Zanussi Washing Machine

 We knew the time had come for a new washing machine almost a year ago when our former one managed to boil-wash a load of laundry set to 40 degrees, and then refused to spin. A repair might have been possible, but would not have been cheap - and at nine years old, it had had a good life. 

OUR REQUIREMENTS

So we went to the website of our favourite local ‘white goods’ shop, and perused the options. I knew we wanted a machine that would take at least 6kg, preferably 7kg. Although there are only two of us living here, I like to be able to wash duvets at home, and also to know that a week’s worth of sheets or towels can be washed without overloading the machine even when we have visitors. 

We didn’t want a washer-dryer. Living in Cyprus, we hang everything out to dry. We wanted a washing machine that would be as efficient as possible, from the point of view of electricity and water usage. I was a little surprised to learn that the energy ratings now start at A (the lowest) up to A+++ (the highest). I had assumed that an A+ rating, as we have on other appliances, would be very good until I realised that it was next to bottom. 

Price-wise we wanted a mid-range machine. We’ve learned from experience that the cheapest appliances tend to have irritating features due to budget constraints, and tend to wear out sooner. But we weren’t interested in a top-of-the-range washing machine either. I’m not good with electronics in general, and there are only four or five settings I tend to use. So we set our budget at 400 euros (that’s around £310 at today’s exchange rate). 

OUR CHOICE

There were three or four different washing machines listed on the shop website that would take a 7kg load and were under 400 euros but the only one with an A+++ efficiency rating was the Zanussi 71243. It’s a brand we tend to trust, from previous experience, so we looked at a few online reviews of the machine, and they seemed to be positive. 

Since everything is relational in this country, our next move was to drive to the shop - not far away - and have a chat with the manager, who feels like an old friend after nearly 18 years. He told us that the Zanussi machine was a good choice and that it came with a three-year guarantee. I liked the look of the panel which didn’t have an electronic display, and was a great deal simpler than some of the others. We were offered a price of ten euros for delivery and installation that afternoon, with the old machine taken away at the same time. This seemed very reasonable, so we agreed to buy it. 

OUR NEW MACHINE

Three hours later we had a new washing machine in place, with the most straightforward looking panel I have ever seen. There are dials for several programmes, labelled with words as well as symbols. There are also buttons to select temperatures (from 90C down to 30C) and spin speeds (from 1200 to 700). There are also buttons for half loads, or for leaving the water in, should I ever need those. 

I decided the first thing was to re-wash the load that had been boiled, in the hope of removing some of the black which had leached out of a tee-shirt onto some lighter coloured shirts (I rarely separate colours… it hasn’t been a problem before!) So we opted for the ‘eco’ cotton wash, and chose 40 degrees. 

As I selected the options, I noticed a digital window at the top right of the panel, saying ‘4:18’. I asked my husband what that was, and he said it must be a clock, which the engineers must have set for us. I assumed he was correct - it was indeed, about twenty past four in the afternoon - so I added powder and set the machine going. 

An hour or so later, I came back to look at my shiny new appliance, and to my surprise, the clock was now showing 3:10. As I watched, it moved to 3:09.  Realisation dawned: it wasn’t a clock telling the time, but one to measure the duration of the cycle. I had never before had a machine that would take over four hours for one cycle, and had no idea how that could be ecologically sound, but apparently it is. I tried to find out why, but didn’t really understand. I can’t believe that slowly heating the water is actually more efficient than heating it rapidly.  I thought eco-washes used cooler temperatures rather than taking forever to run. 

When the machine eventually came to an end - with relatively quiet and stable spinning - there were a series of beeps which were mildly annoying, but did alert me (and probably our neighbours, as our utility area is outside on a balcony) to the fact that I had to hang my clean laundry out. 

OUR EXPERIENCE OVER THE FIRST YEAR

I typically use my washing machine three times per week: general clothes on Monday, towels on Wednesday, more clothes plus bedding on Friday. I use about a quarter cup of washing powder for the two clothes washes (much less than recommended) and have been very pleased with the results. 

It turns out, according to the instruction manual, that other than the cotton washes the limit is in fact 3kg of dry laundry, but that’s rarely a problem: shirts and underwear and so on are fairly light. If I have a lot of jeans to wash, there is a separate jeans cycle. 

