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

[lucylala]

This is a genuine question - am I being unreasonable? How long do washers last for? I thought it was years and years (say 10yrs +) . However, ours has packed in - is not spinning any water away, burning and ripping clothes and making huge banging noises - it sounds terminal doesn't it?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

No. You're not. Our Bosch is second hand (although still fairly new when we had it I suspect) and has lasted 6 already. And no signs of wearing out.

My Miele is over 8 years old now and I have never had a problem with it. It was £700 at the time and I think the same machine is cheaper than that now.

Some here from around the £500 mark.

Mine lasted 2 years!
It is terminal. The bearings have gone and you may need a new drum. It is just what happened with mine 2 weeks ago.

My xdh has still got the washing machine we bought when we bought our 1st house (14yrs ago) and has only had repair man out once in all that time. It was/ is Hotpoint. I however, have had 2 separate ones in the last 7 years. Shouldn't there be some kind of ofcom thing that supervises shoddy goods needing replacement. If they could make them to last 15 yrs ago, then why not now? Someone could clean up using old fashioned ways of making them, no?

Thanks for the link MrsSpoon. My washer is on its last legs. I fancy a Miele after reading the comments on here, but the cheapest one with a timer switch seems to be £800 , although it does have a 10 year warranty.

Guess I'd better start saving.

Could you not buy the cheapest Miele and buy a separate electrical timer switch that plugs into the socket?

I have the Hoover bog standard one I got 12 years ago as a wedding present, and tbh I wish it would give up - the noise of the spin cycle is akin to a freight train, but it has actually given no real bother over the years - none that my dh can't fix. I had heard great things about Beko machines.

I have just had my washing machine(indesit- DO NOT BUY!) condemned, it was just over 4.5 yrs old. Have just ordered a Bosch machine (WAE28465)- £450 at John Lewis but only £350 after shopping around online!
Loads of mumsnetters on previous threads recommended the Bosch as next best after Miele. Would a bought a cheaper Miele but only a 5kg wash load- I couldn't go back to that I'm afraid! The repair man recommended Bosch and Siemens as best makes.

themoon66, I was going to make the same suggestion as frogs. It is a very basic Miele we have and it has been fab.

Have had my Dyson (roughly the same price as a Miele of same size) since 2001, running it routinely 4 times a week. Thanks to Dyson's excellent service and repair policy (have had to call them 2x for rubber bands and once for electronics problem), it is running at least as well as when I first got it (faster too, as one of the engineers who serviced it updated the software programme that runs it, to make it 4 minutes faster). Can't say enough about Dyson, frankly. Their after sales service is superb, and in keeping with my eco-credentials as they prefer to repair than replace, and produce machines that are able to be repaired at low cost to the owner. Seriously worth considering.

My DH inherited an AEG washing machine from the people he bought his house from (they were emigrating to Australia and couldn't take anything with them). It must have been 12 or 13 years old when we got rid of it to replace it with a Hoover washer/dryer. I really wish now that I'd stood my ground with DH, and just got a dryer (DH argued there wasn't the room for one-like how often does he do the washing!?) because the Hoover was bl**dy awful. After 18 months, the door fell off (2 days before Christmas and 3 weeks before DD2 arrived) due to the hinge being badly cast (I could see air bubbles in the hinge) and 2 1/2 years after that, the door fell off again.
Finally this year, it stopped pumping out/spinning. It probably was "fixable" if I was bothered enough to actually pay for someone to look at it. But I couldn't be bothered. I was so not sorry to see the blasted thing go! We've now got a Zanussi one and later in the year, we'll probably look for a separate dryer to go in the garage. While researching which make to go for, I read that Hoover, Hotpoint and Candy (which I think are all the same group now) washing machines and dryers are one of the worst for breaking down and needing repairing. Miele and Bosche are the best makes to go for.

Had my whirlpool for 13 years. 10 loads of washing a week and never seen a Calgon Tablet (despite living in South).

No - my Bosch is 10 years old and never once gone wrong

But duchesse, the point about the Miele is that they don't need fixing. Ours has been run pretty much every day since July 1999 (old inherited Hotpoint died 4 weeks after ds was born) and has never broken down in all that time. My mum's has run seamlessly since about 1980, apart from the little incident with the beach sand, which was entirely our fault.

It's worth paying the extra -- it's the difference between buying a jacket for £80 and wearing it for 5 years, and buying one for £18 and wearing it for 6 months.

I have a Miele - it cost a 1000 quid in the Selfridges sale in 2001

Not had one minute of a problem with it.

Best thing I got in the divorce

I had an Ariston which only lasted a couple of years before the bearings gave out - never again. My present one is AEG

i have to get a new one every 3 or so years. i overload them though so its my fault.

my mum has had hers since i lived at home (about 20 odd years) she is careful with hers, she never overloads it ect. she has a fit at me whenever i have to get another.