I dont like Karchers attitude towards customers. They will not advise or enter into discussions about your machine with a carte blanche take it to an authorised repair agent line.

Time for me to kick off to anyone that will listen.

I have a K4 Premium Ecologic that is not leaking but has low pressure.

2 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

I dont like Karchers attitude towards customers.

A few years back, I had an issue with my new 4 month old Nilfisk pressure washer. It spluttered, couldn't maintain pressure, and it did leak. I too was directed to an authorised dealer. On arrival, the machine was taken in the back A&E dept, where I asked if I could watch. There was no issue. The machine was expertly dismantled, fault diagnosed, new parts installed, and was fully tested. Not only that, but I was given a complimentary 20liter drum of traffic film remover. The guys were great!

If the authorised dealer isn't too far away, may be worth going down that route...

1 hour ago, unofix said:

I'll pop down and lend a hand 🤣

Not problem. We been advertising for 6 months and no joy. Need extra 2 to cope with the work we have. 

11 hours ago, iantt said:

Not problem. We been advertising for 6 months and no joy. Need extra 2 to cope with the work we have. 

What's the main bulk of the workload there now out of interest?

I remember they stopped doing MOT's.  And there can't be so much servicing now with so many EV's and longlife ICE intervals?

12 hours ago, StephenFord said:

A few years back, I had an issue with my new 4 month old Nilfisk pressure washer. It spluttered, couldn't maintain pressure, and it did leak. I too was directed to an authorised dealer. On arrival, the machine was taken in the back A&E dept, where I asked if I could watch. There was no issue. The machine was expertly dismantled, fault diagnosed, new parts installed, and was fully tested. Not only that, but I was given a complimentary 20liter drum of traffic film remover. The guys were great!

If the authorised dealer isn't too far away, may be worth going down that route...

Problem being they want £45 plus parts as it out of warranty

8 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

What's the main bulk of the workload there now out of interest?

I remember they stopped doing MOT's.  And there can't be so much servicing now with so many EV's and longlife ICE intervals?

 Where I work , we don't do any retail customers. So Doing alot of new, around 130 a day, then some used / servicing. Recalls galore , some warranty fixes. 

It's all pretty easy stuff and get paid well in terms of this trade (  compared to other garages) 

Accidentally changed a setting on my phone this morning and can't work out how to change it back. 🤦‍♂️

When I picked up the phone before, without touching any buttons, it would show time and battery charge.  Now it shows weather instead of battery charge.  

Any idea what I've done or how to change it back?

I've tried the 'lock screen' options but there was nothing about charge or weather.

It's an Android phone.

If it's an Android phone, then swipe the screen up to cancel the weather page and restore the normal home page.

It is Android but it's the lock screen that's the issue.

I've worked it out now.  The screen isn't actually 'locked' on the lock screen.  Pressing and holding it while 'locked' gave me the option of battery charge, weather or analogue clock face.  I must have accidentally pressed & held it, and then swiped across, when picking up the phone at some point.

While I'm still on a programming rant...

Does anyone on here own a modern Hotpoint washer dryer or even just the equivalent washing machine?  The one with a big dial in the middle, full text around it not numbers, and black screen on the right hand side?  Guessing they're up to about 3 years old now.

Interested to know if anyone else can get cycle lengths to match the display as I still can't seem to!  Appears to be no option to contact Hotpoint or Whirlpool (who made it) for technical information, just the standard customer services who can only provide a copy of the programme list that I already have.

Also to make matters worse, it looks like they're now being sold to Beko.  I didn't think the quality could get much worse than Whirpool but given the state of my Beko cooker, which didn't even last the warranty period, I won't be surprised if there's a further decline in Hotpoint appliances now.

Mines an H-wash 300 and the timings are correct give or take a couple of seconds. Tho it took a while for it to get used to my touch.

1 minute ago, Jimpster said:

Mines an H-wash 300 and the timings are correct give or take a couple of seconds. Tho it took a while for it to get used to my touch.

That's a Hoover not a Hotpoint.  Always makes me chuckle when I think of Hoovering clothes.

Interesting to see it has a cotton '59 setting.  Does that work on 60c in 60 minutes?  That's exactly what I wanted, and what my previous Hotpoint had.  

ooops apologies

yes it does, tho living on my own and not being a messy swine, most of my stuff goes thru on 30 degrees, 30 or 40 mins and a 1600 spin. Make a cracking job of my duvet twice a year.

Our previous washing machine was a Russell Hobbs that we had for about twelve years (at least) and I maintained it with door seals, motor brushes and replacing a faulty door interlock. (Did you know that those things work by heating a large resistor like mass that disables the door from being opened mechanically until it has cooled when power is removed from it? Clever way of preventing door openings whilst the drum can be rotating or a power cut).

