AIBU to hate my washing machine?

[Pluvia]

We had an old Siemens machine for 15 years until we finally had to admit that its bearings were beyond repair. We looked at all the alternatives, felt overwhelmed, so stuck with Siemens and paid something like £850 for reliability and efficiency. Ouch.

Six months down the line, with the washing come out of the machine sopping wet time and time again, we called the Siemens engineers in. The machine is fine. It's us. Apparently when you have a duvet cover that needs washing you can't just put it in on its own, it has to be balanced by other items or the spin won't work. And we haven't been carefully placing the laundry in the drum and smoothing it out flat. Tut tut.

Apparently we need to weigh the washing before putting it in, even though the machine is designed to take 9kg and it's obvious that the load doesn't weight 9kg. But reducing the time on some of the long eco-washes means that they can only cope with low weights of laundry.

This isn't what we signed up for. We're not dinosaurs. During lockdown my partner stayed for months with her elderly parents and used their AEG without issues (and without weighing and balancing and placing the items carefully into the drum). In the weeks between our old machine dying and the new one arriving we used neighbours' and friends' machines successfully. None of them seemed to need all the fussing that our new snowflake of a machine does.

The worst thing of all is that it's a well-built machine that's likely to keep going for 15 years...

At the risk of sounding facetious, don't wash one duvet cover at a time. That's madness even with a machine that would cope with it.

And don't manually reduce the time. Shove your load in and if it's below the maximum weight the machine will automatically weigh it and reduce the time on the eco cycle itself. Our £400 Bosch Serie 4 does, and as it's the same company (BSH - Bosch Siemens Home) it stands to reason it uses the same tech inside.

I would never think of shoving one duvet cover in by itself. I've never had a machine that would be happy with that, so I think you just got lucky with your old machine. This new one is probably more ecofriendly so there will be compromises with that.

I've got a Siemens machine which is about 4 years old and I have the same problem with the spin cycle - more with towels than bedding. Put 2 bath sheets in and you end up with 2 very heavy and wet towels at the end of the cycle. I've often had to resorts to wringing them out by hand before putting them back in to spin. I've never had this problem with any other machine. Mine also beeps at me a couple of times when I try to start it too - even though there's no fault (keep hitting start and it works on 2nd or 3rd attempt). I was persuaded to buy a Siemens by our local independent electical store as the next best thing to a Miele - which had a price tag too steep for our hard water area!

Washing machines are not as good as they were about 20 years ago, sadly. If I'd known that I would have had the bearings replaced on my old machine.

@bigbluebus — it interests me that you're having the same problems with your Siemens. Yes, we've had exactly the same problem with towels. We've ended up wringing them out. The advice today was to only wash a large item (duvet cover, bath sheet, large bath towel) when it was balanced in weight by a number of smaller items. So if you're stripping beds you can't just bung one or two duvet covers in and four pillowslips.

We live in a two-person household and at times it's only one of us for a month at a time. I would probably end up washing clean things to make up the balance.

These things are massively over-engineered. I love how quiet the machine is but my appreciation stops there.

I don't understand why it needs to be weighed out with other smaller items, it just makes no sense to me. Any washing machine I've used has been fine with anything....

Apparently one large item such as a duvet cover or a couple of items like large towels can get stuck on one side of the drum and that unbalances the drum and the spinning process, so the machine just stops where it is and you take out the sopping washing, thinking it's finished, and have to wrong it out or put it back in again and try spinning it again. Whereas if there are some smaller but equally heavy things in the drum the washing machine can have a bit of a shake and distribute the items more evenly and then you get a good spin.

I'm really furious that we've paid so much money for a machine that is more clever that I am and is full of sensors for this and that, but can't manage to spin itself if loaded with a duvet cover or a towel. I like to wash towels and tea towels at 60 degrees occasionally. We don't have many other smaller items that can be washed at that temperature. So I can imagine that if I have a load consisting of one large heavy beach towel and half a dozen tea towels I'd have to add other hand towels in, whether they needed washing or not, to balance the load. It seems bonkers.

OP I recently got a new Bosch washing machine and have similar (too heavy in our case). If I put in two big bath towels it won't spin. So annoying.

It washes well and spins well when it spins, and is quiet, but this having to be perfectly balanced thing is very very annoying!

Yes, my Newish Bosch is just the same.

