Firstly Happy New Year to you all, although I am seriously worried that the way mine started will set a trend for things to come throughout 2010!
First up, I put a load of washing on, on NYE as I went to bed and when I got up on NYD, opened the machine to find the clothes still soaking wet. A couple of hours later when I had tried everything from draining, spinning to re-washing, it became apparent that the Drum is not moving. My daughter stepped in and took the washing to hers and bought it back later for me to dry. I went to iron it last night and on the first garment the Iron went bang and blew up!
I need to weigh up the pro's and con's of getting the washing machine repaired or to buy a new one but I can't do that until I have some sort of quote from the repair man. The shop is open but the repair man is not working today so can't do anything until Monday. The Bosch website tells me it is probably the Brushes that have gone and I have been told they can cost anything from £12 to £30 odd and then there is £30 labour charge and of course VAT will be back to 17.5% just to add insult to injury!
Meanwhile I have done my research into the cost of a new machine and would like to stay with Bosch as this one has lasted a family of six for the last five years, so can't be bad. Also our dishwasher from the same brand is 10 years old and we bought it from the previous house owners, so I feel it is better to stick with a brand you know. The only problem with this is that Bosch are not the cheapest range on the market and although I could get a machine by a brand called "hec" (as in, "who the heck are they?"), I would rather pay a little bit extra for a brand that I know is good quality.
My comparisons so far are:-
Comet, cheapest Bosch is £279.99 with a 5kg drum and 3% cashback on www.topcashback.co.uk
Boots, (yes who knew Boots sold white goods?) £323.00 with a 6kg drum and 3.5% cashback and 1292 Advantage card points which would buy me a new Juicy Tube when I next run out of Lipgloss!
John Lewis £299 but no cashback.
Stangely the cheapest machines on each site are all different model numbers!
Anyway I will have to wait and see what the cost of repair is on Monday before we make a decision but this is not the start to the New Year I had planned and shows how important it is to have an Emergency Fund, so maybe that will be my New Years resolution! On the other hand, I am beginning to wish I had never cut up the credit cards, as this is the sort of thing they do come in handy for, but being strong enough not to use them for other non-essential purchases is always the problem. I spoke to a friend who actually rents her machine from a local electrical appliance shop and it costs her £10 a month but with my husband only being on a work contract
until March as far as we know, I don't want to commit, long term to a direct debit for even as little as £10 per month!
Weekending
11 months ago
Oh no - what a way to begin the year!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was researching washing machines, I ended up getting an Indesit: a good quality brand, with some good budget models.
The only upside is, if you are shopping for a new washing machine, at least you will be doing it in January and you can get a good sales bargain....
HI sorry to hear about your washing machine too. We had a bosch one that was intergrated into the cupboard unit. It had a big drum and was a tad smaller because intergrated. it cost a lot when we first had it as it was intergrated. When it gave up we looked at getting another intergrated one but in the end settled for a freestanding one it is a bush onefrom argos it was reduced from £260.00 to £200.00 it goes really well not as silent as our last one though!. Hope you find what you are looking for at a good price too x
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