Just before Christmas our washing machine decided to pack in. Yep, excellent timing. It was the icing on the cake to our run of bad luck in 2015.
There’s no way we could afford to buy a new one so close to Christmas, so it was going to be a credit card/catalogue purchase which would be paid off in instalments. Nothing wrong with that, especially as there’s a lot of buy now, pay in a year offers around.
We were super lucky to be offered a new washing machine as our Christmas present from my in-laws. They knew how tough things were and thought the most useful and beneficial thing they could buy us for Christmas was a new washing machine. They also let us have it early so I didn’t have to spend the rest of the year lugging bags of washing to friends and family houses. Phew.
A new washing machine is an investment, those things aren’t cheap, so we shopped around and thought about what was important to us and what we needed.
Here’s my top 5 tips for choosing a new washing machine.
- Work out your budget. This is really important. Once you know the maximum you can afford then you can eliminate anything priced too high. That way you’re not wasting your time looking at machines out of your reach.
- Do your research. Being a blogger myself I totally appreciate the value of genuine reviews. Reviews from people who own/have owned a particular product and have been kind enough to share their honest opinions with you. Read reviews on shop sites, blogs, forums, wherever. You’ll probably find certain issues may occur over and over and you can then avoid that product.
- Think about exactly what you need. Our old washing machine was fab because the settings were really easy to work out. There were 4 settings I really wanted on my new machine as I knew they were the ones I used regularly. A daily wash not much longer than an hour. A quick wash of around 15/20 mins. A baby care wash and a hand wash/wool wash. If you have a house full of boys who come home caked in mud from their Sunday football match each week, then you’ll need hot washes etc. If you have a newborn baby you’ll need a hot cotton wash. If you wear a lot of cashmere you’ll need a delicate hand wash. Make sure you’re looking at what the machine offers you and you needs are covered.
- Check the size. The last thing you want is for your shiny new machine to be delivered only for you to find it doesn’t fit where the old one was. Double and even triple check it will fit.
- Shop around! The machine we bought was from in store. I think it was on offer, and came with a cutback of £30. Once we decided it was what we wanted, and before we agreed to buy, I quickly looked online on my phone to see it was on offer cheaper anywhere else. Turns out the shop we bought from did a price check there and then and matched anyone who offered it cheaper, but I would still suggest doing a little digging yourself just on case. Make sure you even check the stores own website, you’ll be surprised how many items are cheaper online than in store, even though it’s exactly the same product and company.
So there are my top tips for choosing a new washing machine. We are super happy with our choice. It’s perfect and will hopefully last longer than the 4 years the old one did!
If you are looking for a new machine, check out this latest video from Hotpoint featuring their new model.
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