which washer?

[minimamoth]

OK. First go at posting a thread. How do you drive this thing, (clunks into gear and kangaroos down road)----
My washer is terminally ill,its over 20 years old and alzheimers has set in. Can anyone recommend one that is economical, environmentally friendly, uses little water and no electric at all. AND does the job without costing a fortune.

are you looking for something like this

Get a Miele. (see 5,502,505 approx threads on 'which washing machine' for further recommendations!) They're not cheap, but you won't need to buy another machine for another 20 years at least.

Thanks Sonilaa. Does it come with an operator? but then you'd have to feed and water.

Have just regained consciousness after looking at price of meile.

I'd recommend my Bosch - well after I fixed it myself this morning (must have saved £200 there.....need to tell DH when I buy that expensive dress that...). I got it because its the super big one, and we seem to have tonnes of clothes.

The entry-level Miele machines (which is what I've got, and what we've got in our tenanted property, and what my mum's got too!) are about £600 I think, but when you consider that £250/300 is cheap for a washer and you'll be replacing it in 2-3 years whereas a Miele is designed to last 20-30 years (and ours came with a 10 year guarantee) I think it's good value. I wouldn't personally pay £1k plus for the fancy models with all the extra features - my basic model does everything I need it to from a quick wash (30 min cycle), hand wash, up to a 90 degree hot wash. I can't think of anything I wish it had that it doesn't.

Will create myself loads of bad luck now saying this, but my mum has had her machine since I was at school (I'm now 30) and we've had the one in our tenanted house since 2004 (one in our current house was only bought last year, we'd been in rented ourselves for a few years prior to that) and none of them have ever gone wrong or needed repair.

Thank you emsyj. I will explore further, as yours sounds robust, will look at Bosch too.

We have a Bosch exxcel, also recommended by Which. It is hugely robust, quiet and does everything you ask of it. It has an 8kg wash, so you need to do fewer washes than in the usual 6kg machine (the extra 2kg is much more useful than I thought it would be when your kids are as mucky as ours are) so getting more washing done for your electricity usage. When I compare it to our old Zanussi, it uses less water, less electricity, gives a better wash, and our dd's eczema has almost gone since we got it. It cost about £100 more than a Zanussi and about £150 less than a Miele. Love it. The extra £100 hurt at the time but oh it was so worth it.

PS You can also bring the price down by going onto Quidco and getting cashback on from a lot of retailers. Worth taking into account for these big purchases.

Definitely recommend Bosch if you can't afford Miele (neither could we ).

DH has now disassembled washer. Ooo it only needs a new blah blah bit. Hmmm.
Is new waher just a dream bubble. Sigh