I’m not sure if I should be sad or happy. When you reach a stage in your life where you get excited about buying a dishwasher and a washing machine for your house you have to stand back for a minute and ask yourself whether this is a good thing or a really bad thing.
Overall I think it’s a good thing, but I am just a tad biased.
Over the past few months I’ve invested quite a lot in making changes and upgrades to the new house. The underlying difference between what I’ve been doing recently and anything prior to now is that I’m working on improving my house. It’s not somebody else’s. I’m not simply making the place I live more comfortable, but I am making my house into my home.
Yesterday I finally got round to addressing one of the outstanding niggles that had been bothering me for ages. The washing machine and dishwasher. I’m sure they were both wonderful when they were first bought and installed around 15 years ago, but fast forward to 2017 and I had a washing machine drier combination that simply did not work properly at all and a dishwasher that was on its last legs. Apart from anything else neither of them were particularly efficient in their use of electricity and that alone was annoying.
So yesterday I went over to Swan’s and picked out replacements. I bought the two items around 11am and they were delivered to the house before 1pm, which is pretty impressive. The plumber dropped over and did the necessary to both disconnect the old appliances, connect the new ones properly and tidy up the wood panelling etc., in the kitchen and by about 3pm it was all done. As you can see from the photo below I didn’t get integrated models. (Ignore the mess on the floor in front of them – I took the photo before the plumber had finished putting everything back together or cleaned up the debris from his work).
Sure, having the integrated ones looks better at one level, but you pay a premium for them and the range available is a lot smaller. The dishwasher goes quite well with the ovens and microwave, while the washing machine is the more traditional “washing machine colour”, which I don’t find offensive in the least. Maybe at some point in the distant future I’ll end up remodelling the kitchen entirely, but for now I’m quite happy with how it looks. Ultimately if I have to choose between having neat but non-functional and inefficient appliances and slightly less aesthetic, but 100% functional ones the functionality will win out every single time.
Both of the new appliances are Whirlpool, which is solid recognisable brand. The washing machine is A+++ rated (196 kWh/annum) , while the dishwasher is A++ rated (265 kWh/annum). I’ve no idea what kind of rating the old appliances had, but I’d suspect they were far less efficient, though I don’t think the energy ratings were as prominent back then.
Both of the new “toys” have funky looking digital control panels, but they do pretty much the same job as their older counterparts, they just do it that bit better! The washing machine, a FSCR80415, has a lot of quirky options for the various cycles, though I suspect I’ll probably stick to using one or two programmes most of the time, like most people! The dishwasher, a WFC 3C24 P X UK, uses a lot less water than the older model and also has some kind of “half load” option which I suspect will come in handy. One of the features I really like about it so far is that the trays for crockery etc., are more adjustable than what I had previously, so it should be easier to get stuff into it without getting into a veritable game of jenga with pots and pans!
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