£160 to replace/repair the drum on Hotpoint washing machine. Reasonable or rip off?

[amazonianwoman]

My Hotpoint washing machine is just 3 years old and won't spin properly - it's unbelievably noisy, sounds like it's going to take off.

I got our usual engineer expecting him to say something's got stuck again but he reckons the drum is broken and will cost £160 to repair and will take 2 working days.

The machine only cost about £300! Am I being ripped off?!

had the same problem it is the seal for the bearings that fails it causes water to enter the bearings and wash the grease away. the bearings then seize and break up. i have just stripped mine down and replaced the bearings (cost 10 pounds) but took me about 4 hours :( a word of warning though a lot of the big manufacturers now supply sealed drums hopefully they will last longer because changing the bearings is not possible

4.5 years on my Hotpoint for the bearings to go in a sealed unit. I just know I'm gonna laugh on the phone tomorrow when they quote for repair. 4.5 years isn't long enough for a machine of this price! I wasn't expecting Miele standards, but come on Hotpoint!!!

I realise that this is an old thread but thought I would add that Hotpoint and some other brands have a 5 year parts guarantee which would cover for large repairs like bearings going. Their call out charge is quite high though which you do still have to pay.

Mark
GlotechRepairs

Yep, I used that hotpoint service when the led screen on my 14 month old Hotpoint machine went kaput.

I could buy a new part for £100 and it looked simple to fit. Or call the hotpoint engineer out with a £100 call out charge and he'd fit it for free.

I won't be buying Hotpoint again.