to expect a washing machine to last for more than 5 years?

MrsM, buy a Miele. My mum lives in the depths of the countryside, mud is the machine's daily diet. It likes it just fine.

I used to expect white goods to last forver (and in fact a Zanussi washing machine we got as a wedding present 18 years ago is still going strong in a friend's house!) but as the price has come down, so has the quality. In the last 10 years I have had 3 washing machines, BUT I do have 2 particularly filthy teenagers and a partner who goes out mountainbiking and comes home covered in mud, so the machines are on a lot. I'd expect one to last for five years tops.

Miele machines are expected to last 20 years, and they do ime. My mum's one is 30 years old and has only broken down once, when we gummed it up with beach sand. My cousin is still using my grandmother's old one, which is also 1980s vintage.

Mine is 8 years old, and shows no signs of ageing, despite having serviced the laundry of a family of 5, including 2 babies in washable nappies.

They are expensive, but if you average the cost across the lifespan, they work out cheaper than the standard brands. Buy a bottom of the range one, you don't need fancy features, and then sit back and watch do its stuff for the next 25 years.

The average lifespan of other main brands (Hoover, Hotpoint, blahdiblah) is 7 years (this is what the washing machine repair man told me) and IME this is pretty much right. I never see the repair man now that I've got my Miele, which suits me just fine.

yes older machines do tend to work for longer as they were designed to last - sadly 'newer' ones don't tend to.......

yes - unfortunately most goods manufactured these days aren't designed to last for a long time.....they just want us to fork out for a new one every couple of years.