.

I was recently looking for a washing machine and the quicker washes were for only a few kilos. If you want to use the full 9kg you are a minimum of over an hour. On the one I bought all the >5kg cycles were 3+ hours, by reducing the temperature I can get a full load in about 100 minutes.

Milly33

We have a Zanussi 7kg machine in a rental and I must say tis great...Plenty of room in the drum and it has a handy few washes on it

Ms2011

If it's the same Zanussi washing machine as mine there is a Synthetics cycle that's only about 90 mins & a 40 degree wash.

fits

Now Kate Bush is in my head!

We have a zanussi 8 kg and it’s grand. Cycles can be long but there’s an option to shorten.

glen123

I have two Bosch machines - one has been working fine for 15 years now. Another one purchased 2 years ago (7kg, shortest cycle is around 45min)
Have other Bosch appliances - never had problems with any of them.

Athdara

Athdara wrote: »

Make sure you try and find out cycle length. I bought a Zanussi recently and the average cycle length is 2 hours compared to 45 minutes on my last machine. I have a 30 for 30 wash but that no good to me for sheets, towels, underwear & sportsgear that need a hotter wash.
Impossible to fit a quick wash in in the mornings or between kids activities like I used to.

Everything in our house gets 30 degree 15 min quick wash followed by a rinse and spin total time about 35 mins give or take, full loads, half loads, all clothes, sheets and towels all the same and all come out perfect. Bosch Washing machine.

How it was always done at home too I can never remember my mother ever running the machine above 40 deg and it was usually the 30 deg quick wash, running these big long washes is madness imo. You would have the stuff washed and dried in the dryer in the time I hear some people run their machine alone for.

Sardonicat

I always choose Hotpoint. They give the user more control over temperature, spin strength etc. Shortest cycle on my current model is 30mins. Had this one about 8 years and not a bother. The last one lasted 14 years and we had the repair man out once, in year 10!

Bazzy

The DID website is very good for cycle lengths

We recently purchased a Hoover machine 10kg and has a variety of cycles

14 mins
30 mins
45 mins

I fail to see how these eco washes are actually economical when the machine is going for 2 or 3 hours

Sardonicat

Kolton Thankful Barrier wrote: »

Everything in our house gets 30 degree 15 min quick wash followed by a rinse and spin total time about 35 mins give or take, full loads, half loads, all clothes, sheets and towels all the same and all come out perfect. Bosch Washing machine.

How it was always done at home too I can never remember my mother ever running the machine above 40 deg and it was usually the 30 deg quick wash, running these big long washes is madness imo. You would have the stuff washed and dried in the dryer in the time I hear some people run their machine alone for.

Sheets and towels and tea towels should be washed at 60 degrees to kill skin mites/anything nasty that could be lingering on a towel. Just cod it looks clean doesny mean it is free from germs

Of course, if you use a drier the heat from that will kill off any nasties.

Sardonicat

Bazzy wrote: »

The DID website is very good for cycle lengths

We recently purchased a Hoover machine 10kg and has a variety of cycles

14 mins
30 mins
45 mins

I fail to see how these eco washes are actually economical when the machine is going for 2 or 3 hours

It's the heating of the water that costs. Eco washes tend to be cold/low temperature so you're not heating the water. In the older models eco wash meant taking the hot water from the house supply. That option is not available on the newer models.

Sardonicat

Sardonicat wrote: »

Sheets and towels and tea towels should be washed at 60 degrees to kill skin mites/anything nasty that could be lingering on a towel. Just cod it looks clean doesny mean it is free from germs

Of course, if you use a drier the heat from that will kill off any nasties.

Sometimes use the dryer sometimes not (depending on weather and type of clothes). Never had an issue washing everything at 30 (myself or decades of it at home), think it’s a bit of a myth the need for these hot washes tbh.

Sardonicat

Kolton Thankful Barrier wrote: »

Sometimes use the dryer sometimes not (depending on weather and type of clothes). Never had an issue washing everything at 30 (myself or decades of it at home), think it’s a bit of a myth the need for these hot washes tbh.

It's not a myth at all! If you have anyone with asthma/allergies you need to do the sheets at 60 degrees.

As for towels, anything belse 60 degrees will not kill fecal bacteria or any germs lingering on hand towels. You may not have had an issue or you may not have realised you had that tummy bug because you wiped the cup with a germy tea towel.

awec

Kolton Thankful Barrier wrote: »

Everything in our house gets 30 degree 15 min quick wash followed by a rinse and spin total time about 35 mins give or take, full loads, half loads, all clothes, sheets and towels all the same and all come out perfect. Bosch Washing machine.

How it was always done at home too I can never remember my mother ever running the machine above 40 deg and it was usually the 30 deg quick wash, running these big long washes is madness imo. You would have the stuff washed and dried in the dryer in the time I hear some people run their machine alone for.

Gross.

s4uv3

We got a Beko 8kg last year and I love it. Long wash cycles alright, but when you look at the manual, the longer ones actually use less energy.
I get around it by loading the machine at night and setting it to come on at 5am, so by the time we're up and about it's done.

gbSelect4you

I personally like BOSCH for durability while LG for its advance features. I am planning to change my machine soon.

The shorter the wash, the smaller the load you're supposed to use in it. The same wash at full cycle length can be 9kg but if you choose the fast option it's probably reduced to 5 Kg, so that's worth considering.

The longer the wash the less the drum has to agitate and less water can be used so that's why they're a better option if you have the time, cheaper and greener all round. If you use the machines a lot and have other things like a dishwasher, it might be worth considering night rates if you can get them in your area (no idea how it works) and save money using the timer feature or a manual timer so they only run at night.

Heat pump dryers cost less than half of what a conventional dryer costs to run. We bought several appliances in the last couple of years, it was a lot of research.

witchgirl26

If you have a Hotpoint check if it's part of the Whirlpool/Hotpoint/Indesit recall before going out to buy a new one. Our dryer was Hotpoint & giving a little bit of trouble so we were planning to get a new one. Realised Hotpoint were part of Whirlpool so decided to double check if it was part of the recall. It was and we got a replacement from them. Could have gone like for like for free but we paid the difference for the upgrade.

On the washing machines themselves. We have a Bosch that we bought the year before last and it's good but to be honest, a cheaper one like Beko would have been just as good. I don't think you have to go mad with the price or the features either.