Washing machines: planned obsolescence, replace every 5 years

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Washing machines: planned obsolescence, replace every 5 years

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

mattwnz

20515 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4795

#3427050 21-Oct-2025 17:44

gzt: My F&P front load = Cold, 30, 40, 60, 90. For peace of mind I'll have to try a 'cold' wash and see if it's 20. Recently I've been running 40 instead of 60 and things seem ok.

Recently I've switched from Persil powder to Fab powder. The only difference I've noticed is Persil is more forgiving when you forget and leave the finished washing in the machine way way too long. I'm guessing Persil powder has some bacterial growth inhibitor that Fab lacks. As long as we don't forget, it seems good enough for clean work at least.

I haven't looked at the economics of liquid. I always remember it as contributing to unnecessary gunk everywhere, although it's been years since I gave it a good go.

Personally I always now use Ecostore powder and it washes as well for me in both top and front loaders. But always do a warm wash, 30 or 40

gzt

18679 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7813

Lifetime subscriber

#3427052 21-Oct-2025 18:19

Consumer Test Report - Fab

Everyday grime AVERAGE
Perspiration GOOD
Grass/mud AVERAGE
Olive oil POOR
Baby food POOR
Tomato AVERAGE

That is more or less what I expected. No surprises there. We're long past the baby food so that one is not a problem.

After routinely using 60°C for a long time - recently I've been washing at 40°C maybe I'm getting a minor performance boost compared to Consumer's testing at 20°C.

I'm working towards trying 30°C and maybe 20°C later. I expect I'll do a hotter wash for whatever random reason now and then and that will keep things on track.

Kickinbac

468 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 93

#3427728 24-Oct-2025 14:27

pdh:

One of the stupidities of front loaders is that they only connect to the cold water supply - never to the hot.

Apparently this was mandated by the EU - trying to move everybody onto electrical (instead of gas) hot water.

So, instead of using my 5x more efficient heat-pump generated hot water, the front-loader uses a 19th C resistance element to heat cold water.

I also think that the myth of front loaders being gentle needs debunking. It's new-tech bunkum - lie about a weakness & make it a feature.

Agitating clothes gently in a big vat of warm water - letting the dirt & sand fall to the bottom of the drum - is a lot gentler than making clothes rub over each other in a gritty, barely wet slurry for 20 minutes. That's how you polish semi-precious stones !!

And I have the 20-year-old shirts to prove it ;-)

I'm with you on this one if you have HWHP.

But if you have solar PV panels, free or cheap electricity to heat the water during the day. And there's also off peak power rates.

I like a good old F&P gentle annie. Parts are cheap and they are easy to repair yourself. I did the bearings in mine for about $30 and just followed a YouTube tutorial. I take the drum out every year or so and give the machine a deep clean. They can get funky on the other side of the drum.

Kickinbac

468 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 93

#3427730 24-Oct-2025 14:36

nitro:

noroad:

You use hot water?

with the old top loader, we rarely used hot water (too far from our cylinder). we had no complaints about how clean our clothes were, because there was nothing to compare with.

i did periodically (at least annually, every 6 months if i remember) take the drum out and hit it with a water blaster to get the gunk out. if you've never done this, i can imagine what the unseen side of your drum looks like.

Yes to cleaning of the drum! I was shocked how gross it was when I did the bearing in ours. And also how easy it was to get the drum out.

richms

29098 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10209

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3427731 24-Oct-2025 14:36

The amount of water that a front loader takes would not even have it warm by the time its done filling unless you are very close to the cylinder or have super narrow pipes. It would still have to heat as most of the fill would have been cold water so the only option to use the hot water from the hot tap would be to waste all that cold water by pumping it straight out until the hot water came thru, and then you have heated a greater volume of water by the more efficient means and wasted many litres of water.

Richard rich.ms

Ragnor

8279 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 585

Trusted

#3428348 28-Oct-2025 03:19

k1w1k1d:

Hey Nitro, what brand of top loader and how long to get drum out?

Jase2985:

I have a fisher and paykel, and it takes about 5-10 mins to get the drum out.

nitro:

i did periodically (at least annually, every 6 months if i remember) take the drum out and hit it with a water blaster to get the gunk out. if you've never done this, i can imagine what the unseen side of your drum looks like.

Here's a video showing how, some other useful videos on that channel like how to unblock and change the pump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpJ5bDDpKkA

I'm sure this type of basic/regular maintenance is extremely difficult on newer / planned obsolescence models.

My F&P has been going for like 20 years, I had to change the pump once, it was like $50-100 - no big deal

Apple TV

Stream your favourite shows now on Apple TV (affiliate link).

Jase2985

13730 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6202

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3428478 28-Oct-2025 15:17

My one is only about 5 years old and its been pretty easy to DIY maintain.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4