Washing day blues (ELC Washing Machine)

Member Name: azana

Product:	ELC Washing Machine
Date:	25/01/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Encourages role play

Disadvantages: Highly annoying for anyone playing with it

We bought this toy as we already had the ELC microwave which was a great hit. At £12.50 it looked like it would be a great addition to our existing role play toys. I am afraid to report that this toy was probably one of the few toys ever to be a disappointment that we have bought from ELC.

The washing machine is made of a sturdy and durable plastic and has five buttons and a soap dispenser. Due to over zealous packaging we didn't actually work out that the soap dispenser opened for a long while - it was secured by a small screw for non obvious reasons.

The door opens to reveal a drum, just like real life washing machines, and the buttons can be pressed to make the drum spin and make the various noises of rinse and spin quite convincingly. The door has an inlay with water in it so it looks like the clothes are being washed.

So why would I rate it quite low?

Firstly the door - this is virtually impossible for a toddler to open and close easily. Anyone who has spent any time around small children will know that frustrating toy = not good. Worse still the door came off its hinges regularly and could be put back on by brute force. I don't believe this was just my toy as friends had the same problem. This meant much of the playing with this toy involved me having to put the door back on repeatedly, not much fun.

Secondly the drum didn't seem to take much weight - if you put in dolly's baby gro or more than a small sock it didn't seem to turn properly.

The toy wasn't too greedy with C batteries (good) but due to the aforementionned problems it didn't real hold my children's attention for long (bad) and therefore ended up taking up an inordinate amount of space in the toy cupboard.

I was really disappointed as the mircowave was such an excellent toy, as are most of the other role play toys that ELC produce. I think this one needs a bit of a rethink and I wouldn't necessarily recommend anyone to purchase one.

Summary: Not the best ELC toy