We've had a few washers recently.
Childhood washing machine was a Tricity Bendix machine & matching vented drier.
These were from the late 80's very early 90's with a chrome door and dark brown control panels. Cant remember the mod numbers but I know the washer was a higher end version. They lasted years.
Later we got a matching Hoover washer and vented drier - these were terrible. The washer had a few new control modules and door seals. It used to shred clothes between the glass door and rubber door seal during the spin hence the new door seals under warranty. The drier bearings used to grind and they both failed completely shortly after the warranty expired.
We then bought a Samsung washing machine - this was when Samsung were new to the UK washing machine market (I'd never seen them before anyway).
It had major issues with the out of balance spin sensor - A 30 minute quick wash would take 5 hours due to this.
The repair man from Comet replaced the control panel twice, the motor, drum and belt once and still it refused to work properly.
Then one day the mains cable and moulded plug started to melt!!!!!!!! So Comet swiftly took it away and said we could choose a new machine.
We then chose a Bosch Classixx (this is going back about 6 years) - fantastic machine - lasted around 3 - 4 years and then the carbon brushes wore away due to the amount of use it was getting.
At this point we replaced it. Simply because it had received so much use we couldn't justify spending any money fixing it.
We then bought a LG direct drive washing machine. Very similar to the current LG F12A8TDA5 - this lasted two years of normal use!
The wash recirculation pump failed and it was becoming very noisy in spin leading me to believe the drum support struts were also starting to fail. Unimpressed we sold it as a going concern.
A few months ago we bought our current machine from Currys.
Miele W3228 - very impressed with it and we have registered with Miele for the 10 years parts and labour warranty.
On the drier scene around 3 years ago I bought a Zanussi condenser drier with autodry. It seemed to shrink a lot of clothes though and didn't dry on the lower heat setting so I sold it on eBay.
I then bought a full size White Knight vented drier as they are well known for their reliability and a friend has one that dries very well without shrinking everything. TWO warranty repairs in the first year - I tumble dry EVERYTHING but I had expected it be a lot more reliable given the brands reputation. First repair was the airflow fan, second repair was the heating element coming loose and catching on the drum.
Replaced it while waiting for the second warranty repair and sold it on eBay once it was fixed.
And our current drier is a bit of a mixed bag. I'm not a fan of Hotpoint at all - but it was cheap to buy new and so far it has actually been superb! Wouldn't usually give Hotpoint a second look but we needed a drier there and then and it ticked the boxes so we got it. I ram it full to the brim and it dries everything quite happily on the low heat setting. I even tumble dry everything in the summer as I don't like washing hung on the line, so it maybe gets 4 - 5 hours use most weeks. It is vented through the wall too so that's a plus. When it does eventually give up the ghost I'll be buying a Miele drier to match the washing machine.
