… because I’m incapable of making simple decisions.

Washer drier is on the fritz. It’s been occasionally barfing up water onto the kitchen floor for months now, and it’s latest trick is to flash up “no water, check supply” errors (despite demonstrably being full of water). I’ve had it in bits countless times for things like pump unblocking over the years, it’s probably a decade old and owes me nowt, so I figure it’s time to fix it with a new one.

Is conventional STW wisdom still “go Bosch / Meile or go home” or will I be as well served by something half the price? Any other brands to look for / avoid? I don’t overly want to be replacing it every two years, I’d rather buy something that will last. I’ve just been on AO.com and the choice is frankly bewildering.

Note – it has to be a WD combo, I don’t have the space for two separates.

Is a WD combo essential? Would a clothes horse not suffice? My TD broke a year ago and haven’t replaced it, yeah I miss fluffy towels but manage to survive.

This may not be the type of reply you’re looking for so sorry if it isn’t!

I’d miss it too much I think. I have a clothes maiden and an ‘airing cupboard’ where the hot water cistern is, but I still use the dryer from time to time.

Bought a washing machine recently but can’t help you with a WD, other than to suggest buying a dehumidifier instead and putting it in e.g. a utility room, or, like we did, the conservatory, and then you get a drying room for wet biking kit to boot. Win!

i too would recommend a washing machine and dehumidifier/clothes horse. i think the general consensus is WD’s are a bit crap, probably read it on here 😀

EDIT: i believe samsung washing machines are well-recommended these days.

+1 on the dehumidifier solution!

normally I just buy Bosch stuff ‘cos it works but when we were on holiday a couple of years ago they had some Samsung thing that was just amazing.  Super quiet, got things cleaner than I ever remembered our machine getting them and appeared to do some thing where it looked at how dirty the water was and adjusted the cycle accordingly.  If our Bosch ever breaks down I’ll definitely take a look at them.  Can’t remember if it dried as well.  Think it did but it was summer so we just hung stuff out

Blimey, didn’t realise the cost of those Miele WDs, you can get a Miele WM for a third of the price of a WD at JL. Or how about an electric airer/dryer:

https://www.lakeland.co.uk/around-the-home/laundry-and-ironing/indoor-drying-and-airers/electric-dryers-and-airers/

Nearly got a WD last year but read so much about the reduced life due to the ‘jack of all trades’ approach that we just got a washer in the end.

Got an AEG in the end. Have got some Miele stuff as hand me down and it’s great, but at over double the price it was just too much. AEG seemed to offer the best balance of reputation and reliability vs price. And our old AEG had lasted yonks. Bosch didn’t offer one with a big enough drum for a double duvet IIRC

Or how about an electric airer/dryer:

I never knew such a thing existed, cheers for that.

Miele – Buy once, ours is about 20 years old, just keeps going.

Recently bought a Miele WD to replace one that gave 20 years of service. New one is oh so much quieter and has many washing and drying modes. Try Appliance City to see if you can get some money off. We didn’t this time as needed a quick delivery and they were about 10 days.

The new (and old) WD does a good job of both cleaning and drying BTW.

This looks good, 1400rpm spin speed plus a speed wash which I find brilliant.

https://www.johnlewis.com/miele-wdb038wps-freestanding-washing-machine-with-waterproof-protection-system-7kg-load-a-energy-rating-1400rpm-spin-white/p3555603

That’s where we had issues. 7kg drum is a bit small if you want to wash duvets or things like bike bags, and that’s only a 1400 spin. IIRC our AEG was about 650, 5 year warranty, 10kg drum and 1600 spin, and my personal experience with AEG stuff is it’s dead reliable.
Miele stuff is great, but tbh I’m starting to think you pay a little too much for the name nowadays.

Bosch. Used to work with courier company and we delivered parts to washing machine/household appliance engineers. Bosch was always the least trouble.

I’m going to go against consensus having just bought the cheapest washer / drier we could find pretty much.

About 7 years ago we bought an Indesit, mostly because it was the only one slim enough to fit where we were putting it. As a bonus it was only £250. 3 years ago when we were renovating the kitchen I thought we’d killed it by washing dust sheets / decorating stuff and other general crap – but it kept going for another 3 years having only just died.

Had a look around but decided to just go with a cheap Indesit again, anything else was pretty much twice the price. 2 year warranty from JL too.

It does washing and drying and has a timer, not sure what else I’d need it to do.

For drying either on the clothes line or I use a JML DriBuddi. It’s great and heats the house up when I work from home.

Cant help on choice couldnt tell you what our washer is! But I will say John Lewis cost a few quid more than AO but had much tighter delivery windows.

Unable to help or provide user experience on a washer drier – mainly because I, like a few comments above, have tended to believe they were too much of a compromise.

However, for washing machine only, I’ve got an LG, had it for 7 or so years, maybe longer, and it hasn’t missed a beat. 10 guarantee on the motor too and it’s direct drive so no nasty belts.

HTH

Ich bin zu arm, um billig zu kaufen…..

I’m too poor to buy cheap.

Miele. Siemens. Bosch.

But I will say John Lewis cost a few quid more than AO but had much tighter delivery windows.

Should price match though I think

Should price match though I think

Why are you just telling me that now!!! 😂😂😂😂😂

The Miele I linked to in JL is clearance at £549, bargaintastic.

Should price match though I think

I’m not 100% certain but I don’t think JL price-match online prices, just in-store ones. (I’ve half a memory that I’ve had this argument with them previously, but I may have made it up.)

Avoid the ‘touch screen’ type controls, they are massively temperamental on our Siemens washing machine and dishwasher.

Edit – The AEG WD we had previously got a lot of use and was still working after 11 years, when it was replaced with a integrated when our fitted kitchen was replaced.

Zanussi here. Had it years and it’s been fine. 1600 spin, condensing dryer (admittedly that sone’t get used a great deal).

I’m not 100% certain but I don’t think JL price-match online prices, just in-store ones. (I’ve half a memory that I’ve had this argument with them previously, but I may have made it up.)

Just looked and their website does say high street retailer (although they will match an online price from one). I’ve just checked back and found an email from 2016 where they agreed to match Co-Op for me, which I think is same as Ao.com ? I guess they may have changed their t&cs since then.

Depends how much use it gets but, if you can find a way I’d look into separate appliances.

Technology and performance has increased hugely in recent years and we’ve saved a fair bit on electric by going to a heat pump drier and well rated washing machine.

Spent years with a Hoover washer drier which lasted well but on reflection cost a lot to run. Then had a couple of bad machines from Bosch and Zanussi – both of which were supposed to be good.

Now have a Samsung washer and AEG heat pump drier and both are in operation at least once a day every day.

The drier in particular is a great bit of kit. It sits in our kitchen space and only heats the room slightly, giving no condensation at all – despite being unvented.

If space is tight, when I remodelled our utility space I made an alcove with a condenser TD stacked on top of a WM.