Anyway the Russell Hobbs was eventually retired when the tub bearings became too loud. We bought a more digital and fancy Hotpoint to replace it but...it's not as good. The Russell Hobbs was very heavy due to the large concrete bricks inside it as inertial vibration suppressors. The new one bangs about all over the place despite my efforts to level it. The machine tries to disperse the load digitally to make up for a lack of sheer weight but it doesn't work well.

Luckily I kept the Russell Hobbs so may renovate it and put it back into service. Washing machines like everything else - material content replaced by software.

Sadly I did become very familiar with door interlock operation last month.    Mine failed and wouldn't unlock the door.  Which lead to the machine constantly pumping dry at the end of the cycle.  Couldn't access the mains plug (health conditions prevent me moving a washer now) so I had to pull the breaker switch for all sockets in the property to get it to power down!  Left it a few minutes, switched breaker back on, and the machine came back on and started pumping again!  Had to switch all sockets off again and contact a stronger person to come and pull the machine out for me urgently.  

When I got the new machine, this one has a seemingly unnecessary system of locking the door, doing a couple of drum rotations, then unlocking the door, before locking the door again!  It's listed in the handbook as correct operation, but I cannot understand what the purpose is.  It's just doubling the wear on the interlock.  All that door lock clicking is a reminder of the 'event' from the last machine for me, which doesn't inspire any confidence in the new one.  

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

 

When I got the new machine, this one has a seemingly unnecessary system of locking the door, doing a couple of drum rotations, then unlocking the door, before locking the door again!  It's listed in the handbook as correct operation, but I cannot understand what the purpose is.  It's just doubling the wear on the interlock.  All that door lock clicking is a reminder of the 'event' from the last machine for me, which doesn't inspire any confidence in the new one.  

Sounds like a self-test for drum rotation and interlock perhaps but who knows. Everything is full of software and AI these days...

Our last two machines have been Siemens. We bought a WM61401GB in 1999. After 3 years the drain and level sensor were badly blocked by using liquid detergent at 40C. I cleaned all that out and got it working again and we changed to tablets. It then ran fine until 2014 when it started to misbehave and I discovered the motor brushed were worn out and replaced them - note that it was then 15 years old but spares were still available. It finally packed up in 2017 with what looked like a controller fault that I couldn't fix. Still, we thought 18 years was not bad so replaced it with another Siemens, a WM16W590GB. This one has a brushless motor. It's very quiet. It seems to be able to balance the load well so doesn't bang around. The only problem so far, in 7 years, is the heater element developed a leak to earth, causing our consumer unit to keep tripping out.

I don't expect this one to last as long as the old one but it'll be interesting to see if paying a premium price really does make a difference. These were both expensive machines compared with the usual makes.

40 minutes ago, mjt said:

 This one has a brushless motor. It's very quiet. It seems to be able to balance the load well so doesn't bang around. The only problem so far, in 7 years, is the heater element developed a leak to earth, causing our consumer unit to keep tripping out.

I don't expect this one to last as long as the old one but it'll be interesting to see if paying a premium price really does make a difference. These were both expensive machines compared with the usual makes.

I think our new Hotpoint is brushless as it is completely silent. Also, it kind of moves more like a stepper motor than a normal analogue drive motor. When energised it momentarily pulses into a local fixed position and stops with a slight wobble and then starts to move - reminded me of how a floppy disc drive motor used to behave back in the day - those motors composed of a large circular magnet as an armature moving over a circular series of coils stuck to the PCB beneath.

If your Hotpoint says 'ProInverter' on the front then it is a brushless motor.

They're not direct drive though, so could still get a bit of belt whine.

9 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

If your Hotpoint says 'ProInverter' on the front then it is a brushless motor.

They're not direct drive though, so could still get a bit of belt whine.

I'm not sure it's normal for a bloke to know so much about washing machines 🤣

30 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

I'm not sure it's normal for a bloke to know so much about washing machines 🤣

I'm fairly sure most females couldn't care less about the type of motor drive on a machine!

 

4 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I'm fairly sure most females couldn't care less about the type of motor drive on a machine!

 

I was going to post a very sexist response to that comment, but have decided against it 🤣

TBF if it breaks they get a man in, i'll get mi coat.

2 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

TBF if it breaks they get a man in, i'll get mi coat.

I was thinking more that some may not prefer a brushless, vibration free motor - 🤣 I'll get my coat too...

On 7/7/2024 at 3:44 PM, mjt said:

After 3 years the drain and level sensor were badly blocked by using liquid detergent at 40C. I cleaned all that out and got it working again and we changed to tablets.

I wonder if liquid detergent is different nowadays.  I was considering some of the Persil Wonder Wash that Usain Bolt swears by (or is perhaps paid to advertise! 🤔 ) as I don't know if my current gel pod casings are breaking down quickly enough to use in the quickwash.  I really don't want to risk gumming anything up internally though.