Advice Needed Washing Machine Dilema

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I bought a washing machine Bauknecht, which is supposed to be of good quality, my years ago probably more than ten years.
Two years after working flawlessly, it had an electrical fault. I didn't have the cash at the time to service it and I haven't used it ever since.
My dilemma today is whether to service it today after all these years or save the money and buy a brand new one.
Prices have gone down since then as a result of less taxes on electrical appliances.
Thanks for any replies.
 
Ten years is bang on expected life.

Buy a new one.
 
If the machine has just been left ignored for at least eight years then many of the rubber items (seals, hoses, etc) could have degraded. It would be a bit of a lottery to have the original fault repaired and then suffer an almost immediate leak from somewhere.
 
What sort of electrical fault do you think it was?
 
HB13DISH16 said:
It went with a bang and caused power shutdown in my apartment. I thought a capacitor might have blown at the time.
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That does sound like a capacitor, and/or possibly an associated rectifier diode/bridge, failure - if you can open the m/c up and follow the input cable to the control board, you may well see the components that failed. Might/might not be easy/cheap to repair - depending on how much other damage occurred.
 
jeallen01 said:
That does sound like a capacitor, and/or possibly an associated rectifier diode/bridge, failure - if you can open the m/c up and follow the input cable to the control board, you may well see the components that failed. Might/might not be easy/cheap to repair - depending on how much other damage occurred.
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Last Christmas I had a one year old Miele fail completely from one day to another.
I could follow power all the way to the controller PCB, but nothing after that.
No obvious fuses on the board. No components charred or buliging. Nothing smelling.
Probably needed to replace whole PCB.

Talking to Miele they said they'd most likely also replace the PCB (minimum cost of around 200 GBP + call-out fee of 100 GBP ).

It was almost impossible to find a spare PCB on the internet, but I finally found a guy in holland who had a "send-me-your-board-and-I'll-fix-it" service for a variety of German washing machines. But postage and repair fee still susbtantial.

In the end Miele advised us to check with our insurance, and yes indeed they covered this kind of faults.
So we ended up buying a new one, as the repair costs were more than 50% of the price of a new machine!
 
@st1
I would have pursued the retailer &/or Miele under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, or the previous Sale of Good Act 1979 (& its later Amendments) if bought before the latest Act came in, for f.o.c. repairs because it had not lasted for a reasonable period under the EU Consumer Directives which give you protection up to 6 years after you bought expensive goods like this (given the expected average life of a washing m/c!). There is lots of advice out there on sites like Which.co.uk, Money Saving Expert and so on.

OTOH, that would not help the OP, given where he lives, but, if I were him, I might (as I once did when someone really screwed up some big repairs to the engine of my car !) threaten the supplier that I would park the car, with the machine on display in the back, outside his shop, and with a big notice explained roughly what happened and that the retailer would not get it fixed f.o.c. - and only move it after the retailer had come out and agreed to do just that!
 
Nothing these days is built to last. My days of buying expensive goods stopped some time back. I know quite a few people who have bought well known, used to be quality brands have them fail in a relitively short period.
Some of this cheap stuff outlasts the big brands, sad but true...
 
Agreed.

Bush and Beko, not Bosch, Smeg etc.

Many common parts anyway!
 
In reply to the OP, personally, I would replace the washing machine rather than repair it as the repair costs may be quite high and other faults could then arise in the near future.

Our Miele washing machine lasted for 15 years before it had to be replaced due to a fault with the drum bearings. It was uneconomical to repair as the drum was one of the sealed unit types where the whole thing had to be dismantled to get to the bearings. The machine itself still worked, just with a lot of grating noise at low speed. We replaced it with another Miele.

For other things such as DIY tools I try to find older second hand British made options rather than the lesser quality (IMHO) Chinese stuff. I picked up a nice original British made Record No. 23 vice the other day still with the roundel blue paintwork mostly intact and a straight tommy bar, 25Kg of good old English steel.
 
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Most of the makes are probably made in the same factory!
Bosch is the only make I never had any trouble with.
Smeg, well, had a dishwasher, the main control board failed after 10 months, got that done under warranty. SWMBO wanted a red retro Smeg kettle, the push button lid failed on that too, out of warranty this time, loads of the same complaints on the net. For what you pay for the make not good at all!
 
Our Bosch dishwasher failed after just 2 months! Kudos to Bosch for getting an engineer out the next day to replace the failed pump under warranty though...
 
^^^^^
So glad they didn't make a miele of it.
 
I bought a spare pump for ours some years ago, as it was graunching away like bu**ery.

But when I got to grips with it, it was just buttons and other detritus caught in the impeller.

Cleaned it out and it remains functional to this day.

Anyone want an unused spare Washmash pump?

I fitted a replacement seal, not because of leaking, but due to mould. It was such a pig of a job that I now remember to leave the door ajar after use and occasionally apply a spot of bleach and a rinse cycle.
 
So, nothing to do with this then???

Br-aWwiIYAARl3Q.webp
 
:-disco It's a Banana .....
 
Our first washing machine lasted 10 years - the carbon brushes were done at 5 years very reasonably by a local guy but the 10 year failure was terminal - the drum bearings collapsed during a spin cycle & the unbalanced load thrashed around so much it smashed up all the insides! Little man took one look at it & said - forget it - the repairs needed are more than the cost of a new one....

:D
 
Lazarus said:
I fitted a replacement seal, not because of leaking, but due to mould. It was such a pig of a job that I now remember to leave the door ajar after use and occasionally apply a spot of bleach and a rinse cycle.
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Basic RULE for washing mc's - ALWAYS leave the ajar as that does prevent mould because it lets the moisture evaporate before the mould can start forming (done that with our 7 year old Zanussi, and the only time it begins to smell a bit is when we forget to do that). Also, use some of the specialised washing/dish washing cleaning compounds every month or so to clear out limescale and so on before it causes problems (Epares and the like supply their own brands which are cheaper than the branded stuff).
 
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