Great machine, shame about the manual! (Whirlpool AWM 8123)

Member Name: fayp

Product:	Whirlpool AWM 8123
Date:	12/01/09 (290 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap to buy

Disadvantages: Manual doesn't tell you to remove all the transit material!

My Servis washing machine packed up a few weeks ago after 13 months of use! The engineer said it would be dearer to fix it than get a new one, as the computer chip part had blown! He charged me £45 call out to tell me that! Oh joy!

I found this whirlpool in Argos sale so ordered it, having previously been very pleased with my whirlpool.

It arrived! Hubbie and I had decided that we could install it easily enough, as had done so with other machines! We looked in the manual and saw pictures of 4 transit screws which needed to be removed, and words matched the pictures, so we removed 4 transits screws! We then attached the cold only pipe, and drainage, and put on the first load! We have never heard such a racket in our lives, loud shaking, vibrating, hammering noises! It seemed to get worse and worse until finally the load finished! Alarmed we rang Argos, they told us to ring whirlpool! Whirlpool told us that the guide book is not accurate, but actually there are white plastic screws which also need to be removed before use or the machine would be damaged! We said this seemed a little odd and they agreed!!! So back out came the machine and we wrestled with the white plastic screws to remove them! No joy! So we got out a large screw driver to prise them out, and one snapped off! So the screw was still inside, the head now on our floor, and the machine not in useable position! We rang whirlpool back and they finally sent an engineer out to remove the screw from the inside! But we still feel that transit bolts should not pose this much of a problem!

Once the bolts were finally out the machine was great!

Fairly small drum as 5kg but plenty for us. Normal wash cycles for various materials, all clearly stated on the machine itself. Dial to change the spin speeds. It is electronic so you need to reset to 0 each time at the end of a cycle, plus you have light to tell you which stage of the cycle you are in. I love the 30 min half load, as this proves very handy. It has rinse hold, which is great if you are popping out, as it keeps your clothes in cold water prior to the final spin, to save them creasing up. It also has a delay wash button so you can set it to start in 1, 3 , 5 or 7 hours time.

Personally I prefer to old manual machines where less seemed to go wrong, but you simply can't get them these days! I just hope this one will last longer than 13 months! But so far so good, cleans well, spins well! But don't forget to remove the white transit bolts too!!!

Summary: Cheap and does what it should!

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