I haven’t quite decided what the difference is between ‘synthetics’ and ‘dark garments’, which are two of the options on the machine that allow me to select either the default 40C temperature or a more ecologically sound 30 degrees. I usually opt for the latter unless there’s something particularly grubby included, and I sometimes select ‘dark garments’ if they are indeed dark, but the synthetic cycle, which lasts just over an hour and a half, seems to work well. 

Despite the lengthy time, I still use the four-hour eco-wash cycle for my weekly towel wash. I put all the towels - bath towels, hand towels, tea towels etc, as well as my microfibre cleaning cloths - into this 60 degree programme, and let it run. I use only about a tablespoon of washing powder, since any more can make towels become board-like and unpleasant to use, and add about a cup of vinegar to the fabric conditioner drawer. That leaves the towels reasonably soft, despite hanging them out, and serves the extra purpose of keeping the machine free of mould and bad smells that can so easily accumulate. 

I have also occasionally used the ‘refresh’ cycle, which is only twenty minutes, when buying new towels and wanting to reduce the shop smell; and I’ve used the ‘wool/handwash’ cycle for items labelled ‘hand wash only’, with excellent results. 

While the maximum spin speed is 1200 rpm, I know that a washing machine lasts longer if the motor is not run at the fastest possible speed, so I usually select 900, which is still faster than my previous machine was. This still removes most of the water, leaving light items feeling almost dry. 

There are options to do a ‘quick’ wash on several of the programs (though not the eco-cotton one), or to leave the water in the machine, but I haven’t used these and doubt if I will. 

There is a useful timer function, so that if I am going out and want to hang out laundry in the morning before I leave, I can set it off the night before with a delay of a few hours, to ensure that the load finishes at the appropriate time rather than leaving a load of wet laundry in the machine for several hours. 

INSTRUCTIONS

Our machine came with several instruction leaflets in a variety of languages; unfortunately, when we looked through them after the installation, none of them was English. No problem - we went to the Zanussi website and found them in pdf form to print. They're also available at the manualslib.com site. Not that we’ve needed instructions, but I wanted to read about the different cycles and to have it handy in case of any problems in future. 

CONCLUSION

While not the cheapest washing machine around, our choice seems to have been a good one. A year later it’s not showing any signs of wear and tear; even the rubber rim around the door is free of black mould. The words on the display are still showing up as if new, and the overall performance is excellent. We would recommend it to anyone looking for an efficient and effective mid-range washing machine. 

2022 UPDATE

Seven years after purchase the washing machine still works effectively, and there's minimal black mould around the rim. I have occasionally remembered to do an empty 'hot' wash with vinegar, but have never seemed to need it. I generally run it three times per week, and the clothes, bedding and towels come out clean and fresh. If I forget to hang them out for a couple of hours, they begin to get a little musty, and also crumpled. But an extra quick rinse solves that one.

In the past couple of months there has been an issue with the electronic display not always coming on, and sometimes not allowing me to select a temperature or spin speed different from the default. I like, for instance, to use the synthetic setting on 30 degrees, 900 RPM spin, for shirts, trousers and sweaters. I have to press the buttons several times in order for this to take effect, and even then it sometimes revers to the default (40 degrees, 1200 RPM spin). It's not enough of a problem to call out an engineer; for a seven-year-old washing machine it's probably not worth doing so, although I hope it continues to last at least a few more years.

Beko Dishwasher

When we bought a house with space for a dishwasher, for the first time, we opted for a mid-range Blomberg, which was, perhaps, a mistake. It was good, but never great. It developed overheating problems after a few months, and while the shop where we bought it was very good at honouring their warranty - even giving us an elderly replacement when it was not possible to repair - it gradually become more and more unreliable. We don’t tend to replace items until they give up completely but we reckoned without our son, returned to Cyprus and working here after a few years at university in the UK. 

Our son - who had been living in a household with an excellent dishwasher - offered to buy us a new one. The old one, and it was nearly eight years old, was starting to smell, in addition to not doing its job. Then the door started to break, around the same time as, our local white goods shop was having a sale. So we did a bit of research, and checked what was available; again, there were only three or four options. 

CHECKING BEKO DISHWASHERS

We wanted a standard sized dishwasher (85cm high and 60cm wide) to fit the gap and preferably a white front panel. The owner of the shop recommended the Beko DSFN 1531. It looked much the same as our previous dishwasher, with space for up to twelve place settings, and the bonus of a cutlery holder that slides, so can be placed anywhere in the front rack. Water consumption and noise levels were standard, and the programs similar to those we were used to. It was rated A+ for energy. 

