AEG washer dryer - any advice before we take the plunge?

[LongTailedTit]

Afternoon all - we're 99% sure we're going to get this AEG washer dryer but I thought I'd ask on here before we part with such a vast sum of money!

DH has decided it's the one after reading all the Which reviews and other ones online.

We live in a narrow Victorian terrace and currently have a standard washing machine in the kitchen and no room for a tumble dryer, which means most of the year the house is chock full of damp laundry, and the dehumidifier sits in the middle of the dining room which is the main crossing point to all other rooms - it's a right pain, and you're always swerving around something.
We're not staying here forever, but in the meantime we need the house to work for us. (DC2 due next Spring).

This is the best solution, yes?

I had an AEG washing machine, dryer and dishwasher once. Never again. They all packed up within 3 years.

I also had a washer/dryer once. Never again. They won't dry a whole wash load, so you have to take a good chunk of stuff out and hang it up to dry. They are also more short-lived than separate machines.

£820 is a huge amount of money to pay for something that is going to do half the job and could be short term.

There was a recent thread on Chat that gave ideas for all sorts of airers and dryers but that OP stuck her fingers in her ears.

Take a look and see if it helps.

Just had a read of that, thank you for the link - the main issue seemed to be that the OP wanted to get a rather dodgy loan so she could buy a tumble dryer at the height of summer, can kind of see why people jumped on her...

• We do not have room to have the airer up permanently all winter long. Did it the last two years, stuff often took daaaays to dry, horrible.
• We will still use our airer for excess washing, and the line outside on dry days.
• The washing makes the house very damp, and when we have the dehumidifier running the house becomes even more of an obstacle course.
• We have no space for a proper tumble dryer.
• The one we're planning to get is Which recommended, and has huge capacity - 9kg wash, 7kg dry, our current washer has a 6kg capacity so the smaller drying capacity isn't a problem.
• It comes with a 5 year warrantee.

We've looked into all the other practical alternatives, heated airers etc, and they're just not going to work here.
Would love a proper dryer, but short of fitting it outside the back door and watching it rust it's not an option.

There's a cheaper version of the AEG one that's about £650, but has 1kg smaller capacity for both washing and drying, my cost-averse DSis and DM who both know our house both reckon the larger one is a better buy.

I reeeeally want the washer/dryer to be a good thing, as all the other options are a bit crap for our house!

I can understand why you want one, but you need to be aware that washer/dryers aren't a perfect solution.

The 5 year warranty won't cover you when the motor burns out. The reason the motor burns out is because people overload the machine on the drying cycle.

What you will have to do is remove nearly a quarter of the washing from the machine every time you use it. That will then need to be hung up to dry, or sit around waiting for the first dry cycle to finish. You will then have to run another dry cycle on the remaining 2kg of wet stuff, or juggle that with the spare 2kg from the next load, etc.

In the end I found that I was only washing the smaller load size so that I could then run it straight through a drying cycle.

Unless you have the patience of a saint, you will be getting a 7kg machine.

I have a washer dryer, it's a 9kg wash load but only 6kg for drying. I don't find it a massive pain to deal with - in my old house I had separate ones, but even then, the dryer had a smaller capacity than the washer, so there was always stuff waiting to go in.

I tend to take half the load out at the end of the wash cycle, then run the dryer twice. I'd prefer to still have separates, because the old dryer was much better, but if the choice is between a combined washer dryer, and no dryer, I'd take the combined one!