Fisher and Paykel any good?

[hfountai]

Hi, we are getting a new kitchen and have been advised to go for so many different brands by different people (mainly Siemens, AEG, Miele, and F & P), but generally people don’t know so much about Fisher & Paykel to compare. We are keen to get everything to match and we’re looking at the Siemens IQ700 range, but may have had our heads turned by F & P. Any advice out there?

Its very popular in Australia, never had any problems with it. Miele is better, though much more expensive.

Don’t know which country you’re in, but F&P is an Australian brand and almost unknown in the UK. I only know it because friends of ours in Chicago have a F&P dishwasher. He swears by it. It consists of two drawers and you can have one or both operating at the same time, so it’s like two dishwashers in one. Never seen that idea on any other make.

My own preference, for what it’s worth, is Bosch. Mid-priced and pretty reliable. Our first lasted over 20 years, with a few repairs, whilst our current one has worked for 10 years with no trouble at all.

Thanks, my understanding is that Fisher and Paykel were a ‘premium’ brand from New Zealand, which were highly regarded until it sold out to Haier the Chinese company, thus we wondered if we should follow up with Siemens or Miele.

Based on the UK by the way.

F&P is a New Zealand company, now Chinese owned. They used to be made in NZ and Oz but are now mass produced in China, Mexico, etc. They're most well known for the dual drawer dishwasher.

In Australasia they're a middle of the road brand but they're marketed at an upper end (Miele/Siemens) level in the UK.

I wouldn't buy them in the uk as they are so uncommon that servicing/parts could be an issue.

F&P is brilliant. We have fridge and dishwasher. There are official service partners near us who we know well anyway so that is not a problem for us. Highly recommend

Yes, they are a middle of the range brand in Oz, not in the same league as Miele or Siemens IMO.

I've had a few of their appliances and have been happy, would buy again. We are in Oz though and I had never heard of them until we got here.

Yeah we have F&P in Australia and they have been good. Much cheaper than Miele and no issues as long as you have the support and parts (our hob came up with an error message and they came and fixed it very efficiently) Came very high up in Choice magazine here and was on special offer so was a no brainer for us

alwayscrashinginthdsamecar1 are you Australian? Miele is marketed much as a much more top end brand in Australia and NZ than it is here on the UK or Europe. Miele and Siemens are fine here but not the holy grail you seem to think they are.

Miele are priced very much as a top level brand in the UK and have an excellent reputation. We have AEG ovens and they weren't particularly expensive for the features (including self cleaning, which is excellent), were much cheaper than Neff for example.

Have also been pleased with Bosch, but our kitchen appliance experience doesn't seem typical as every single one of our large appliances has lasted well over 10 year and we still have our original Hotpoint fridge freezer, which is about 21 years old.

@toucantooo No I'm from the UK, but I live in Australia. I have some Miele appliances (Washer and Drier) and they are far better quality than F & P. Bloody expensive though. And Miele is very much a top level brand in the UK IIRC. I like Bosch too, not quite so pricey but very good quality.

We have a Fisher pakel american style fridge freezer, had about 8 years. We had to call engineer out twice once under gurantee. No problem finding someone to fix problems. Love it by the way.

I love my F&P whiteware - would swear by it

The dish drawers are notoriously a bit dicey in terms of reliability in Aus/NZ. I'd avoid. Not sure what F&P are like now, but their washers and fridges used to be bombproof. If you're looking for a front loading washer, though, I reckon you can't go past Samsung.

We have a F&P American style fridge freezer. It was an inspired suggestion by the electrical shop. We had to fit it into a specific area and the standard sizes of other models wouldn't do. It's been excellent for 7 years. It's shorter and fatter than other models but if you're building a kitchen from scratch, you will doubtless figure that. It took about 2 months to arrive after ordering.

My worst dishwasher ever was a Siemens - it just used to rearrange the food and bake it on. The door fell off the fridge on the Siemens f/f as the hinge failed (never, ever had that happen before). Contents of door everywhere & the crash was terrifying. Would never buy Siemens ever again.

I'm on my 2nd Miele d/w. First was inherited with a house & sold with the house 10 years later still working perfectly at about 20 years old. My Miele washing machine I bought in 2002 - still perfect & has had a hard life, Miele dryer I bought s/h is now 15 years old and works well & is a really fast dryer.

I do realise I've jinxed myself now and will have to cough up £2k to replace the lot in one fell swoop!

My kitchen is 21 years old and survived a house move (live abroad, quite normal to move your kitchen).
Hob and oven are Siemens, fridge/freezer is Liebherr and dishwasher is Miele. All still in perfect working order.
I did fairly extensive research into the appliances at the time. Some manufacturers are better for ovens, say, whilst others are better for dishwashers. I don't think I would ever be tempted to buy all appliances from a single manufacturer.
I wouldn't touch Bosch with a bargepole, although I see they are doing quite a bit of advertising on UK tv at present.

We’re in NZ, love our dishdrawers and our whitewear, we have a Bosch oven and stove top and range hood though.

Thanks everyone for your advice. It seems some of you are enjoying your F&P goods, but as suspected some are also having issues. We think the Miele is possibly a step too far, but it sounds like it’s worth is exploring the German brands a bit more.

F&P was originally an NZ brand (I worked for them many years ago). When the manufacturing was outsourced to China, quality took a distinct nose dive. Have to say that after sales service was always fairly sub-standard.

The dishdrawers initially had some teething issues, but I think they've been ironed out now.

Of the three, I would definitely say Miele is fantastic - Bosch is good too, I've had them for a number of years. Although now I come to think about it, they haven't been the longest lasting of appliances that I've had. Now, when I'm looking at whiteware - I'm loving LG.

We have a F&P dishwasher - it's life changing. Having two drawers meaning that you can always load dirty crockery is brilliant.

DO NOT BUY FISHER & PAYKEL Dishwashers may be OK but their customer service is horrible. Dishwasher broke, they said they'd replace, and four months later, still have no stock. Have spent hours upon hours on the phone to resolve and they have no clue. Once great NZ brand has gone completely downhill. If you have an issue with their dishwasher, it will not get resolved timely or easily. BEWARE

Just sign up to which for a month to check out their reviews of the products you need. Some of the FP products get pretty crap scores. The one drawer dishwasher scores a 33% and a don’t buy, but one of their fridge freezers is 83% and a Best Buy. They (Which) do thorough testing, so you know the likely pros and cons.

We are on our second Fisher & Paykel fridge freezer. The first lasted over 25 years. We replaced it with another F&P fridge freezer (the only brand which would fit in the gap); the first one which was delivered did not freeze at all but was quickly replaced by another one which has been ok for the past 5 years.
The other white goods are all Miele and have been trouble free.