*Updated* - Ariston-and-on-and-on- and-on (Ariston A 1635 UK)

Member Name: LegendaryMrDude

Product:	Ariston A 1635 UK
Date:	24/01/02 (3888 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wash performance, Spin Speed

Disadvantages: Fiddly temperature setting

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 the issue, the extended warranty that I bought was effectively worthless because Tempo had never paid the insurance money to cover any work carried out against the warranty after the manufacturers standard 1 year (or so I was told). So I needed a new machine. Merry Christmas.

Not to worry though... my wardrobe managed to hold out until the January Sales and a Sunday afternoon visit to Currys quickly sorted the matter. On display was the glorious Ariston 1635 washing machine. Boasting a spin-speed of 1,600 rpm and the Woolmark Gold sticker for it's "handwash" performance, it was rated 'A' for both Energy Efficiency and Wash performance, with the Spin performance managing a perfectly respectable 'B' rating. Sporting more dials than I could comfortably shake a stick at, a maximum load of 5.5Kg, a whopping 10 wash programmes (not including the variations induced by the numerous buttons) and a groovy door that swung open to a full 180degrees. What's more, it was reduced from £399 to £299. Excellent. The credit card was duly swiped and delivery arranged for a week later (and, through some judicious use of "Febreeze" the wardrobe managed to go the extra mile).

Sure enough the machine arrived at the flat a week later. After an hour of wrestling I
had finally managed to get the old (defunct) machine out of it's cubby hole and the new one installed.

<Top-Tip> If your Kitchen floor is lino or tiles or some similar shiny surface and you are trying to install a washing machine under a work-surface or somewhere equally awkward, you should try putting washing-up liquid on the feet of the machine. This done, it will quite happily slide around the floor like a greased pig on roller skates, speeding up the whole installation process no end and removing the risk of ripping the lino as well! </Top-Tip>

Installation itself was a doddle, hook the two inlet hoses up to the plumbing and then to the back of the machine (remembering to open the valve afterwards!). Stick the waste hose into the appropriate pipe on the wall. Plug it in and away you go.

First order of the day was to run it through a rinse cycle just to get rid of any old water that could remain from the factory testing. This took about half an hour and then I hit it with the full backlog of nearly 3 weeks washing!!! But first I had to try and work out what the vast array of buttons and dials were for.

The control panel is similar to virtually all other washing machines. The detergent tray on the left-hand side, the program dial on the right. The program dial is clearly marked and turns easily, with no ambiguity as to which program you've set it to (a BIG failing of the Beko I used to have, it was very much an art managing to hit the right program with that thing). To actually select the program, you first have to 'pop' the dial out from it's normal setting of flush with the front of the machine. Once selected, you can 'pop' it back in again and leave it out of harms way, safe in the knowledge that you won't be able to accidentally change the setting. Also on the program dial is a "delay timer" function which allows you to set either a 1, 3, 9 or 12 hour delay to the start of the
wash... The process is a little fiddly, involving the selection of the delay, holding in the power button until the power light flashes and then selecting the wash program you want. I am sure it will come in useful one day.

Between the program dial and the detergent tray lies the expanse of buttons I mentioned above. All are of the push in/out design and control such features as:

- "Rinse Hold" which apparently leaves the clothes to soak a while before the spin cycle;
- "Rapid Wash" which reduces the program time by around 30%;
- "Stain Removal" which allegedly intensifies the washing action to improve the effectiveness of the detergent;
- "Pre-wash" which goes without description in the manual and finally;
- The power button.

Alongside the buttons are two red LEDs. One indicates tat the power is on and the other that the Door Lock is active. The Power light flashes when the machine is turned on but without a program selected. The door-lock lamp goes out about 3 minutes after the program has finished.

Underneath the buttons and lights are two more dials, smaller than the main program dial but of the same push-in/pop-out design. The left-most dial allows you to set the maximum spin-speed for the selected program, from "no spin" all the way up to 1,600 rpm in 200 rpm increments (while this is undoubtedly a nice feature, it can lead to you thinking the machine is broken when it comepltely fails to spin... if this happens, check the setting on the dial BEFORE callimg the support line!). The second dial allows you to set the tempreature for the program. Whereas the spin-speed dial can be safely left at 1,200 rpm for almost everything (apart from wool), the temperature dial should be set EVERY time you use the machine. Ideally you should set it to match the recommended temperature for the selected program. This is a bit of a pain, it seems such a waste to have a
n excellent selection of programs only to have to set the temperature manually. Maybe this is a good thing, but it annoys me (and ends up seeing everything being washed at 40degrees).

And that's pretty much it. Program times range from 30 minutes for the most delicate wash to a whopping 150 minutes for an 'A' performance wash of heavily soiled whites. The detergent tray is best suited for liquids rather than powders, and the manual recommends the use of liquids as well. There is a space for pre-wash detergent (powder, not liquid), main wash detergent (liquid, not powder), fabric softner and even an add-in for bleach. All carefully marked out. There is even a description of all the program modes on a handy swing-out piece of plastic above the tray itself.

The pump in the machine is supposed to be self cleaning, but in the event that something comes out of a pocket or a button comes off a shirt, they should be caught in the safety trap before they get to the pump and cause damage. This is easily accessed from the front of the machine and, although it gets a bit wet opening it, it's a pretty handy thing to have.

In operation the machine is MUCH quieter than it's predecessor, even when it is spinning at full whack (and a whole 500rpm faster than the last one) it cannot be heard from the room next to the kitchen when the TV is on. The higher spin speed see the clothes come out much drier. The wash programmes are far superior to the old amchine too with clothes looking much cleaner (regardless of the detergent!). The machine itself is solidy built, everything feels like it is going to last.

What more can I say? I'm more than pleased with it and for the money, it's probably one of the better machines on the market. If you're looking for a washing machine with the above features at a competitive price, you could do a lot worse.

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Update
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6 months on and the machine is still going strong. Dealing with an average of 6 loads of washing a week and covering most of the major fabric/colour combinations, I am pleased to say that I have yet to experience disasters. Colours haven't bleached, woollens haven't shrunk and everything has come out clean. The variable temperature dial has even come in more useful than I thought, allowing vigorous wash cycles to be performed at low temps.

Mechanically everything still seems sound. Even at max spin-speed it's still quieter than the old machine and even better, it doesn't start wandering around the kitchen (thanks to the grippy rubber feet).

The electricity bill hasn't gone down by a great deal (despite the machines AAB energy effieicncy ratings), but this may be just as much to do with the fact that my old machine was A rated for it's wash performance as well.

So I'm still happy and would still recommend this if you're in the market for a new washing machine that doesn't cost the earth.

Summary: