Back in 2002 Kathy and I bought a Hoover AAA 140 washing machine.
Hoover, a good name, so its going to be a good washing machine. Might last as long as my parents Hoover washing machine (aeons) or their Zanussi (not quite as long but still pretty good).
How wrong we were. Within a couple of years it needed its drum casing replace because the idiot designer at Hoover (who probably didn’t even have a degree in anything but stupidity) decided that they would use plastic for the outer drum casing and then they would secure the concrete ballast weights to it using rather thin semi self-tapping screws/bolts with no locking plates.
So what happens over time is that the bolts start to vibrate loose and then the concrete starts bouncing and suddenly one day there is a big bang as one or more of the bolts shears and the concrete flaps around inside the washing machine.
So the engineer comes and fits a new drum which has bigger mounting bolts and bigger mounting lugs and metal lock plates to stop the bolts vibrating loose. So I guess some engineer looked at the original design and having hit the first idiot round the head a bit came up with a new design.
So its been pretty OK since then, well apart from the the fabric conditioner tray syphon not really working and the tray fills up with gloop and you have to keep taking the soap tray out to clean it and then of course the spring loaded handle falls off because its made of plastic that is about as robust as a CD Jewel case hinge.
Then the other day it started spewing water all over the floor.
So I check the obvious things, I look for loose pipes, I look for loose seals on the outer drum, I check that the door seal is OK. Everything is fine.
This morning I get a big torch and I really have a good look because frankly at the moment I do not want to have to replace the machine.
I find the problem.
The pipe from the soap tray that feeds water into the washer has a hole in it. Why does it have a hole in it? Well its simple – it has a hole in it because the pipe sits about 2mm away from one of the drum mounting springs so when the drum moves on the springs during washing it rubs against the pipe. So over time it wears a hole right through the pipe wall. Hello?? HELLO? That is not bad luck: its a shaped pipe – its in the only place it can go. This is lousy design pure and simple. Vibrating springs and rubber pipes do not go together… even I know that, so it looks like the curse of the idiot Hoover designer strikes again.
So Its all wrapped up in tape for the moment and I might just buy a new pipe (apart from the fact that you probably can’t get them) and then of course its just about impossible to get the pipe on and off the soap tray because there is a large block of concrete in the way which stops you getting both hands to the pipe (one holding the pliers that hold the spring clip open, and the other to move the clip up the pipe).
So yes, this Hoover sucks.