We searched online for reviews and double-checked the model number; while many of the Beko dishwashers in the DSFN range, including this one, were highly rated, we noted that a similar one (the 1534) was prone to leaking and not recommended at all. We also learned that the 1531 has a ‘slimline’ variation for those with less room. But it seemed that this particular model would suit us nicely. It cost a little over €300, which our son was more than willing to pay, and could be fitted the next day. 

USING THE DISHWASHER

I skimmed through the instructions, and noted that while any excess food needed to be scraped from plates and dishes, it was recommended not to rinse them before putting in the dishwasher, since the chemicals in powder or tablets is activated by the grease of dirty plates. Other recommendations were more obvious: to ensure gaps between plates; not to overfill; to avoid putting wooden items in the machine; to place knives and forks pointing downwards in the cutlery holder. 

Loading the dishwasher is fairly standard, with an extra bonus that the vertical plate holding spikes in the back row at the bottom can be pushed downwards, to allow for serving dishes or jugs to be placed more easily. We put mugs and glasses at the top, along with some smaller serving dishes; plates and bowls go in the bottom, along with any pots and pans that will fit.

Quite a bit of cutlery fits in its intended container, which has differently sized holes to take various shapes and sizes of handle. Large spatulas or similar items can be placed on top of little shelves that fold down at the sides over a row of glasses at the top. 

PROGRAMMES

The main programme which we have used almost daily is the 50C ‘economy’ wash. It takes about two hours from start to finish, ending with a thorough drying session. We were astounded, for the first few days, at how clean and sparkling everything was when we ran the dishwasher for the first time. I don’t think our previous machine ever produced such an excellent result. We generally use either hard or gel-based tabs, depending on which is best value, and have found that they all seem to work well. 

There is a quick rinse programme which is recommended to use if dishes are to be left in the dishwasher overnight; this just ensures that items don’t dry out completely before being washed. We’ve used this a couple of times, but usually forget and it hasn’t been a problem.

There’s a hot (70C) wash recommended for heavily soiled pans, or simply to clean the dishwasher out from time to time, but we haven’t had to use that. Nor have we used the 35C ‘quick’ wash, which apparently takes only half an hour and can be used to clean items which are not particularly dirty or greasy. The other option is a 60C 'Quick clean' wash which lasts about an hour, but doesn't fully dry the dishes. I use that sometimes if I know I will want to unload before two hours.

FILTERS

When I empty the dishwasher, I remove the main filter at the bottom and give it a quick rinse. Sometimes it’s fairly clean; other times it has small bits of food caught in it. Unlike our old dishwasher, I have not had to remove the twirly spray arms, although it’s not difficult to do so if something like a grain of rice gets caught in them. That was a regular occurrence with our other machine; the new one seems to be better made in almost every respect. 

CONCLUSION

We’re still within the warranty period, but so far have been extremely pleased with our Beko dishwasher, and would recommend it highly. When we chose it, it was available in the UK, but, as is the way with so many consumer goods, it seems now to have been replaced by others in the same range; however, parts are still available and the slimline (DSFS 1531) version can still be found on Amazon for about £230. Beko is a good brand, and their dishwashers all appear to be similar and highly-rated other than the rogue 1534 model as mentioned above. 

2022 UPDATE

Eight-and-a-half years after this was originally written, our Beko dishwasher is still going strong. There's a crack in the plastic bar to pull it open, but that's just cosmetic. Everything else has functioned perfectly, and I'm quite surprised to discover that it's as old as it is. Even quite dirty pots and pans come out sparkling without any prior rinsing or pre-washing. With our son no longer at home, we generally run it every other day, more when entertaining.

There's no bad smell, no build-up of dirt, and no mechanical problems. There's a bit of black mould around the edges, since I don't remember to wipe it after every use, but a bit of vinegar on a cloth gets rid of most of that. Once or twice I've run it at the 70 degree hot wash with a cup of vinegar and no crockery, particularly if we've been away for a while and it's become musty.

Unfortunately Beko dishwashers no longer seem to be available here. If there was a modern equivalent I would have no hesitation about replacing this one with a new Beko, when it eventually stops working - and I hope it still has several years of life.