Ariston A 1635 UK

Ah, washing machines. Well, they all do the same thing, and most of them more or less the same way, so what's to choose between them? Not a lot, really, which is perhaps why it is so difficult to reach a sensible decision, especially as they all look pretty similar, but they can cost anything from not very much to an arm and a leg. There is a school of thought that says you should always buy the very best that you can afford, and I have some sympathy with this, but it does assume that you know, or can find out, what the best is. Unfortunately, that is becoming increasingly difficult in this age of globalisation, especially where technical stuff is concerned, ...

First off, please excuse the title, but as no-one had written an Ariston op before, I thought I'd better use it straight away... It was with a surprisignly loud BANG that my old washing machine shuffled off it's mortal coil on Boxing Day of 2001. A Beko machine that I had owned since moving in to my flat nearly 4 years ago. In that time it had only needed repairing once (to replace a faulty program board) and had served me well enough. But this time things seemed terminal. An acrid smoke filled the kitchen and not a sign of life could be coaxed from the machine. To make matters worse, I bought it from Tempo who recently went bust. And to further compund ...