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Buying household appliances online |
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There's one thing worse than a bad product, and that's a broken one. So we’ll always tend to recommend the brands that last from the ones that don't.
Older products are more likely to fail than younger ones. Also, electronic goods - such as TVs and DVD players - are more reliable than domestic appliances - dishwashers, tumble driers, and so on. In fact, some brown goods, such as digital cameras, have proved generally consistently reliable.
White goods are the workhorses of domestic life, unexciting but essential. It's worth paying some time and attention while choosing, though, because there are considerable differences in reliability.
Vacuum cleaners
Cylinder vacuum cleaners for instance (the little squat ones with the hose sticking out) are more reliable than uprights. This is explained largely by the fact that uprights have a more complicated construction, with more exposed rotating parts - things get stuck in them, the belt can break, and so on.
Ironically, the sole below-average brand in a recent reliability survey was also the most popular make - Dyson cleaners were owned by almost half of those surveyed. Dyson had also come out badly in previous surveys, a great shame because its innovative design gave the DC07 Animal an impressive score for performance. It's also a shame because you might expect better for the fairly high price of some of its products. In this category, Electrolux, Kirby, Oreck, Panasonic and Sebo were above average.
Hitachi , Miele and Numatic were all above average. Miele also turned in an excellent show in recent tests - so it can offer good, versatile cleaning power with a long life span.
Laundry Appliances
The important lesson here is that combined washer-driers are less reliable than washing machines and tumble driers. About 30 per cent of washer-driers need repair in the first six years. That compares with about 20 per cent for washing machines. It's also much more than the average rate for tumble driers, which is 12 per cent. Washer-driers are also often less convenient, because you may have to dry a load of washing in two or more separate loads. That said, they are cheaper than two separate appliances and use less space.
Dishwasher
If you're waking up on a Sunday to a kitchen full of dried-on brandy butter and port, a dishwasher is just what you need to free up your day.
And a dishwasher is for life, not just for some Sundays - you could save three weeks a year that you'd otherwise spend chained to the kitchen sink. Plus, the most efficient use just two bowls of water and less than 10p-worth of electricity per wash.
A full-sized dishwasher is 60cm wide and usually accommodates 12 place settings. One place setting is typically ten pieces of crockery and cutlery.
If kitchen space is at a premium, there are smaller models available. Slimline dishwasher are only 45cm wide and take between seven and nine place settings. Compact, or table-top, models take four to six place settings, aren't much bigger than a microwave and are designed to sit on a work surface or draining board. A table-top model can be a good idea if you want to avoid too much bending down when loading and unloading your crockery.
Microwave Ovens
No succulent birds for the lonely bachelor? For too long, every singleton's favourite cooking appliance has been turning out sorry-looking jacket potatoes and ready 'meals'. But it needn't be that way. The best of microwaves are happy taking on real cooking, too. They can handle everything from roasting chickens to baking cakes.
To cook this well, though, they can't rely only on microwave radiation. Some of the models also have a grill; others incorporate fanned-air, or convection, heating as well. These types cost more than a basic microwave, but they are genuinely better than microwave-only ovens at cooking some foods.
Microwaves with grills and hot air are all well and good, but what if you just want a basic model that reheats and defrosts evenly. And, it's easy to use.
A grill is handy for browning the top of dishes, or cooking foods such as chops. These models allow you to use the grill on its own or in combination with microwave cooking, so you can cook and brown at the same time.
But, if a grill's important to you, choose carefully - models vary in how much food they can grill and how evenly they do so. Most of the microwaves would evenly grill an area the size of a nine-inch pizza. However, cheaper models can brown some parts of a pizza while other parts are left relatively untouched.
The combination of microwave and grill allows these ovens to cope well with a surprising range of tasks. For example, some of them can bake as good a cake as a microwave which has convection heating. And they can turn out chickens every bit as tasty as the convection ovens do. So, by and large, a microwave with only a grill will be just as effective as a more expensive model which also has fanned hot-air cooking.
So the main lessons to learn when buying household appliances online are that:
- the more expensive brands aren't necessarily the most reliable
- you should always check that, budget permitting, the appliance of your choice has the features corresponding to your usage.
There are some websites specialising in household appliances that are well worth a visit, covering a whole range of products available for purchase online. We recommend a few that you’ll find on the right hand side of this page. Look out for the bargains they propose. And hopefully, you’ll find the household appliances you’re looking for online.
Good luck with your online purchase,
© Before-buying.co.uk 2006 |
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