What am I doing wrong? Washing machines keep breaking.

[TellmeImOvereacting]

I've had to replace my last two washing machines after having each of them less than 5 years. I feel like it must be me breaking them as my mums has lasted over 10 years. Most people I have asked have had their machines a lot longer than 5 years.

The first machine I tried to replace but spent £250 for it to break 4 months later. My current machine has a fault which would cost more to repair than a replacement.

Please can someone tell me If these things could be damaging my machines?
• I live in a hard water area
• I usually fill the machine 3/4 of the way
• I use a mixture of pods and gels for different washing.
• I always do a 40 wash never higher
• I was at least a load a day

I was put off the extended warranties as I always calculated a new machine to be cheaper than years of payments.

I really liked my current machine too!

Obvious question, but what faults are you being told the machines have when they break down? (Or do you think they have?)

do You run maintenance washes of your machine? You can do this with soda crystals and highest temperature wash and an empty drum. This will help get rid of limes cake buildup.

Limescale obviously

The 'Which' guides give information on which machines are most reliable, some makes are much better than others, maybe you just picked a less reliable make, or were just unlucky.

Hard water can cause scaling, did you use a washing machine cleaner/descaler once in a while? It might help. What were the faults?

Hard water can cause issues.
At least one load a day is quite heavy usage
Never washing above 40 isn't great.

I’m in a hard water area and add a descaled tablet for every wash.

You need to do a high temp maintenance wash every so often to clear the gunk out. I run an empty 90° wash without detergent a few times a year.

How is it 'breaking'? What's actually wrong with them?

The faults have been the brushes which then was the motor and the newest one was the motor.

It is probably because in the past people only did 2 or 3 washes a week so washing machines lasted for about 10 or 15 years, nowadays people wash every day so washing machines last much less time. John Lewis brand machines come with a three year guarantee, we have one of those

Stop using pods and gels, go back onto powder.
A repair man told me that washing at 40 does not sufficiently melt the gels. Powder is best.

You may be be able to replace the brushes yourself quite cheaply, iirc we have replaced ours in the past

What brand are they?

it's possobly limescale & gunk from liquid detergents.

try washing with powder at least some of the washes.
use one hot cycle (60 or hotter) on a long cotton cycle once a month or so.

you can get washing machine descaler that you can use every now and then.

Mine is 25 years old, but I live alone.

Always use powder.

Agree with using powder and doing the occasional 60 degree wash. I have only owned 2 washing machines since 1984. The current one was in this house when we moved in 20 years ago and is still going strong. It is a Bosch.

under-filling a machine damages it, because the weight is uneven as the drum turns. That’s what a repair man said, anyway. We are in a hard water area and use washing machine descaler in every wash.

Are you using the quick wash function? A lot of Mumsnetters do loads of washing so value speed, so often use the short cycles,which are harder on the machine as they agitate more than soak like the longer ones.

Plus I think hard water could be a factor

We've had two washing machines last 11 and 16 years and the first one didn't even break. We just left it behind when we moved house.

We use Calgon tablets in every wash, I buy boxes of 70 off Amazon when they go on special deal price, generic ones from the supermarket will be the same though.

I think a lot of it is just luck to be honest. We’re in a hard water area and use our machine at least once every day. We’ve had top of the range Samsungs before that have cost £700 plus thinking they’d be amazing and other similar brands and all broke within 2 years. This time round we went for a very cheap Indesit innex one that was about £220 and it’s still going strong with no issues at all about 8 years on. Ironically we also took out an extended warranty on it - for the very first time we’ve ever done that - and this is the first time we’ve never had cause to want to use it!

If it's the motor that's failing, advice about maintenance washes and powder instead of gel isn't going to make a difference. (For what it's worth, I had my machine repaired - the heating element needed replacing. The broken one was covered in limescale (London hard water) and I asked the repair man whether I should use descaler. He said not to bother, it doesn't make much difference.)

As PPs have said, what brand are you buying, and 7 washes a week is quite heavy usage, so you're using it at twice the rate of someone doing 3 loads a week.

Do the descalers go in with hour clothes?

Which brand is best?

3/4 full might still be too much - my washing machine manual says half full or even less for most cycles. (Maybe get a machine with a bigger drum in future?) When mine broke the technician told me to respect the weight of the load and also not just to use the standard quick wash cycle but to use the different cycles for their different purposes. Whether this has any bearing on how quickly the motor wears out, I have no idea.

We're in a hard water area and a washing machine engineer told me that the descaled tabs do make a difference. Touch wood all my washing machines have lasted well and have been left behind when I've moved. I used Sainsbury's limescale descaled tabs which are cheaper than Calgon.

Is there a particular load you’re doing periodically that gets very heavy when it’s wet? Bedding, towels or similar. Might be causing extra strain on the motor and causing the brushes to wear out.

You can get brushless washing machines now.