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...

Or washer is a Samsung. We have had it about 4 years. It's absolutely fabulous. It wasn't terribly expensive, about £ 400 I think. The daily wash lasts about an hour temprature from 20,30, 40, 60, and 90. Variable spins. Obviously other cycles as well. Depending on the fabric being washed, I do give it an extra spin at the end.

@Pluvia

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...

Under no circumstances must you admit to washing you knickers in with the duvet cover or all hell will break lose.

You can’t wash small items though they just aren’t built that way. I always did this with bathmats and it always happens! In my grans day she had to wash things by hand and then spin by hand so I am not going to complain about having to do a 5kg load each time. I save up my laundry and have spare bedding sets

YANBU that sounds like a complete pita, Id be furious too! Will make a mental note not to buy a Siemens washing machine in future! you should be able to chuck a wash in and forget about it, if you need to balance , weigh and fold the laundry before putting in the machine they should say that on their advertising campaigns!

You don't have to fold, but you do have to spread the laundry out in the drum so it's not balled up and then flatten it down. The engineers today demonstrated smoothing it down evenly before you set it going. Gone are the days of staggering into the utility room with a big bundle of laundry, stuffing it in and just slamming the door on it. Apparently this is progress. It strikes me that these machines are designed by men who have never actually had to do the family wash.

I bought an Indesit about six months ago, the options were slim due to the chip shortages. I fucking hate it, none of the cycles make any sense. I pine for my old Hoover.

You spent a fortune on a machine that doesn't allow you to be extravagant and wasteful. The machines really are taking over (I've just read the Alexa thread).

@Bryonny84

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.

Sounds like we have the same machine. For the 30 minute wash you need to turn the spin up each time, it’s set to 800rpm and you can change to 1200. Still done in about half an hour

Mine does the double beep thing though! I thought it was just because I was pressing the button too hard!

Apparently the double beep means something's wrong or you need to select or change something: the load isn't big enough or too big, you have a choice of spin speeds, you need to choose a different program etc. Mine beeps regularly when I try to start it up.

This is a Bosch/ Siemens issue, isn't it? And their engineers are being trained to tell us it us, not the machine.

I think mine might just be that I didn’t press the buttons hard enough because it always starts when I try again. 🤣

We've got a very cheap beko. Totally uncomplicated and works great. Sometimes if you put one thing in it does need an additional spin, but otherwise fine

In my grans day she had to wash things by hand and then spin by hand so I am not going to complain about having to do a 5kg load each time

My Hisense was like that. I sent it back and I’ve got a fairly basic Beko which is much more compliant.

This is a problem with most modern washing machines. Years ago if the load was uneven the machine would just shake and rattle about until it evened itself out maybe even shake itself across the floor. Modern machines have an imbalance sensor so if it thinks that the load is unbalanced it wont spin. It will do the same thing with bath mats etc if it ends up one heavy wet lump. You need to put more in the machine to even out the load. Its worse with larger drum machines.

Because I live in a hard water area, washing machines don't have a long life here - 5 years is about the max (I've had Hotpoint, Bosch and now Siemens). I bought my Siemens machine because of the extended warranty. I've learned to live with the Siemens machine and its little foibles. No one else in the house gets involved in the laundry otherwise I don't think they'd cope! I am however grateful that when I cleared out my DM's house I kept her 40+ year old Servis cylinder spinner which often comes out when the Siemens has let me down and it spin dries the heavy items in about 2 mins max. I shall be very sad when that gives up!

We bought a Miele in lockdown, eye wateringly expensive and is so high maintenance, I bloody hate it. My old 20 years old Miele was a dream. This one even needs it's own special detergent and won't work if you don't use it

**its

Our cylinder spinner didn’t move to this house (it was exposed to the elements and the plastic lid was dangerously damaged) and I miss it so much! 1800 rpm cuts the drying time way down and you can put just a few hand washed things in.
I hear there’s a 2400 rpm one on Amazon @bigbluebus …

Our new Bosch does this. But then again, so did our old Bosch so I wasn't surprised (old one was 7 years old when it failed). It only ever does it with the duvet cover, and I understand the logic of it unbalancing the machine, but it's kingsize so there isn't too much else I can put in there with it.

If the load ends up soggy I find that switching it to the rinse and spin programme (which is about 12 minutes) sorts it out, but it's annoying.

3200rpm!

@Sgtmajormummy Thank you. I had no idea you could still buy these spinners. I can't help thinking they must be far more eco friendly than the spin cycle on the washing machine as they do it much quicker and get more water out. My spin cycle on my machine takes 13 minutes or longer when it lies to me and says it's got 2 minutes left and next time you look it says 4 minutes I can spin in my freestanding spinner in a couple of minutes.

@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor
You have a twin dos machine. It will work with other detergents. Read your instruction book.

[quote user1498572889]@MrsPelligrinoPetrichor
You have a twin dos machine. It will work with other detergents. Read your instruction book.[/quote]
Yes it does and I have. It keeps wanting to revert back to using the twindos every 5 washes or so, highly irritating. I don't want to maintaince washes either with special cartridges. A hot empty wash will do just fine thank you.

I bought a new Miele last summer, after the bearings started going on my 25 year old machine. It's fine, spins properly even with random items, single duvet covers, mixed loads, AND you can turn the annoying beep off. (Important if you're washing a single duvet cover at 3am because DC threw up on it).
Mine is the one with power wash option.

So let me get this right. You've had someone from the manufacturer demonstrate to you in person how it works, you've seen it work thus, but when you're left to do it yourself it miraculously doesn't?

If this was a thread about someone showing her DH, who then consistently got it wrong every time he was tasked with laundry, you'd be told it is 'learned helplessness' and to LTB.

FWIW, we've got a brand new (Jan 2022) Bosch and have never had this problem.