This lunchtime the Siemens engineers came and asked me to put together a load that included a number of cotton items. I found a single duvet cover, some teatowels and a small bath towel. They put it on a rinse program, then spun it. They opened the machine and passed me the towel, which felt much drier than our usual spin. Then they gave me the lecture on loading and balancing and weighing etc. Earlier this evening I suddenly remembered that the laundry was still in the machine and needed washing properly. We checked that the towel was opened out and not balled up and then we ran a wash with a 1400 spin — and when we opened the machine the laundry was still very wet. So we ran another 1400 spin and it's better but not as dry as it was when the engineers ran it.

I don't know where we go from here. We're fortunate to be able to line dry a lot of our stuff and the rest we can dry indoors. But if we were using a tumble drier it would cost a fortune. What's the point of all this technology if the results are so poor?

No one needs to wash just one duvet cover at a time.

Read the thread. And yes, if I spill tea over the duvet I do need to wash it — and if there's nothing else to go in, it gets washed on its own.

Why did you buy such an expensive jazzy machine when it seems you barely ever have any washing? I'd sell it on and buy a cheap new one in your position. Also genuine question why were there weeks between your old one dying and getting the new one? 🤔 if mine died today I could get a new one by tomorrow from lots of places either online or face to face shopping.

Same issue with our new washing machine. It also destroys the clothes- everything comes washed out, worn out, colours fade and clothes age years from wash to wash. I am having to wash everything on a delicate wash. Never had so many problems with a brand new super clever appliance that cannot do basic jobs.

I’ve just done exactly that and washed just a duvet cover today as split a whole mug of coffee on it. It’s a top of the range year old AEG washer /dryer (god bless my lovely landlord here in Denmark) and checked it after wash cycle and it’s perfect , damp but certainly not sopping wet!! And I basically bundled it in- certainly wasn’t ‘balancing it

I've got a Bosch and I'm happy with it but if I use the 30 degree half hour wash I have to re-spin it. It's also a bit fussy about the load being distributed evenly and will double beep and not start if it doesn't like it. It's a good machine though, cost about £400. Saying that, I had a cheap Hotpoint before and it did the job.

I have a Siemens which is around 8 years old. I wash a super king duvet cover, a king fitted sheet and a couple of pillow cases and a bath towel on the eco wash and never have any issues

Sounds like poor design rather than a one-off fault with your particular machine. Which they can't admit because they'd have to fix or replace it for everyone who phones up and moans. So they spin you some bullshit with their fingers crossed behind their backs.

I have a new LG and it is an absolute nightmare. Everything comes out wrinkled and mangled regardless of which setting I use, colours fade after one wash, and it sounds like an airplane is taking off when it gets to the spin setting (despite being advertised as one of the quieter ones). It's also useless at getting stains out, even when they've been pre-treated (in the same way that worked fine with other machines).

Hands down the worst washing machine I've ever had - and I've moved around a lot, so it's been a fair few!

Sorry not to be more helpful...

Another thumbs down for Bosch here. Bloody thing.

JFC

IF it required that much pandering to, it would be being sent back as 'not fit for purpose'

I LOVE my machine, I've had it 12 years now and I'll cry when it dies.

Partly because I'm a softie & it's been around a long time, but just as much for the absolute arse of trying to buy another one that is as good.

This one has a cheeky crush on the oven, so he can't be left unsupervised, but other than that he's perfect! (& to be fair, the oven is cute!!)

@Pluvia

Read the thread. And yes, if I spill tea over the duvet I do need to wash it — and if there's nothing else to go in, it gets washed on its own.

Do you only have one duvet cover?

Honestly, this baffles me - I've not had this problem (Indesit machine) but then I don't think I've ever put in anything but a full load. Duvets go in with towels, tea towels, throws etc. And if necessary to make a full load, clothes.

I bought a smart machine that weighs all your items and calculates the time according to weight. It’s an LG and I love it. You still can’t wash 1 thing though this will always happen. My cat used to wee on our bathmat and I always made this mistake of washing it alone then realise I had a soaking wet mat that wouldn’t spin and have to drip dry it

I’ve had similar uneven load problems with my 18mo Candy where the machine just chunters and never spins or I pull the clothes out sopping wet.

I either push it onto the 1400 “Rinse and Spin” cycle and eliminate the rinse option or do a 14 minute wash which allows a 1000 rpm spin.

Neither of which is ideal for energy or water consumption.
And we shouldn’t be second guessing our “smart” appliances.

Only on Mumsnet would a thread about crap modern washing machines turn into an inquisition on why anyone would occasionally need to wash a duvet cover...